published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This thesis investigates the emergence in human evolution of communication through symbols, or conventional, arbitrary signs. Previous work has argued that symbolic speech was preceded by communication through nonarbitrary signs, but how vocal symbolic communication arose out of this has not been extensively studied. Thus far, past research has emphasized the advantages of vocal symbols and pointed to communicative and evolutionary pressures that would have spurred their development. Based on semiotic principles, I examine emergence in terms of two factors underlying symbols: interpretation and conventionalization. I address the question with a consideration of embodied human experience – that is, accounting for the particular features that characterize human communication. This involves simultaneous expression through vocal and gestural modalities, each of which has distinct semiotic properties and serves distinct functions in language today. I examine research on emerging sign systems together with research on properties of human communication to address the question of symbol emergence in terms of the specific context of human evolution. I argue that, instead of in response to pressures for improved communication, symbolic vocalizations could have emerged through blind cultural processes out of the conditions of multimodal nonarbitrary communication in place prior to modern language. Vocalizations would have been interpreted as arbitrary by virtue of their semiotic profile relative to that of gesture, and arbitrary vocalizations could have become conventionalized via the communicative support of nonarbitrary gestures. This scenario avoids appealing to improbable evolutionary and psychological processes and provides a comprehensive and evolutionarily sound explanation for symbol emergence. I present experiments that test hypotheses stemming from this claim. I show that novel arbitrary vocal forms are interpreted and adopted as symbols even when these are uninformative and gesture is the primary mode of communication. I also present computational models that simulate multi-channel, heterosemiotic communication like that of arbitrary speech and nonarbitrary gesture. These demonstrate that information like that provided by gesture can enable the conventionalization of symbols across a population. The results from experiments and simulations together support the claim that symbolic communication could arise naturally from multimodal nonarbitrary communication, offering an explanation for symbol emergence more consistent with evolutionary principles than existing proposals.

The case of the “Temple of 18 Deities” (十八王公廟) is an example which shows that the process of changes in religious culture can be both gradual and sudden. From the first glance it seems that the boom of “Temple of 18 Deities” cult suddenly appeared from nowhere. But the analysis of the temple origin mythology and it symbols shows that the opportunities for such sudden changes were created gradually during the long period of religious culture development when fazes of change and conservation were taking turns endlessly in Taiwan societies. Those opportunities traces into more remote times of gradual development of numerous religious cultures which were brought in Taiwan by multitude of migration waves. The “Temple of 18 Deities” cult conserved many stable religious elements which were created in the period of Eurasian cultural unity and bring us to the Neolith and even Paleolithic epoch. One of the most stable elements in the “Temple of 18 Deities cult is the symbol of a dog. The geographical area of the former dog’s worshiping cults distribution is spread all over Eurasia with the most western point in the British Isles and the most eastern point in Taiwan. The dog symbol in mythologies of many various peoples all over Eurasia is connected to another stable religious element – an idea of the life after death and underworld. The underworld conception origin also should be dated by Paleolithic epoch, because it stability occurring everywhere spreading. Paleolithic hunting religious ideas should be common all over the world, because all the societies passed this faze of evolution in their history.

陸錦儀. / 複本為複印本. / Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學硏究院哲學學部. / Fu ben wei fu yin ben. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-169). / Lu Jinyi. / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue yan jiu yuan zhe xue xue bu. / 序 --- p.I-V / Chapter [0] --- 前言 --- p.1-16 / 註釋 --- p.17-18 / Chapter [1] --- SIGN/SR－ALabyimtr? --- p.19-30 / 註譯 --- p.31-37 / Chapter [2] --- 符號的反面──所指──概念抑思維？ --- p.38-77 / 註釋 --- p.78-100 / Chapter [3] --- 意義／符號的流動（circulation of sign）：關係的關係 --- p.101-141 / 註釋 --- p.142-146 / Chapter [4] --- 結語 --- p.147-157 / Chapter [5] --- 書目 --- p.158-162

Magister Artium - MA / This study is situated in the context of multidisciplinary discourse on the pervasive problem of food insecurity in the southern African context. More specifically, it is situated in the context of the Centre of Excellence in Food Security, located at the University of the Western Cape and its project on “Food Ethics and Values” (with Prof Ernst Conradie as principal investigator). It will contribute to discourse on food security from the perspective of the discipline of religious studies and more specifically African Traditional Religion (ATR) and the indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) associated with that. The consumption of food naturally plays a significant role in African Traditional Religion – as is evident from various taboos on food consumption, rituals with prescriptions on food, calendar-based festivities, but also from daily life in rural villages. In reflecting on food in such rural villages, the focus is often on the consumption of meat (chicken, goats, cattle, but also rodents and other wildlife) and of grains like maize. However, vegetables traditionally also formed part of a family’s daily diet. In pre-colonial times, such vegetables were not necessarily cultivated since some indigenous vegetables were harvested based on indigenous knowledge available amongst village elders and traditional healers. The Chionekano-ward includes some 42 villages with an estimated population of around 1020 persons. Through a process of snowball sampling, semi-structured interviews were conducted with village elders and traditional healers who have knowledge of such indigenous vegetables. Where appropriate interviews were followed up with focus groups discussions in particular villages.

