Thesis (M.A.)--Columbia International University, 2002. / Abstrakt. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-135).

In research, we frequently position “modernity” against “tradition” to explain cultural changes within the indigenous realm. Such is the case of Andean textile studies, where commercialization and modernity are frequently attributed to the decline in Andean communities’ production and donning of hand-woven textiles. By doing this, we distance ourselves from the underlying issues causing these changes: poverty, discrimination, ethnic social stratification, etc. Also, by positioning “modernity” outside and against the indigenous realm, we contribute to the notion that modernity belongs to the western world alone and can only be achieved by Western influence. In doing so, we confine Andean textiles to a static notion of identity and ignore and antagonize the creative strategies that weavers’ use, moving outside of this notion. My work questions the “tradition” versus “modernity” binary by analyzing its history and first appearance in Bolivian Andean textile scholarship, and by analyzing changes within Andean textiles between the Inca and Colonial periods. My study also sheds light on the workings of internal colonialism within Andean textiles in the Bolivian regions of Jalq’a and Tarabuco. / text

This dissertation uses the history of political thought to shed light on the disconnect between the prominent place of judgments about the character in American democratic life, and the marginalized place of those judgments in contemporary democratic theory. By tracing the origins of that disconnect back into the history of political philosophy, and by locating an alternative approach to questions of character in the political and ethical writings of Aristotle, the dissertation brings out important connections between contemporary democratic theory and key developments in the history of ideas, and it recovers an ancient account of character that turns out still to be relevant to the dynamics of modern citizenship. The dissertation begins by showing how character is key to Aristotle‘s distinction between "correct" and "deviant" regimes in the Politics: not only are correct regimes distinguished by the character of those who rule, but the distinguishing feature of citizen-rulers in more correct regimes turns out to be their ability to appreciate what is excellent in the character of their fellow citizens. I then trace the decline of Aristotle‘s approach in the work of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, and Kant, showing how Machiavelli‘s famously unsettling account of the relationship between moral goodness, political leadership, and popular government made its way into the foundations of later democratic theory. Finally, I return to Aristotle, showing how his treatment of philia or "friendship" in his ethical writings provides an important prelude to the ideas from the Politics we will already have considered. By taking into account both the high and often noble aspirations that inform considerations of character but also their potential to derail into disenchantment or dangerous ill-will, Aristotle‘s approach offers a theory capable of engaging directly with both the promise and the pitfalls of character judgments in democratic life. / Government

This dissertation examines the so-called revival of local traditions in reform-era China. It compares the different paths of adapting local traditions to market transitions and a changing political landscape. Three questions guide this study: 1) given state suppression of tradition, to what extent is power and society in localities still structured by traditional practices? 2) What determines how a particular community can provide support to individual members? 3) Does the cultural legacy of a community constrain how the community can respond to new situations? And how easily can a community reformulate the past to suit the present need? This study argues that local communities have actively used traditional practices to build community strength and deal with a variety of community issues arising from changes in the political landscape and socio-economic situations. Traditional practices are not nostalgia, but are the base for collective action and social organization in rural communities. The revival of traditional practices constructs community identity, defines how one relates to others, and instructs how one experiences the group to which one belongs. This study shows that the same sets of cultural practices and symbols with different arrangements can produce different degrees of community solidarity and strength. Variation on the use of traditional practices for building community in different localities is explained through an interactive model with a number of factors jointly shaping the community strength. These are the local legacy, the state, the new market economy, and interests of individual community members. These factors have different interactive relations in each local community, and result in different degrees of community strength. This study adds to our understanding of reform era China in two particular aspects. The first is to demonstrate how the collective aspect of traditional practices has worked in rural communities. The second is to demystify the effectiveness of Chinese culture on economic development. My study does not treat Chinese culture as a holistic system. Rather, it shows that in economic behavior there is nothing essentially Chinese, such as using lineage or family networks. Cultural utility, such as strong and effective lineage networks, is a result of complex interaction among top-down state forces, the market, local culture, and individual interests, and cannot be duplicated simply out of functional utility and rational calculation. / Sociology

Syftet med studien var att undersöka förhållningssätt till högre studier, hos tredje årets gymnasieelever vid studieförberedande program. Utifrån tidigare forskning har faktorerna betyg, personliga mål, status i relation till utbildning och utbildningstradition används för att analysera resultatet i studien. Intervju användes som metod, där fem intervjuer genomfördes. Resultatet gav en inblick i hur betyg, personliga mål, status i relation till utbildning, samt utbildningstradition har inverkat på elevernas förhållningssätt till högre studier.

For almost five centuries Enrique de Villena (1384-1434) has been branded as a sorcerer and dismissed as both incredulous and superstitious because of his interest in the so-called "occult" sciences. Partly for this reason, until very recently, his writings have attracted little serious scholarly attention, and an edition of his complete works has only been available since 1994. The present thesis is an overall study of Villena's works within a conceptual framework which reflects the ideological bases wich served as Villena's own point of departure. Drawing on studies of traditional societies by specialists such as Ren6 Gu6non and Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, we are able to formulate a well-defined paradigm that explains not just the philosophical foundations of Ancient and Medieval science and literature, but of all human activity in societies which regard their ultimate foundations as resting on a set of divinely-revealed precepts. Chapter 1 provides a critical review of the main contributions to Villena studies, and defines seven fundamental characteristics of traditionalism (also known as the Philosophia perennis) which, in Chapter 2, we are able to identify in Villena's works. Chapter 3 illustrates the existence in the works of Villena of the two classes of traditional authors, and eight of the most common synonyms for their cognitive organs. Chapter 4 presents the function of the restorer and eleven aspects of the traditional author's modus scribendi as found both in traditionalism and in Villena's works. Chapter 5 selects some distinctive notions which characterize five branches of traditional science so as to illustrate their presence in the scientific works of Villena. This thesis demonstrates that the works of Enrique de Villena can only be fully understood when read in the light of traditional philosophy. It also shows that Villena was attempting to revive this Philosophia perennis in the first half of the fifteenth century, a Philosophia which, because of its faith-based tenets and the need for a special intellectual initiation into the comprehension of its precepts, was being rejected by the increasing rationalism of the age.

Metaphors of "journey" or "rootlessness" are often used to describe movements of people across cultural and social spaces, and physical geographies. Such journeys whilst revealing stories that speak of a people's voice, are rarely seen as embodying an implicit quest for a narrative unity with a teleology and pedagogy, sui generis. This inquiry focuses upon the narrative journey of one such community of "travellers," the Indian Ismailis, who left their timeworn homeland in the North Western region of the Indian Subcontinent at the end of the nineteenth century and travelled to colonial Eastern Africa to make the land their new home. In the early 1970' s , however, political unrest in this now "postcolonial" region prompted the succeeding generations of the earlier pioneers to once again uproot their African home and undertake yet another journey, this time towards the so-called modern societies of Canada and other Western countries. This historical and often turbulent intergenerational voyage of over a hundred years is also a continuous journey of a modern selfhood in aporia as it experiences and traverses the various institutions, practices, and milieus of modernity, while attempting to engage with or update its own biographical narrative. Using the important and primary genre of shared conversations implicit within a narrative and hermeneutical inquiry, this project acts as witness and delves into the narratives of a diverse group of individuals from four generations of these travellers. It is proposed that in these intergenerational conversations and stories lie experiences and expressions of praxis that also reveal or point towards moral enablements of practices and virtues, and arguments that make present a "living tradition." This tradition, it is felt, can act as a significant and inescapable horizon - a robust historical consciousness - from which a modern selfhood in aporia can once again begin to update its own narrative as part of a continuous story of a community with a teleology, and which the current and future generations of these "travellers" can recognize, argue, update, and ultimately possess as they venture purposefully into the community's shared future.

There is little question that Hobbes's Leviathan and Behemoth are largely responding to the civil conflicts that were tearing seventeenth-century England apart, but scholars disagree in their interpretations of Hobbes's diagnosis and prescription for the civil war. Complementing previous interpretations, my MA thesis suggests that Hobbes also traces the source of the civil conflicts to Western philosophical tradition (WPT) itself both methodologically and substantially. Methodologically, ancient Western philosophers do not start their ratiocination process with definitions of the terms used, and Hobbes argues that this lack of adequate method leads to all kinds of absurdities and consequently a whole false reference world. This critique is largely based on Hobbes's materialist accounts of philosophy and mind. Substantially, Hobbes suggests that Aristotle's natural, moral and civil philosophies in particular contribute to the chaotic opinions and the civil conflicts. After detecting this source, Hobbes undertakes perhaps the most ambitious endeavor to exorcise the demon of the tradition in Western history, by radically scientizing the philosophical tradition and establishing a science of politics.

