Managing the Honor and Stigma of Disjunctive Identities

管理分离身份的荣誉和耻辱

• 批准号: 1827386
• 负责人: Sara Dickey
• 金额: $ 9.84万
• 依托单位: Bowdoin College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-15 至 2021-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1827386&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Managing; Honor; Stigma; Disjunctive; Identities

The research supported by this award investigates social groups that have highly disjunctive identities. Disjunctive identities are two or more shared forms of identity that are ranked very differently. The researcher asks how these groups and the people in them manage how they see themselves and the social status assigned to them, and how outsiders respond to those management efforts. Such groups often wish to present their more highly ranked identity as a visible public face, yet they may simultaneously wish to preserve the traditions and values of their other, less esteemed identity. While a wide range of research has explored the experiences of individuals, families, or even larger subsets of groups with disjunctive identities, almost no research has been carried out among entire groups who consciously and intentionally bear one identity considered high status and the other considered much lower. This research will help policy-makers, practitioners, and social scientists understand how social groups live with and manage disjunctive identities, as well as provide models for how such groups may promote their own interests.This research will take place in Madurai, South India, where the researcher, anthropologist Dr. Sara Dickey of Bowdoin College, has carried out ethnographic fieldwork since 1985. She has chosen to focus on the case of the Hindu Nadars, because they have historically occupied one of the lowest ranks in the caste system but today also form one of the wealthiest groups in the region, well-known for public philanthropy such as building hospitals and schools. The researcher will focus on the role of Nadar community organizations, which, for more than a century, have actively tried to control the types of Nadar behaviors and values that are made visible to the larger public and the debates about values and identities that occur within these organizations. The researcher will gather data with a mix of ethnographic methods, including participant observation, the collection of oral histories, interviews, and archival research. Findings from the research will elucidate the extent to which economic success and cultural sophistication can mitigate social discrimination, and how recent developments, such as economic globalization, have affected this process. Results may provide models for U.S. settings and may suggest new approaches to help under-represented students manage disparate identities and thereby enhance academic and social success.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项支持的研究调查了具有高度分离身份的社会群体。析取身份是两种或两种以上共享的身份形式，它们的排名非常不同。研究人员询问这些群体和其中的人如何管理他们如何看待自己和分配给他们的社会地位，以及外部人士如何回应这些管理努力。这类群体通常希望以公众形象的形式展示自己地位较高的身份，但他们可能同时希望保留另一种不那么受人尊敬的身份的传统和价值观。虽然广泛的研究已经探索了具有分离身份的个人，家庭甚至更大的群体子集的经历，但几乎没有研究对整个群体进行过研究，这些群体有意识地和有意地承担一种身份被认为是高地位的，另一种身份被认为是低得多的。这项研究将有助于政策制定者、实践者和社会科学家理解社会群体如何与分离身份共存和管理，并为这些群体如何促进自身利益提供模型。这项研究将在印度南部的马杜赖进行，鲍登学院的人类学家萨拉·迪基博士自1985年以来一直在那里进行民族志田野调查。她选择关注印度教纳达尔的案例，因为他们在历史上一直是种姓制度中最低的阶层之一，但今天也成为该地区最富有的群体之一，以修建医院和学校等公共慈善事业而闻名。研究人员将关注纳达尔社区组织的作用，一个多世纪以来，纳达尔社区组织一直积极地试图控制纳达尔行为和价值观的类型，这些行为和价值观在更大的公众中可见，以及在这些组织中发生的关于价值观和身份的辩论。研究人员将采用多种民族志方法收集数据，包括参与观察、口述历史收集、访谈和档案研究。研究结果将阐明经济成功和文化成熟在多大程度上可以减轻社会歧视，以及最近的发展（如经济全球化）如何影响这一过程。研究结果可能为美国的环境提供模型，并可能提出新的方法来帮助代表性不足的学生管理不同的身份，从而提高学业和社会的成功。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。