Stylized depictions of animals with imposing horns, birds and various other animal species are often seen as characteristic for Halaf painted pottery. In fact they remain exceptional as Halaf Fine...Show moreStylized depictions of animals with imposing horns, birds and various other animal species are often seen as characteristic for Halaf painted pottery. In fact they remain exceptional as Halaf Fine Ware is generally dominated by geometric motifs. There is more about these figurative motifs than meets the eye. Apart from species identification, how can we interpret this figurative art? This study investigates the animal symbolism as painted on Halaf Fine Ware ceramic containers from Tell Sabi Abyad, located in the Balikh region of northern Syria. In order to interpret these animal motifs, the study contextualizes the motifs against the zoo-archaeological record, the depositional context, and the context of use. It appears that animals used in art were special, showing an inverse relationship with the faunal record. These animals probably represented seasonality and danger, and they may have been related to taboos and apotropaic magic. Moreover, some animals might have functioned within complex narratives, which were brought to life as the vessels upon which they were painted were discussed during Halaf commensality practices.Show less
Today’s cinematic movement show a heightened interest in stories based on historical periods or events. These stories, however, need not necessarily be historically accurate but may merely evoke an...Show moreToday’s cinematic movement show a heightened interest in stories based on historical periods or events. These stories, however, need not necessarily be historically accurate but may merely evoke an illusion of historical reality. In this thesis, I explored the methods contemporary filmmakers can turn to in order to achieve a sense of realism in the on-screen worlds of their imagination. I limited myself to discussing those methods that are concerned with setting, character, and plot respectively; I used Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur as my point of reference.Show less
The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of dubbing and subtitling on EFL competence in dubbing and subtitling countries in the EU. If significant differences exist in EFL competence...Show moreThe purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of dubbing and subtitling on EFL competence in dubbing and subtitling countries in the EU. If significant differences exist in EFL competence between dubbing and subtitling countries in the EU, this might have implications for dubbing countries, especially in the light of the 2002 Barcelona objective, which states that citizens of the EU should speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue. Since English is the most commonly learned foreign language in the EU, and because the majority of dubbed or subtitled material in the EU is anglophone in origin, this paper asks how dubbing and subtitling affect EFL competence in dubbing and subtitling countries in the EU. To answer this question, secondary data from a number of large-scale EU studies were analyzed. The results of the analysis showed a clear link between subtitling countries and relatively high EFL competence; EFL competence was found to be lower in dubbing countries. However, there were exceptions to this general trend, suggesting that other factors such as quality and quantity of exposure and issues related to formal education also play an important part in determining overall EFL competence.Show less
This thesis will show that Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy and Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy critically explore contemporary social concerns in modern-day America, such as the unfair...Show moreThis thesis will show that Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy and Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy critically explore contemporary social concerns in modern-day America, such as the unfair distribution of wealth, the potentially corruptive nature of power and the dual nature of identity. The trilogies also question the capability of both totalitarian and democratic political regimes to govern their people fairly. Both authors introduce their young-adult audience to such pressing socio-political topics by presenting them with two different prospective dystopian futures. Both the Hunger Games as well as the Divergent series present protagonists who are young adults themselves – making the storyline easier to relate to – and the novels critically explore socio-political themes specifically tailored for the young readership. Beyond these initial similarities, both trilogies exhibit a different vision regarding not only contemporary America, but its future development as well, giving relevance to their comparison. Whereas the Hunger Games series' social critique is mainly centered around governmental systems, the Divergent series focuses more on the controversy surrounding identity development, commenting on the precarious balance between a character’s free will to develop his or her own identity and an imposed identity constructed from various external social and economic forces.Show less
This BA thesis explores the nature of individual human agency in the second season of the television series The Wire. Drawing on Althusserian or Gramscian thought, involving the question of...Show moreThis BA thesis explores the nature of individual human agency in the second season of the television series The Wire. Drawing on Althusserian or Gramscian thought, involving the question of ideology and its limiting effects on human agency, I have argued that the nature of human agency in The Wire is problematic. The characters, especially in the second season, are bound by an ideological discourse. Chapter two has shown that the characters are involved in an ideological discourse of their own and that determines the extent of their individual agency. In addition, and in dialogue with the ideologies that bind the characters, there is the (creators of the) series’ own ideological response to this, both in terms of the plotting and on a more formal level (discussed in chapters three and four respectively).Show less