Šiame darbe analizuojama kalendorinių švenčių tradicijos kaitos procesai pradedant tarpukariu ir baigiant nepriklausomybės laikotarpiu. Darbe nagrinėjama kaip skirtingais laikotarpiais vienos jų toliau tebešvenčiamos, kitos naujai atsiradusios išnyksta ar sėkmingai prigyja. Atkreipiamas dėmesys į kaitos procesą įtakojančias priežastis. Darbo objektas – teorinė tradicijos samprata ir kalendorinių švenčių tradicijos suvokimo kaita tarpukario, sovietmečio ir nepriklausomybės laikotarpiais. Darbe siekta apžvelgti teorinę tradicijos sąvokos traktuotę filosofiniame, istoriniame kontekstuose bei atlikti kalendorinių švenčių kaitos proceso analizę periodiniuose leidiniuose, remiantis trimis istoriniais laikotarpiais: tarpukariu, sovietmečiu, nepriklausomybe. Nuo XVIII a. iki XX a. šimtmečio tradicija laikyta barjeru, slopinančiu individualaus žmogaus vystymąsi ir kūrybą. Susiformavusi opozicija, galutinai atskyrė „gėrį“ nuo „blogio“, t.y. tradiciją nuo modernybės. Atraminė tradicijos sąvoka daugelio mokslininkų apribojama XVIII-XIX a. Tokie požiūriai į tradiciją, kaip parodė atlikta analizė, nėra išnykęs iki šiol. Kalendorinių švenčių aktualumas nemaža dalimi priklauso ne tik nuo žmonių poreikio, tačiau kartu ir nuo valstybės politinės, ekonominės situacijos. Svarbiausiomis šventėmis laikytos Kūčios, Kalėdos ir Velykos, atkartojančios religines ir etninės kultūros tradicijas, išliko mažiausiai pakitusios, nors religinis turinys stipriai sumenkęs. Toks elgesys „iš tradicijos“ gali... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This work analyses the changes of calendar feasts traditions beginning with interwar period and leading to independent period. This work deals with a question of how some feasts are still being celebrated in different eras, when at the same time new one disappear or flourish, circumstances of such a processes are considered. Main topic of work is theoretical understanding of tradition and calendar feasts traditions during periods of interwar, soviet and independence. Work is focused upon theoretical understanding of tradition in philosophical and historical context, as well as trying to accomplish analysis of the changes of calendar feasts in periodical publications by invoking three historical eras: interwar, soviet occupation and independence. Starting from 18th century up until 20th century tradition was thought as barrier suppressing human development and creativity. Such an attitude conclusively distinguished ’’good’’ and ’’evil’’, tradition and modernity. By many scientists, notion of tradition is restricted from 18th century to 19th century. Analysis shows, that suchlike positions are still alive. The importance of calendar feasts depends not only on needs of human beings but just as well on political and economical situation of particular State. Least changes are seen on those feasts which were considered to be the most important, Christmas Eve, Christmas and Easter, although religious content is much weaker. Such behaviour ’’from tradition’’ might be conditioned... [to full text]

I den här uppsatsen undersöks sju texter om den svenska författarinnan Karin Boye (1900–1941), publicerade mellan åren 1989 och 2013. Utifrån feministisk litteratur- och bio­grafi­forsk­ning av Gunilla Domellöf och Lisbeth Larsson diskuteras att och hur perso­nen Boye och biografiska läsningar av hennes skönlitterära produk­tion fort­farande int­resserar. Bland resultaten finns slutsatsen att Boyes texter fortfarande ofta läses som själv­bio­grafiska, men att bilden av henne omarbetats; Boye betraktas inte längre som sjuk, till skillnad från 1950-talets sexualisering och patologisering av kvinnliga författare. Istäl­let benämns hon lesbisk och den direkta kopplingen mellan hennes sexualitet och hennes självmord är borta. Avsikten i hennes själv­mord ifrågasätts dessutom, vilket ytterligare för­ändrar bilden av Boye. En övergripande slutsats är att samma teman som var aktuella under mitten av 1900-talet, såsom sexualitet, psyke och självmord, återkommer i omvärderad form när Boye blir läst och biograferad idag. Den bio­grafiska traditionen är fortfarande aktuell, trots att den uppmärksammats och motarbetats av bland andra Domellöf.