Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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The question of the genealogical proximity of Italic and Celtic has been an issue in Indo-European linguistics for a long time. Whereas most previous studies have looked at the innovations possibly...Show moreThe question of the genealogical proximity of Italic and Celtic has been an issue in Indo-European linguistics for a long time. Whereas most previous studies have looked at the innovations possibly shared by Italic and Celtic from a Proto-Indo-European perspective, this work takes a more bottom-up approach by attempting to reconstruct (parts of) the Proto-Italo-Celtic language on the basis of the attested linguistic data in both branches’ daughter languages. The areas under focus are Italo-Celtic phonology and verbal morphology. As the Italo-Celtic reconstructions of both of these sub-systems of the language are substantially different for the systems traditionally reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European, I will argue that there is good reason to posit Italo-Celtic as a genetic unit that must have lasted for a substantial amount of time.Show less
In this thesis I have examined if and how indigenous religion in north-western Europe (specifically Roman Britain and northern Gaul) changed after the Roman colonization. The basis of my research...Show moreIn this thesis I have examined if and how indigenous religion in north-western Europe (specifically Roman Britain and northern Gaul) changed after the Roman colonization. The basis of my research is the idea that agriculture is a very important factor in shaping culture and religion. Ton Derks (1998) has stated that in northern Gaul, the southern territories were much more accepting of Roman religious customs because the agricultural basis of their society, namely arable farming, was the same as that of the Romans. In the north, were stockbreeding was much more important, people were much less accepting of Roman culture and as a consequence religious habits did not change much after the Roman conquest. In other words, the core of people's beliefs remained the same. I have applied this theory to Roman Britain, as the differences between the highland and lowland zones present us with a very similar agricultural division. This research has shown that, while indigenous religion and world views did become more Roman (especially in the areas were arable farming was more important than stockbreeding), native populations also attempted to preserve, or create new local traditions to retain their own identity. Such changes were not always directly related to local forms of agriculture, but areas were arable farming was dominant were far more susceptible to them than the more conservative pastoral zones.Show less