While the choice of accent in British popular music has been subject of debate for many years, there is still little known about the choice of accent in Dutch popular music. This thesis sets out to...Show moreWhile the choice of accent in British popular music has been subject of debate for many years, there is still little known about the choice of accent in Dutch popular music. This thesis sets out to describe the trend in the choice of accents among Dutch artists when singing in English and it sets out to examine how this choice correlates with the choice of topic and the stylistic choices. An analysis of one hundred songs by seventy-three Dutch artists revealed that the vast majority of the Dutch artists adopt a primarily American accent. The analysis also disclosed that there is not an obvious correlation between the choice of accent, the choice of topic and the stylistic choices in these songs. Previous research also did not really include the listener’s preference for an accent. Therefore, the second aim of this thesis is to examine whether listeners have a preference for one accent over the other and what their motivations are for this preference. A survey was conducted involving fifty-eight participants. The results of the survey showed that a large majority of the listeners preferred the British recording over the American recording. The motivations for the preference for the British recording are mostly based on the accent of the singer, the comprehensibility and the overall sound of the recording. In conclusion, this study offers support for the use of a British accent in Dutch popular music songs.Show less
Neanderthal behaviour has formed a popular and debated field of research over the past decades. Within this debate the extent to which Neanderthals show symbolic behaviour, comparable to that of...Show moreNeanderthal behaviour has formed a popular and debated field of research over the past decades. Within this debate the extent to which Neanderthals show symbolic behaviour, comparable to that of the Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH), has been an important subject. Artefacts associated with symbolic behaviour have been found within the Châtelperronian layer (authored by Neanderthals) at Grotte du Renne (France). However, the validity to interpret these as indicative of symbolic behaviour amongst Neanderthals is debated: post depositional processes are believed to have transported these artefacts from the superior Protoaurignacien layer (authored by AMH) into that of the Châtelperronian, and could also have transported Neanderthal skeletal remains from the underlying Mousterian layer. As the integrity of the Châtelperronian is generally challenged, and as at the site of Les Cottés, France, a Protoaurignacien, Châtelperronian and Mousterian layer are present, this thesis reconstructs what site formation processes might have taken place at Les Cottés, and how these site formation processes may have influenced the degree of integrity of the Châtelperronian layer. This is done by performing a fabric analysis on the Châtelperronian layer of Les Cottés. Within this analysis, the orientations of all elongated artefacts are used as indicators of the site formation processes that took place. Patterning within the orientations are used to distinguish between different types of site formation processes.Show less
Through the method of close-reading the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn this thesis complicates the notions put forth in Nina Baym's classic essay "Melodramas of Beset Manhood" (1981)...Show moreThrough the method of close-reading the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn this thesis complicates the notions put forth in Nina Baym's classic essay "Melodramas of Beset Manhood" (1981) regarding the role of gender in nineteenth-century American canonical literature.Show less
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Creature is introduced as a Romantic hero, with human emotions and needs and a grotesque appearance. The image of the Creature has since changed repeatedly...Show moreIn Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Creature is introduced as a Romantic hero, with human emotions and needs and a grotesque appearance. The image of the Creature has since changed repeatedly through mass-media adaptations of Shelley’s novel. For example, the current standard image of the Creature bears a strong resemblance to Boris Karloff’s Creature (Frankenstein, 1931) in appearance and personality. This thesis examines the form and function of “the Creature” in contemporary cinematic adaptations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). By analysing the appearance, abilities and behaviour of the Creature in the original Frankenstein (1818) and in cinematic adaptations from various genres, it is shown how the representation of the Creature is influenced by internal and external genre cues of the adaptation in which he is featured. The genres that are explored are the horror genre and the action genre, represented by the movies Frankenstein: Day of the Beast (2011) and I, Frankenstein (2014), respectively.Show less
This thesis argues against a recent claim which states that English is a Scandinavian language which came about during and after the Viking settlement and reign in England.
