Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2022, Theology

Mary's purity has been a subject of theological inquiry for over a millennium. This project's objective is to follow the development of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception historically to the ways it became manifest in the Spanish kingdoms of the Middle Ages, how it was brought and taught to the Nahua and Maya in the sixteenth century evangelization of Central Mexico by Spanish friars, and then how it remained a powerful force of evangelical and political fervor in New Spain through the analysis of three seventeenth century homilies about the Immaculate Conception. Whereas the conquest of the Americas is largely remembered for the brutalities and injustices committed, the Spanish friars who implemented a wide-scale evangelization of the Native Americans were interested in the sincere conversions of people like the Nahua and Maya. This dissertation studies the evangelization methods of the sixteenth century Franciscan friars in Central Mexico with particular attention to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception and to Marian belief and devotion. The study also takes into account the cosmologies and ways of living of the Nahua and Maya, the two most prominent cultural groups in Mesoamerica at the time. The interaction between the friars and the natives is viewed in light of their respective cultural heritages. The spiritual concerns of the friars and their indoctrination of the Nahua and Maya are studied in light of the religious heritage of the Spanish kingdoms of the Middle Ages and the defense of the belief in the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Spanish friars make Mary central to their evangelization of Central Mexico, along with Christ and the Cross. The first three chapters deal with the pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican world with respect to Nahua and Maya cosmologies, the Catholicism of the Iberian Peninsula up to the expansion to the Americas, and the development of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception respectively. Chapter four focuses on the ev (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Neomi DeAnda (Advisor); Sébastien (Bakpenam) Abalodo (Committee Member); Sandra Yocum (Committee Member); Dennis Doyle (Committee Member); Gilberto Cavazos-González (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American History; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies; Middle Ages; Native Americans; Religious Education; Religious History; Spirituality; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2009, Anthropology

This dissertation contributes to the field of cultural anthropology by collecting household level socioeconomic data and the use of freelisting to measure cultural knowledge. Testing the study hypotheses illuminated relationships between the three central axes – health, livelihood and cultural knowledge. The Sierra of Manantlan Biosphere Reserve (SMBR) was selected as the fieldsite due to its Nahua rooks. Prior research studies regarding plant knowledge, and being a protected area with explicit goals of cultural and natural resource preservation. A representative sample of 125 adult men and women was selected across three communities which have known variation in socioeconomic profile and modernity. Exhaustive household censuses give a comprehensive view of livelihood activities, and individual health experiences are measured using a structured interview. Demonstrated through the economic activity profiles present in the study sample, the indigenous people in the SMBR subsist through low-intensity agriculture, animal husbandry, and paid labor. This dissertation moves back and forth between the macro and micro. Political histories of Mexico and the SMBR continually shape subsistence strategies and the agrarian communities. Medical pluralism and the health profile in Mexico influence the local-level health status and access to health care services in the SMBR, demonstrated by the persistence of medicinal plant knowledge. Freelisting captures cultural knowledge using a consensus model. Semi-structured interviews with medicinal plant experts and biomedical practitioners are used to illustrate the spectrum of opinions regarding usage of medicinal plants across the three communities. This dissertation describes the complexity of the political, economic and social history of the Nahua people, and analyzes the relationships between these factors and medicinal plant knowledge. First, there is no link between individuals who have used medicinal plants more frequently in thei (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Atwood D. Gaines PhD (Advisor); Charlotte Ikels PhD (Committee Member); Jim G. Shaffer PhD (Committee Member); William Siebenschuh PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology