Doctoral Dissertation Research: Modernity, Materiality, and the Moral Economy

美国深度参与了世界各地促进西方负责任的现代性理想的项目。其中一些举措旨在改善发展中经济体人民的财务状况。然而，本土的道德经济往往被忽视了。如果不考虑人们已经如何理解负责任的经济决策，那么教育人们有关个人理财和小企业的努力将是不成功的。这项研究将考察家庭组织如何影响经济管理，以及西方亲属关系规范和个人经济责任理想如何与本土观点相互作用。这项研究的结果将加深对人们如何应对全球化现代性的理解，并可以帮助美国人在国内外设计更有效的发展计划。这项研究将由弗吉尼亚大学博士生卡罗琳·霍华特在苏珊·麦金农博士的指导下进行。Howarter选择汤加王国作为探讨这些问题的适当实地地点，因为互动的规模较小，使其更容易为社会科学研究所了解和接受。在汤加，当地的家庭结构(广泛的亲属网络)和对个人资源的适当分配(巨大的给予和分享行为)与外部引入的有利于核心家庭组织和家庭节俭的规范形成鲜明对比。有益的是，出于研究目的，汤加习俗目前正受到三个不同西方宗教组织的挑战，每个组织都有不同的侧重点。这为探索全球价值观和地方价值观之间的关系提供了一个自然的实验。卫理公会教徒、天主教徒和摩门教教徒都活跃在汤加，但他们在向教会成员宣传价值观的方式上存在很大差异，尽管他们使用汤加文化符号来这样做。研究人员将特别关注服装的象征性使用，以促进或表达对汤加传统理想的坚持，对这些想法的拒绝，或两者的创造性结合。研究人员将通过在教会和家庭活动中的观察、与告密者的广泛和重复的访谈以及参与者观察来收集数据。她将评估三个宗教社区的模式，以确定举报人如何识别和维护亲属关系，金融、食物和纺织品资源是如何管理的，以及作为身份的关键象征的新兴服装图案。这项研究的结果将阐明亲属关系和经济体系之间的联系，价值体系转变的复杂方式，以及它们是如何通过服装和身体装饰在视觉和物理上表现出来的。

The United States is deeply involved in projects around the world that promote Western ideals of responsible modernity. Some of these initiatives aim to strengthen the financial circumstances of people in developing economies. Frequently, however, the indigenous moral economies are overlooked. Without accounting for how people already understand responsible economic decision-making, efforts to educate people about personal finance and small business ventures, for example, will be unsuccessful. This research will examine how family organization impacts economic management and how Western norms of kinship and ideals of personal economic responsibility interact with indigenous views. The results of this study will improve understanding of how people respond to globalizing modernity and can help Americans design more effective development programs at home and abroad. The research will be conducted by University of Virginia doctoral student Carolyn Howarter, under the supervision of Dr. Susan Mckinnon. Howarter has chosen the Kingdom of Tonga as an appropriate field site in which to pursue these questions because the small scale of the interactions make them more visible and amenable to social science research. In Tonga, the local structure of family (broad networks of extended kin) and appropriate allocation of one's resources (immense acts of giving and sharing) contrast starkly with externally introduced norms that favor nuclear family organization and household thrift. Usefully, for research purposes, Tongan mores are currently being challenged by three different Western religious organizations, each of which has a different emphasis. This allows for a natural experiment to explore the relationship between global and local values. Methodists, Catholics, and Mormon are all active in Tonga but they vary significantly in how they promote values to church members, despite using Tongan cultural symbols to do so. The researcher will focus particularly on the symbolic use of dress to promote or express adherence to traditional Tongan ideals, a rejection of those ideas, or the creative combinations of the two. The researcher will collect data through observation at church and family events, extensive and repeated interviews with informants, and participant observation. She will assess patterns across the three religious communities to determine how informants recognize and maintain kin relationships, how financial, food, and textile resources are managed, and the emergent patterns of dress as a key symbol of identity. Results of this research will elucidate ties between kinship and economic systems, the complex ways in which value systems shift, and how they are visually and physically represented through clothing and bodily adornment.