Thesis (M.IC.)--Unitec New Zealand, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-108).

According to Onkvisit and Shaw (1987), many products and possessions can be perceived as extensions of consumers' self-identity.  Some consumers might even try to enhance their image through conspicuous or status consumption. According to Mosteller (2008), possessing a pet is closely related to the theory of the extended self. Among other types of conspicuously consumed goods, rare or unusual animals may be purchased to satisfy the consumer's need for status (Hirschman, 1994). In 2011, more than 70 million households in Europe kept a pet. The direct and indirect industry of pet breeders, veterinarians etc. creates more than half a million jobs throughout Europe. Although in recent years many studies have been conducted from psychological or medical point of view of companion animals' and their owners' interactions, the academic knowledge from consumer behaviour perspective is still scarce. Authors of this thesis employed attitudes, various self and conspicious consumption theories in order to dig deeper into the topic of pets as status symbols, in particular rare and pure-bred cats and dogs. With the help of convenience sampling technique, internet survey was distributed. Authors questioned 165 students in Jönköping International Business School and created a data sample which was later used in statistical analysis. By combining descriptive statistics, Principal component analysis and Cluster analysis, a research design for the topic at hand was developed, which allowed to squeeze out every bit of valuable information. According to the statistical analysis, four most important factors influencing pet-related conspicuous consumption are (in order of importance): Ostentation, Social Recognition, Conformity and Materialistic Indulgence. With regards to these factors, all participants were grouped in four clusters: Blue Blooded People, Indifferent Boasters, Status Candidates and Approval Seekers. This research design resulted in vast array of managerial implications and creation of academic knowledge in respective consumer behaviour field.

Thesis ( Ph.D.) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.

Symbols represent information we have previously learned or experienced, but they can also serve to encourage thoughts and behaviors that are consistent with this knowledge/experience in order to maintain social cohesion (Guthrie, 1996). Pictures (e.g., American Red Cross image) representing moral rules (e.g., ‘save lives’) have been shown to influence moral decisions (Broeders, van den Box, Muller, & Ham, 2011), but there is no empirical evidence to demonstrate that religious pictures encourage the same outcome. Four studies examined whether religious pictures would influence decision making (lexical, moral), and furthermore whether personal belief in religion was a moderating factor. In Study 1, participants viewed religious and neutral (control) pictures, and then made a series of lexical decisions (Meyer & Schvaneveldt, 1971). In Study 2, participants viewed religious and neutral words (which represented the pictures viewed in Study 1), and then made lexical decisions. In Studies 3 and 4, participants made decisions about moral actions. Moral decisions were preceded by viewing pictures in Study 3, and by words in Study 4. Self-reported religiosity was assessed last in each experiment. Across the four studies, we found support for the influence of religious pictures on decision making. In Studies 1 and 2, lexical decisions were faster to religious words when primed with religious pictures. In Study 3, participants rated morally ambiguous actions as less appropriate when primed with religious pictures. This occurred to a greater degree for religious participants. In Study 4, there was a general priming effect of religious words, but this was not influenced by individual religious beliefs.

This research examines the process by which rights to public resources, including public land, were negotiated during the Olympic bidding process in one modern western city. Toronto’s 2008 Olympic bid involved not only the framing of an important public symbol but also the shaping of symbolically significant space, the city’s waterfront. Toronto’s waterfront has always reflected a negotiation between large institutional interests and the voice of the local citizenry. The nature of this space and the implied right of the public to define and use this space has made the representation of urban public interest a matter of crucial significance. To examine the relationships between sport, space and symbols during the bidding process for the Olympic Games is to expose an ongoing ideological battle over the ownership of public land. When the development of a particular parcel of public land is said to be in the public interest, it suggests that city residents from a wide variety of publics have collaborated and developed a shared and agreed upon position about how that development should proceed. The process of adjudication that serves to legitimate the production of space and symbols is important because it has crucial implications for the production of urban order. This research demonstrates that the Olympic bidding process can be understood as a moment that fosters an articulation of social and cultural claims, that offers an opportunity for masses of citizens to mobilize, and that facilitates visions of progress. On the other hand, it can also be the occasion for the defeat of public interest. / Thesis (Ph.D, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-11 09:50:52.953