Against culture: Contemporary Pentecostalism in Native American villages along Alaska's Southeast coast.
Item
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Title
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Against culture: Contemporary Pentecostalism in Native American villages along Alaska's Southeast coast.
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Identifier
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AAI9830700
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identifier
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9830700
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Creator
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Dombrowski, Kirk.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Gerald M. Sider
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Date
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1998
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Anthropology, Cultural | Religion, General
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Abstract
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Few anthropologists interested in the global spread of Pentecostal Churches have tried to understand this process in the context of equally global class formative processes. This dissertation examines the popularity of several small churches--some independent, others associate with well-known, national, missionary organizations--in primarily Native villages in Alaska's Southeast panhandle. Here Native church members have taken on a public role in denouncing both the ravages of recent development (most often at the hands of village ANCSA corporations) as well as the Native culture movement that has grown up along side this development.;Political activism based on church membership poses a challenge to traditional theories of class and classes at the periphery. Elements of a this more traditional class analysis--the ebb and flow of historical capital penetrations, recent changes in the political status of Alaska Natives (including Congress' creation of "Native corporations" in the early 1970's), and the ever-shifting political struggle for a subsistence-livelihood--are examined for their regional structural dynamics. Pentecostal church practice is then discussed in this context. From this it becomes clear that these practices not only challenge the results of these dynamics, but more importantly, they challenge the 'structural basis' of the processes themselves.;Dissertation contents include ethnographic descriptions of: village-level political economy of the late-1980's and early 90's, the experience of wage-labor work in commercial timber production, conflicts with "the law" in the person of State and Federal Fish and Game enforcement officials, and finally descriptions of church practice and church-based salvation testimonies. These elements form the backdrop for a discussion of class that seeks to root anthropological contributions to the understanding of class forming processes in contemporary field work. A discussion of the epistemological basis for doing post-structural ethnography is included as an "Afterword.".
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
