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

密歇根大学博士生杰弗里·休斯（Geoffrey Hughes）在安德鲁·施约克（Andrew Shryock）博士的监督下，将在一个越来越多地由种族和宗教差异，官僚社会工程和物质限制（包括合适住房的可用性）定义的世界中进行当代建设和亲属关系维护的研究。休斯将在约旦进行他的研究，那里的社会工程项目试图将约旦家庭从遥远的司法，经济和政治机构转变为以配偶及其子女为中心的更有限和孤立的单位。 休斯假设，旨在使约旦家庭“现代化”的项目往往被他们打算打破和重组的亲属网络所吸收。这将使社会科学研究的根本问题更加明显。休斯将在位于马达巴市和首都安曼之间的阿雷什村研究婚姻习俗的多样性及其周围的关系。他将采用一系列社会科学研究方法收集数据，包括档案研究，半结构化访谈和参与者观察，在“Areesh”的父系定居点和寻求改变约旦婚姻的城市机构。 通过研究亲属关系和官僚制度的纠缠，并试图通过一种非常重要的物质和符号学方法来调和这些纯粹的不同领域，这项研究将有助于不断增长的社会科学文献，这些文献试图理解亲属关系在现代世界中令人惊讶的持续重要性。资助这项研究也支持研究生的教育。

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.