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Goddess-based civilisations worshipped the divine as a parthenogentic primordial creative force. Parthenogensis a Greek word that derives from parthenos “virgin” and genesis “from the beginning” was the path of liberation or rebirth into one’s divine nature. Thus, the supreme deity was worshipped as the Virgin Goddess who alone, without male intervention created the Universe by entering liminal states or otherwise altered states of consciousness. Ontologically these states in goddess worshipping cultures were entered during rites of passage through dance, repetitive action, song and descending into underground grottoes. It is the intention of this thesis to explore two rites of passage, pre-menarche and menarche to establish if spiritualising these two events in our lives can lead to women having a vision of the divine, which is the intention of parthenogenesis – our own self-realisation.            Using the kaleidoscope theory as the primary methodology - a method which incorporates a consideration of linguistics, mythology, history, and folklore as well as archaeology - this thesis follows several lines of approach. First, by reviewing the belief systems around parthenogenesis through a matriarchal cosmogony myth and other ancient religious interpretations, it shows that in the pre-patriarchal western world a Virgin Mother Goddess was worshipped due to her parthenogenesis.        Second, it argues that the prepubescent initiation for Artemis of Brauron known as the arkteia, where young girls up to the age of 10 would play the She bear for Artemis was pre-menarchial rite of passage that set the stage for the divine experience during menarche, by retaining our instincts and intuition through our wild nature. To illustrate this, archaeological data as well as historical and mythological clues provide substantive evidence for this. Thirdly, it argues that the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary could have actually been her own menarche or first blood, whereby her spiritual conception of Christ-consciousness is announced by Gabriel and begins her journey to liberation through parthenogenesis. This will be illustrated through early century iconography and theological interpretations of Mary as she weaves the red thread to create the veil of the temple of Jerusalem. Additionally, through the Gospel of Mary Magdalene who was the first Apostle to see a vision of the resurrected Christ and is today considered the keeper of women’s blood mysteries, I argue that the spiritualising of menarche can also lead women to eventually have a vision of the divine, which culminates the path and intention of parthenogenesis – our own self-realisation.            Lastly it explores through existential health how these two rites of passage are reclaimed in the modern world and how they provide an embodied relationship for women with the divine.      This study pulls together fragmented elements of pre-history to make a compelling case for menarche as being the foundation for self-realisation and contemporary understanding of mythological and biblical narratives, rites of passage and their liminal spaces. The lost matriarchal path of parthenogenesis is determined to be applicable ontologically in the modern world.

This study explores the ways in which objects are used in the organization of daily life, by specifically focusing on the use of prayer beads and their mechanical and digital variations. For this purpose, a framework based on material culture and practice theory is employed to understand how Islam informs and guides the organization and the conduct of daily life around the pervasive prayer practices, the ways objects are used for these purposes and how practices and products co-evolve by influencing each other. Fieldwork with devout Muslims, who are using prayer beads together with mechanical and digital counters for their daily praying practices, is conducted by employing ethnomethodology. Findings on the ways in which objects are used, utilized, appropriated and adopted within the socio-cultural and political dynamics of Islam in Turkey are analysed regarding the social and practical aspects of daily life such as the organization of daily life and daily practices, the core issues shaping these practices, thus objects, how identity discourse reflected on/by the use of objects and the ensemble of products that is orchestrated for a meaningful organization of daily life around prayer practices.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Joao Luiz de Almeida Carneiro.pdf: 13777474 bytes, checksum: ac9708dead2b498d21066368cfaa8e46 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The main purpose of this work is to understand the social position that Faculdade de Teologia Umbandista, that is, FTU (Umbandist Theology College) occupies in the milieu of specific discourses reverberating in the social sphere. The hypothesis here presented is that FTU fosters a new way of theological thinking that promotes dialogue between Afro-Brazilian religious and laic persons, especially the ones that hold position in the academic milieu, by means of the legal and traditional tenets socially established. The methodology used in this research consisted of bibliography review, contemplating reading, analysis and interpretations of books, periodicals, and audiovisual materials. On account of such methodology, a discussion of four central issues has been raised by which it is possible to verify the hypothesis of the thesis: public sphere, Afro- Brazilian religions, orality and written tradition, and FTU. Therefore, in order to introduce the resulting interactions, that is, the bridges between knowledge and practices, emphasis has been given to two different and very important kind of events: 21st Century Umbanda Congresses and two of 24 rites for worshipping Eshu / O objetivo central deste trabalho é compreender a posição social que a Faculdade de Teologia Umbandista (FTU) ocupa na mediação de discursos específicos que reverberam na esfera pública. A hipótese deste trabalho é que a FTU, por meio dos meios educacionais legais e tradicionalmente estabelecidos no seio da esfera pública, promove uma nova reflexão teológica que auxilia os cidadãos religiosos afro-brasileiros no diálogo com os cidadãos seculares, mais especificamente os acadêmicos. A metodologia utilizada para esta pesquisa foi a revisão bibliográfica, que contemplou a leitura, análise e interpretação de livros, periódicos, materiais audiovisuais. Este método levantou a discussão de quatro temas centrais que dão condições de verificar a hipótese da tese: Esfera Pública, Religiões Afro-brasileiras, Oralidade e Escrita e a FTU propriamente dita. Para apresentar essas interações, ou seja, as pontes entre esses saberes e fazeres, foi dada ênfase a dois eventos muito importantes no calendário da instituição: os Congressos de Umbanda do Século XXI e dois dos vinte e quatro Ritos de louvação a Exu