In A Science of Literature, I examine how and why US ethnologists and popular authors of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries collected, read, and interpreted Indigenous oral traditions as works of literature. “Oral traditions” in this case refers to the narratives and songs that Indigenous peoples maintained mostly orally, and which variously served religious, historical, philosophical, educational, and entertainment purposes within Indigenous communities. I track how, through the collection process, Euro-American authors transformed oral traditions into “Indian oral literature,” (re)writing versions of oral traditions that aligned with Western literary categories and attitudes toward the “primitive.” For the most part, this reconceptualization, I argue, worked to discredit oral traditions as bodies of knowledge—as works of fiction and poetry, oral traditions became, in effect, untrue—and it supported removal and assimilation efforts in so far as it was used to shed light on a primitive Indian psychology, one that was naturally poetic, but not rational, not scientific. And yet many Indigenous writers, like George Copway and Zitkala-Ša, took advantage of the popularity of Indian oral literature to produce their own print collections of oral traditions. I analyze these collections as works of Indigenous “counter science.” I show how Indigenous writers, for example, moved from informant to ethnologist as they cited, summarized, and transcribed oral traditions as tribal records (histories, maps, deeds) and later as works of moral philosophy, thus explicitly contesting their interpretation as merely works of the imagination. Oral traditions, as I argue, have functioned as important resources to which Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers alike turned to validate scientific and literary practices, to contest the history of colonization, and to debate US-Indian relations. / English

<p>Muslim women’s efforts to attain religious leadership roles have been central, critical, and controversial topics discussed in American mosques and in academia. Women’s lack of access and leadership in religious institutions is due to the patriarchal interpretations of <em>Qurʾānic</em>scripture, the <em>Hadīth</em>, and Islamic laws leading women to engage in collective action to attain their rights while still affirming their religion (Barlas, 2002). When controversial topics challenge religious traditions and norms, such as women’s roles as <em>khateebahs</em>and Friday prayer <em>imāms</em>(women sermon givers and leading Friday prayers), the discussions often are theological and political, but rarely from a communicative perspective in which the trajectory of change and co-oriented action is authored by participants through considerations of text and interaction. Muslim women in America are opening spaces for dialogue and initiating organizations that empower their Muslim sisters to take on religious roles and other positions that adhere to and broaden understandings of what it means to be Muslim.</p> <p>The communicative constitution of organizations (CCO) (Belliger & Krieger, 2016; Brummans, Cooren, Robichaud, & Taylor, 2014; Bruscella & Bisel, 2018) has not yet delved into organizing within Muslim institutions. This study contributes to both CCO and to Muslim women’s organizing by showing how the CCO framework is applicable to a unique context that has not previously been investigated. Specifically, this dissertation explains how women’s authoring of process and structure through communication operates as a productive force constituted through linguistic choices, discursive formations, and materialities, as well as how Muslim women constitute agency within a traditional religious space situated in the United States. Consistent with CCO perspectives and especially the Four Flows model (McPhee, 2015; McPhee & Zaug, 2000, 2008), agency is conceptualized as action through or enactment of rules, resources, and routines in the duality of structure, based on Giddens (1984) structuration theory. In examining The Women’s Mosque of America (WMOA), an in-depth case study approach helped to illuminate how women’s empowerment is constructed and legitimized through women’s interactions, engagement, and advocacy. Studying women’s agency and structuring of empowerment through the constitutive approach of communication in organization (CCO) using McPhee’s four flows (McPhee, 2015; McPhee & Zaug, 2000, 2008) links communication, feminist studies, and Muslim religious organizations.</p> <p>Data for this case study were gathered through site observations and interviews; analyses were conducted through constructivist grounded theory that incorporates personal knowledge about Muslim women to assist interpretation grounded in data (Charmaz, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2017). Throughout the study, attention was paid not only to what the women said but also to their reported and observed social and ritual interactions.</p> <p>In conclusion, this project not only sheds light on a segment of the Muslim American community that is marginalized but shows that McPhee’s four flows can be used to study how organizations are structured along particular Islamic values and interpretations of text, while also affording agency to individuals as actors within each and across all four flows. In the case of The WMOA, the four flows communicative processes help identify relationships between Islam and organizational members, staff, and other institutional stakeholders within the material conditions of religious observances. Studies such as this project provide insight into how diverse members organize paradoxically for both social change and continuation of sacred traditions.</p>

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In the pre-Christian Sámi era places in the nature were believed to be sacred and connected to different gods or the spirit world. The sacred places often had a sacred place name and several of the sacred place names are still here today. One of the sacred places were sáiva-lakes which were believed to be sacred lakes that had two lakebeds, where the second or lower lakebed were considered connected to the spirit world. Sáiva-lakes were considered to be great fishing lakes but there were some rules that the fisherman had to obey to such as there had to be complete silence while fishing otherwise the fish would disappear down to the second lakebed. The sáiva-lakes were also connected to sacrificial practises, there were both sacrifices to the lakes or to sieidi stones on the lake shore for fishing luck or as a thank you for the fishes received. There were also sometimes bigger sacrificial places with different animal bones, sieidi stones and sometimes metal objects.Little is known or written about sáiva-lakes and most descriptions of sáiva-lakes comes from historic sources. The aim of this thesis is to research and contribute to more knowledge about sáiva-lakes and sacred traditions by lakes and watercourses in Northern Scandinavia. The main focus is to study sáiva-lakes both from a sacred and a nature perspective as well as to analyse how sáiva-lakes relate to archaeological sites and other sacred places and place names in their surroundings.The theoretic perspective applied on the thesis is mainly new animism and phenomenology which is applied to give a perspective on the landscape and nature. The study is based on archaeological material, historic sources, field excavations done by the author and a GIS analysis. The study shows that sáiva-lakes were connected to sacrificial practises and that sáiva-lakes often have other sacred places and places names in areas around the lakes. In a larger perspective the study of sáiva-lakes shows the perspective of a cultural landscape, and the aspect of sacred traditions by lakes and watercourses.

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The present study is completely a literature study, where the limelight has been on Rāmāyaṇa. Focusing on the Rāmāyaṇa written by Valmiki and comparing it to the oral tradition (songs) from Andhra Pradesh, sung by Brahmin women presented in Paula Richman’s book Many Ramayanas (1991); The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Two female characters have been chosen to understand the polarities of ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ in woman characters presented within the story of Rāmāyaṇa; Sitā is compared therefore to Śūrpanakhā. Two primary questions have led the study forward, the first being to understand characteristical similarities and differences between the female characters; Sitā and Śūrpanakhā. and the other being narrational differences found in Valmiki’s Rāmāyaṇa compared to Paula Richman’s description of oral traditions of Brahmin women of Andhra Pradesh. Qualitative content analysis is the method that runs through the veins of this study, content analysis which is a branch of textual analysis is a method used to study and describe characteristics of written messages, which in this study is Rāmāyaṇa. In the conclusion the research question was answered and the result was that it could be argued that Sitā and Śūrpanakhā are both different but also similar to each other within the characteristical framework and also that Sitā and Śūrpanakhā are portrayed as each other's alter egos. Where Sitā is portrayed as light, good, pure, auspicious and submissive, Śūrpanakhā is portrayed as her opposite; dark, evil, impure, inauspicious and independent. And within a narrational framework it was clear that there were many differences between Valmiki’s narration  to the oral traditions, where Valmiki narrated Rāmā in limelight the oral traditions had women’s aspects of Rāmāyaṇa in focus.

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