Kretek or clove cigarette is one of the most important product of Indonesia. Kretek industry contributes a large share of revenue to the Indonesian government annually. It also generates enormous...Show moreKretek or clove cigarette is one of the most important product of Indonesia. Kretek industry contributes a large share of revenue to the Indonesian government annually. It also generates enormous employment for the country. Although kretek was invented by an indigenous man and firstly commercialised by the indigenous people, Chinese entrepreneurs were people who successfully controlled the industry since the 1930s until today. The success of the Chinese in running business is a common phenomenon in Southeast Asia. However, this phenomenon is not yet fully explained. The aim of this thesis is, thus, to examine why could Chinese entrepreneurs become dominant in the kretek industry. It looks at three factors involved in the phenomenon: the characteristics of the industry, economic policies, and the Chinese community and businessmen. This thesis argues that kretek industry required large capital to sustain price fluctuations, inconsistency of demand and delayed payment from distributors. Therefore, businessmen with large capital had advantages in this industry. Economic policies pursued by the colonial government also indirectly help big enterprises by destroying small enterprises through taxation and industrialisation of some cigarette companies. Unfortunately, indigenous entrepreneurs usually had less capital than the Chinese entrepreneurs. The Chinese could get into businesses easily with helps from their broad networks. These networks provided Chinese entrepreneurs with capital and know-how. Chinese entrepreneurs, thus, became dominant in the kretek industry in the 1930s although they came into the industry after the indigenous.Show less
The Yukaghiric languages have a rather complex case marking system. Certain conditions, such as hierarchy, syntactic or semantic roles, can cause intransitivity. The conditions that cause the split...Show moreThe Yukaghiric languages have a rather complex case marking system. Certain conditions, such as hierarchy, syntactic or semantic roles, can cause intransitivity. The conditions that cause the split in transitivity are discussed in this thesis.Show less
The Late Ceramic Age (LCA) in the Caribbean is known for its’ great cultural diversity. However, Similarity in Variation focusses on illustrating cultural similarities between LCA settlements on...Show moreThe Late Ceramic Age (LCA) in the Caribbean is known for its’ great cultural diversity. However, Similarity in Variation focusses on illustrating cultural similarities between LCA settlements on the basis of grave assemblages. The goal is to mirror the cultural subseries defined on the basis of ceramic typology, and support them with cultural similarities encountered in grave assemblages. In order to demonstrate this similarity a range of variance is designed using grave assemblages from two LCA sites: Maisabel on Puerto Rico, and The Tutu Archaeological Village site on St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands. The purpose of the range of variance is to show that, when a burial is different from what is generally encountered in the grave assemblage, the type of differentiated treatment corresponds to that encountered at other sites, thus illustrating cultural similarity. The range of variance thus encompasses elements which only rarely occurred in both assemblages of the above-mentioned sites, such as the presence of grave goods or the absence of certain skeletal elements. Next, the range of variance was applied to two contemporary sites on the Lesser Antilles: Kelbey’s Ridge on Saba, and Pointe de Caille on St. Lucia. All the elements in the range of variance found representatives at these two sites. A minority of the buried individuals were thus subject to a differentiated treatment after death. The occurrence of the same variations in treatment illustrates the cultural parallels between sites. Cultural diversity between sites was demonstrated by the presence of an element of variation in mortuary practice seen only at one of the four sites, such as the usage of fire in a funerary context at Kelbey’s Ridge.Show less
This thesis examines the status of whether in Generative Grammar. There is no consensus in the existing literature on the syntactic status of whether. Some linguists (Haegeman, 2006; Huddleston ...Show moreThis thesis examines the status of whether in Generative Grammar. There is no consensus in the existing literature on the syntactic status of whether. Some linguists (Haegeman, 2006; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002; Van Gelderen, 2013; among others) argue that whether is a complementiser, on a par with that and if. The example in (1) illustrates this position: (1) I don’t know whether/if I’ll go to the party. Other linguists (Newson et al, 2006; Radford, 1997, 2004, 2009; among others) have posited that whether is a wh-phrase, on a par with who and when. The example in (2) illustrates this position: (2) I don’t know whether/when I’ll go to the party. In this thesis, I aim to find out which of these positions is to be preferred: is whether a complementiser or a wh-phrase? I will attempt to answer this question through synchronic and diachronic research, using data from the existing literature. I will analyse the present-day syntactic behaviour of whether, its historical development and its morphology and critically evaluate the evidence for the two positions as presented in the existing literature.Show less
This study investigates two different type of indigenous students from Indonesia who earned their degree from Faculty of Law Leiden University in the late colonial period. Their family background,...Show moreThis study investigates two different type of indigenous students from Indonesia who earned their degree from Faculty of Law Leiden University in the late colonial period. Their family background, academic support in Leiden, nationalist movement and also the different life that they must encountered in the Netherlands shifted their choice once they came back to the colony. The first type of Leiden graduate associated themselves with the colonial legal system in order to sustain colonial authority in Indonesia. The second type was them who decided to either work under the colonial administration but showing nationalistic stance or them who stood against colonial authority by opening law firms independently and joining political activities. The main focus of this thesis is to explore more on some cases which portrays the outcome of these Leiden graduates and their involvement in colonial legal system in the Dutch East Indies.Show less
In this thesis, I discuss the influence of mutual perspectives of South and North Koreans from 1994 till 2015 on the reunification process. This will be done by discussing the perspective of the...Show moreIn this thesis, I discuss the influence of mutual perspectives of South and North Koreans from 1994 till 2015 on the reunification process. This will be done by discussing the perspective of the South Korean people on North Korea, the North Korean people living in North Korea and the North Korean settlers in South Korea. After that I discuss the perspective of the North Korean settlers on South Korea and the South Korean people. This will be followed by a discussion of the problems of the North Korean settlers in South Korean society, how and till what extent they are related to the perspectives of South and North Koreans, and their implications for reunification.Show less
