Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ritual, Network Formation, and Governance among Displaced Communities

人类学科学早已确定，仪式在稳定一个社区的道德生活方面起着至关重要的作用。在社会生活中，仪式最重要的一个领域是对社区死者的处理。这对因冲突而流离失所的社区尤其令人关切，因为那里的死亡率极高，个人面临不安全和物质和法律的资源严重匮乏，对社会秩序构成挑战。该奖项支持的研究，支持在严格的数据收集和分析的科学方法的研究生的培训，询问东道国社会如何处理大量流离失所的移民死亡，以及什么作用太平间和葬礼的做法有流离失所的社区。联合国难民事务高级专员办事处表示，世界正在目睹有史以来最高水平的强迫移民，这使得现在特别适合研究这个问题。除了为培训一名人类学研究生提供资金外，该项目还将通过向致力于发现更有效的人道主义援助提供方式的组织广泛传播其研究结果，提高科学认识。该项目还扩大了历史上在科学领域代表性不足的群体的参与，并通过科学研究社区之间的国际合作建立能力和科学基础设施。Foroogh Farhang在西北大学的Jessica Wessels博士的监督下，探索了丧葬和葬礼习俗受战争和流离失所影响的程度，以及哪些资源，网络，仪式，在埋葬和安抚死者的过程中，这项研究发生在黎巴嫩，在邻国叙利亚经历了七年的内战后，流离失所的叙利亚人是第一个没有正式营地和墓地的难民社区。他们面临着越来越严峻的挑战，既要在为数不多的埋葬地点中找到一个，又要为死者举行适当的葬礼。由于缺乏墓地，加上对穿越黎巴嫩-叙利亚边界的限制越来越多，叙利亚在黎巴嫩境内和从黎巴嫩到叙利亚的路线上建立了墓地网络。因为这涉及如此庞大的人口，这个问题是如此重要的文化，这个网站证明了一个理想的实验室，了解什么变量的援助和抑制文化融合。通过对黎巴嫩境内和黎巴嫩与叙利亚之间的人口流动性进行深入、长期和现场的人种学实地考察，将通过对难民、政府和非政府工作人员以及地方领导人和社区成员的代表性样本进行访谈、参与观察、生活史和媒体研究来收集数据。将对数据进行专题和内容分析，以确定、量化和评估相关的代码和主题。本研究借鉴了传统人类学对仪式和死亡的关注，以研究其理论假设是否受到当代背景下以战争，移民，难民融合和跨国非政府组织为标志的变量的影响。这项研究将有助于人类学和社会科学更广泛地讨论太平间和葬礼的做法，治理，流动性和人道主义。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Anthropological science has long established that ritual plays an essential role in stabilizing the moral life of a community. And one area of social life where ritual is most critical is in the disposition of a community's dead. among This is of particular concern for communities that have been displaced by conflict, where death rates are exceptionally high, and individuals face insecurity and a daunting scarcity of physical and legal resources that challenge the social order. The research supported by this award, which supports the training of a graduate student in scientific methods of rigorous data collection and analysis, asks how host societies deal with the high number of displaced migrants' deaths, and what role mortuary and funerary practices have for displaced communities. According to the UNHCR, the world is witnessing the highest level of forced migration on record, making this a particularly appropriate time to examine this question. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology, the project would improve scientific understanding by broadly disseminating its findings to organizations invested in discovering more effective means of delivering humanitarian aid. The project also broadens the participation of groups historically underrepresented in science, and builds capacity and scientific infrastructure through international cooperation among scientific research communities.Foroogh Farhang, under the supervision of Dr. Jessica Winegar of Northwestern University, explores the extent to which mortuary and funerary practices are impacted by war and displacement, and what resources, networks, rituals, and relationships are marshaled in the burial and propitiation of the dead. The research takes place in Lebanon, where after seven years of civil war in neighboring Syria, displaced Syrians are the first refugee community with no formal camps and cemeteries. They have faced the increasingly stark challenges of securing one of the scarce number of burial sites and, further, holding a proper funeral for their dead. A lack of burial spaces, in conjunction with increasing restrictions on crossing the Lebanon-Syria border, have mobilized networks of Syrian burials within the borders of Lebanon and on the route from Lebanon to Syria. Because this involves such a sizable population, and the issue is so significantly culturally, this site proves an ideal laboratory for understanding what variables aid and inhibit cultural integration. Through in-depth, long-term, and on-site ethnographic fieldwork on people's mobility within Lebanon and between Lebanon and Syria, data will be collected through interviews, participant observation, life histories, and media research among representative samples of refugees, governmental and non-governmental staff, and local leaders and community members. Data will be subjected to thematic and content analysis in order to identify, quantify, and evaluate relevant codes and themes. This study draws upon classic anthropological concerns with ritual and death to examine whether its theoretical assumptions are influenced by variables that are acutely apparent in contemporary contexts marked by war, migration, refugee integration, and transnational NGOs. This research will contribute to debates in anthropology and the social sciences more broadly about mortuary and funerary practices, governance, mobility, and humanitarianism.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.