Doctoral Dissertation Research: Managing Marriage: Kinship and Bureaucracy in Contemporary Jordan

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University of Michigan doctoral student Geoffrey Hughes, supervised by Dr. Andrew Shryock, will undertake research on the contemporary construction and maintenance of kinship relationships in a world increasingly defined by ethnic and religious differences, bureaucratic social engineering, and material limitations, including the availability of suitable housing. Hughes will carry out his research in Jordan where social engineering projects seek to transform Jordanian families from far-flung juridical, economic and political bodies into more circumscribed and isolated units centered on spouses and their children. Hughes hypothesizes that projects designed to make Jordanian families "modern" are often co-opted by the very kin networks they are meant to break up and reorganize. This will make the underlying issues more visible for social science research. Based in the village of 'Areesh, which is located between the city of Madaba and the capital of Amman, Hughes will study the diversity of marriage practices and the relationships surrounding them. He will collect data employing a range of social science research methods including archival research, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation in both the patrilocal settlement of 'Areesh and the urban institutions seeking to transform marriage in Jordan. By studying the entanglement of kinship and bureaucracy and attempting to reconcile these putatively distinct domains through a simultaneiously material and semiotic approach, this study will contribute to the growing body of social science literature that seeks to understand the surprisingly persistant importance of kinship relations in the modern world. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.