Managing the Honor and Stigma of Disjunctive Identities

该奖项支持的研究调查了具有高度分离身份的社会群体。析取身份是两种或更多共享的身份形式，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，以及局外人对这些管理努力的反应。这类群体往往希望将他们排名较高的身份作为一个可见的公众形象来展示，但他们可能同时希望保留他们另一个不那么受尊重的身份的传统和价值观。虽然大量的研究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，但几乎没有在有意识和故意地带有一个身份被认为是高身份而另一个身份被认为低得多的整个群体中进行过研究。这项研究将帮助政策制定者、实践者和社会科学家了解社会群体是如何与分离的身份共存和管理的，并为这些群体如何促进自己的利益提供模型。这项研究将在南印度的马杜赖进行，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人种学田野调查。她选择把重点放在印度教纳达尔人的案例上，因为他们在历史上一直是种姓制度中级别最低的群体之一，但今天也构成了该地区最富有的群体之一，以建造医院和学校等公共慈善事业而闻名。研究人员将把重点放在纳达尔社区组织的作用上，一个多世纪以来，这些组织一直积极试图控制纳达尔向更广泛的公众展示的行为和价值观的类型，以及这些组织内部发生的关于价值观和身份的辩论。研究人员将通过混合的人种学方法收集数据，包括参与者观察、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，如何影响这一进程。结果可能会为美国的环境提供模式，并可能建议新的方法来帮助未被充分代表的学生管理不同的身份，从而提高学术和社会成就。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.