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

人类学早已证实，仪式在稳定社会道德生活中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处理一个社区的死者。这对因冲突而流离失所的社区尤其令人关切，那里的死亡率特别高，个人面临不安全状况，物质和法律资源严重匮乏，对社会秩序构成挑战。该奖项支持对一名研究生进行严格数据收集和分析的科学方法培训，该研究询问收容社会如何处理大量流离失所移民的死亡，以及停尸房和丧葬做法对流离失所社区有什么作用。据难民专员办事处称，全世界正目睹有记录以来最高水平的被迫移徙，因此现在是审查这一问题的特别适当时机。除了为人类学研究生的培训提供资金外，该项目还将通过向投资于发现更有效的人道主义援助手段的组织广泛传播其研究结果来增进科学理解。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，并通过科研团体之间的国际合作建设能力和科学基础设施。在西北大学的Jessica Winegar博士的指导下，Foroogh Farhang探索了战争和流离失所对殡葬和丧葬习俗的影响程度，以及在死者的埋葬和赎罪中汇集了哪些资源、网络、仪式和关系。这项研究是在黎巴嫩进行的，在邻国叙利亚经历了七年的内战之后，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，要确保为数不多的墓地之一，还要为他们的死者举行一场像样的葬礼。由于缺乏埋葬空间，再加上对穿越黎巴嫩-叙利亚边界的限制越来越多，在黎巴嫩境内和从黎巴嫩到叙利亚的路线上调动了叙利亚埋葬网络。因为这涉及到如此庞大的人口，而且这个问题在文化上如此重要，这个网站被证明是一个理想的实验室，可以了解哪些变量有助于和抑制文化融合。通过对黎巴嫩境内以及黎巴嫩与叙利亚之间的人口流动进行深入、长期和现场的民族志实地调查，将通过访谈、参与者观察、生活史和媒体研究等方式收集数据，调查对象包括难民、政府和非政府工作人员、当地领导人和社区成员等代表性样本。将对数据进行专题和内容分析，以确定、量化和评估相关代码和主题。本研究借鉴了经典人类学对仪式和死亡的关注，以检验其理论假设是否受到以战争、移民、难民融合和跨国非政府组织为标志的当代背景中非常明显的变量的影响。这项研究将有助于人类学和社会科学更广泛地讨论殡葬和丧葬实践、治理、流动性和人道主义。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。

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.