Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Gender and National Identities Among Non-Indigenous Neo-Pentecostals in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico

在L. Keith Brown博士的指导下，研究生研究员Rebecca C. Englert将调查墨西哥恰帕斯州的宗教实践、性别认同、民族主义和国家意识形态之间的关系。先前的研究发现，在从天主教改信新教的家庭中，男性不那么“大男子主义”，喝酒更少，更多地做家务，给妻子更多的自主权。与此同时，墨西哥继续将大男子主义身份作为真正墨西哥人的核心男性身份来推广。研究人员建议用一个自然实验来扩展这些早期的发现，在这个实验中，她将比较恰帕斯高原的梅斯蒂索（非印第安人，西班牙后裔）新五旬节派家庭与梅斯蒂索天主教家庭之间的性别关系、国家观念和种族认同。这位西班牙语流利的研究人员将采用混合方法进行全面和系统的调查。她将在圣克里斯托波尔德拉斯卡萨斯的两个教会团体中进行为期两个月的参与观察实地研究。然后，她将对来自五旬节派和天主教家庭的20名男性和20名女性样本进行深入访谈和认知分析任务（堆分类测试，分类测试）。最后，她将调查来自其他社区的家庭样本，重复认知任务，看看这些发现是否适用于更普遍的情况。这项研究意义重大，因为尽管梅斯蒂索人是墨西哥的主要群体，但在恰帕斯等土著地区，对他们的研究不足；因此，该研究将有助于填补该地区民族志的空白。同样重要的是，随着新教在前天主教国家的传播，我们了解其政治和社会后果。这将是第一个超越简单联想的研究，并试图分离出行为改变背后的认知模型。该研究项目也将对研究生的教育做出重大贡献。

Under the supervision of Dr. L. Keith Brown, graduate student researcher Rebecca C. Englert will investigate the relationship between religious practice, gender identity, nationalism, and state ideology in Chiapas, Mexico. Previous research has found that in families that convert from Catholicism to Protestantism, men are less "machismo" oriented, drink less, contribute more to domestic chores, and give their wives more autonomy. At the same time, the state continues to promote a machismo identity as a core male identity of true Mexicans. The researcher proposes to extend those earlier findings with a natural experiment, in which she will compare gender relations and notions of state and ethnic identity among Mestizo (non-Indian, Spanish descendant) neo-Pentecostal families with Mestizo Catholic families in the highlands of Chiapas. The researcher, who is fluent in Spanish, will employ a mixed-methods approach for a well-rounded and systematic investigation. She will begin with two months of participant observation field research in two church groups in San Cristobol de las Casas. She will then follow-up with in-depth interviews and cognitive analysis tasks (pile sort tests, triage tests) of a sample of 20 men and 20 women from Pentecostal and Catholic families. Finally, she will survey a sample of households from other communities, repeating the cognitive tasks, to see if the findings hold up more generally. The research is significant because although Mestizos are the dominant group in Mexico, they are understudied in indigenous areas, such as Chiapas; thus the research will contribute to filling a gap in the ethnography of the region. It also important that as Protestantism spreads in formerly Catholic countries, we understand the political as well as social consequences. This will be one of the first studies to go beyond simple association and try to isolate the cognitive models that underlie the changed behavior. The research project also will contribute significantly to the education of a graduate student.