https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/27625 Wed, 27 May 2026 06:40:50 GMT 2026-05-27T06:40:50Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31590 Title: Subverting public space? : graffiti artists in contemporary Malta Abstract: This dissertation looks at Graffiti Artists in contemporary Malta. The research aimed to explore the divide between ‘graffiti’ and ‘street art’ in the local context where graffiti is perceived as an illegal act and street art is more tolerated. In addition, through the work of my main informant, my ethnography revealed that graffiti and street art are sometimes motivated solely by aesthetics but at times one finds graffiti and street art to be an act of resistance. Thus, the same act can be interpreted as crossing the registers of ‘art’ and at times be considered ‘vandalism’. The research also explored the political potential of graffiti and street art in a semiotic space. Throughout the course of the ethnography, a tension emerged delineating my main informant’s practices and artistic persona vis-à-vis the work he engages in during the day and that which he does at night. Participant observation allowed for the witnessing of the graffiti and looking at the various meanings that are ascribed to them by the artist and further observation of the tension created by their material form. The underlying purpose of drawing on walls is to communicate a message to the general public. My main informant mainly engages in legal and commissioned work, however, he continues to do illegal graffiti. This conveys that he is highly influenced by both street art and graffiti and has managed to fuse the two together and build an artistic career. Description: B.A.(HONS)ANTHROPOLOGY Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31590 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31571 Title: Maltese Evangelical Christianity : an ethnography Abstract: This study of Maltese Evangelical Christians starts with my personal experience of being the son of born-again parents, and the difficulty I found in relating my own upbringing as an Evangelical with the experience of converts from Roman Catholicism over the years. In recent times, I found Anthropology to provide a good epistemological paradigm through which I can investigate born-again Christianity beyond the remits of theology. In this dissertation, I therefore present an examination of the religious experiences of Maltese Roman Catholics converted to Evangelicalism. These are experiences of men and women I have met in fieldwork conducted during the summer of 2016 among two local and Reformed Baptist church communities, Knisja Evanġelika Battista (KEB) and Knisja Evanġelika Trinità (KET). During this time, my informants shared about how Evangelical missionaries, friends, and relatives, challenged them to revisit their own Roman Catholic faith with the Gospel. Those who accepted the challenge found a number of inconsistencies between the Bible and the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. With this revelation, my informants felt betrayed by the institution they entrusted with their life. The challenge also led them to seek for themselves a personal experience of God rather than one mediated by a church. Nevertheless, while the Evangelical faith validated the personal experience of God, it also required believers to make a fresh commitment to the local church as well. Informants found themselves to be sceptical about this commitment to another church, after their disillusionment with Roman Catholicism. Eventually all my informants became committed to a church, but their scepticism of organized denominational Christianity never seized to be influential in their lives. Most of my informants expressed their dissatisfaction with Evangelical orthodoxy and orthopraxy, and while some moved from one church to another in search for the perfect community, others simply chose to practice their faith on the margins of the Evangelical movement. Finally, this project is intended to raise new interests in the study of fundamentalist movements within the anthropology of Christianity, particularly in the context of secularizing Roman Catholic societies like Malta. Description: B.A.(HONS)ANTHROPOLOGY Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31571 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31570 Title: Personalizing the body : tattoos as multifarious symbols Abstract: In recent years, the popularity and prominence of tattoos has grown both in the local and international contexts. More individuals are seeking to inscribe their bodies with a tattoo or numerous tattoos. Tattoos have emerged and emancipated from a cultural strata considered as ‘low-class’, making their way into to the mainstream society. The primary focus of this research has been an evaluation of the reasons why an individual would choose to get a tattoo. A further aspect concerns the functions tattoos serve within the contemporary Maltese society. This research includes both theoretical information as well as data compiled from informants. The latter includes both tattooed individuals and tattoo artists. At a later stage their perspectives have been assessed so as to draw the relevant conclusions. Tattoos serve a multitude of functions and their purpose may change over time and circumstances in view of the perspectives and values of the individual. Tattoos have been classified as multifarious symbols, allowing the tattooee to commemorate and manifest emotions, as well as create and maintain an image of the ideal-ego or the simulated-self, both when seeking individuality and affiliation. Description: B.A.(HONS)ANTHROPOLOGY Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31570 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31567 Title: The impact of discourse and strategy on practice in the environmentalist movement Abstract: This dissertation looks at a Maltese environmental non-governmental organisation (ENGO) - the Gaia Foundation - which primarily specializes in an integrated approach to coastal management. Founded in 1994, the organisation is rather small; a point which was made clear by most of the members. Nevertheless, it has still managed to project a considerably large presence in the field of the environment and environmental policies - evidenced in the fact that it manages two of the most ecologically important coastal areas on the Island. Correspondingly, from an anthropological perspective, this dissertation seeks to explore how the organisation operates within the Maltese context. Description: B.A.(HONS)ANTHROPOLOGY Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31567 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z