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MARIAL CENTER COLLOQUIUM John Hawkins (Professor of Anthropology, Brigham Young University) Getting Real in Military and Mormon Families: Metaphor and Ritual in the Affirmation of Reality in Family Life Wednesday, March 8, 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m
Drawing on the work of such social theorists as Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, and James Frazier, John Hawkins will open for discussion the proposition that ritual (preferably sacred but also performatively secular) constitutes a -- if not the -- major mechanism for defining the family and affirming its reality. Through a comparison of ritual-based Mormon family practice with ritual-disrupted military family practice, he will argue that through ritual-based repetition and metaphor-based evaluation, family becomes both known to exist and valued. First, ritual places family in the context of an ultimate universe, giving it meaning. By repetitious practice, ritual (or, in the fully secularized case, ceremonial) behavior reconstitutes the family. Second, metaphor provides the evaluative basis for decision-making regarding prospective and completed action. Through metaphor, value and direction are assessed. Thus, daily action and ultimate being continuously embrace over the altar of metaphor, making meaning accessible as value. Dr. Hawkins explores ethnographically the interaction between culture, social structure, and individual decision-making. His major fieldwork and writing explore ethnicity and family in Guatemala. Recently, Dr. Hawkins has been analyzing the U.S. Army and the families of soldiers as an example of conflictive interaction between institutions and cultural systems. He has published his recent research in a book titled Army of Hope Army of Alienation: Culture and Contradiction in the American Army Communities of Cold War Germany. Currently, Dr. Hawkins and Dr. Walter Adams of the Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies conduct fieldwork, lead a summer field school, and are building a native field-studies center in the communities of Nahuala and Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, Department of Solola, Guatemala.
DIRECTIONS TO THE MARIAL CENTER The MARIAL Center is located on the 4th floor of the main building of Emory's Briarcliff Campus, 1256 Briarcliff Road. There is ample parking close to the building. Alternatively, you may take the Emory shuttle (Route A). The Emory shuttle (Route A) provides transportation from the main campus to the MARIAL Center every 20 minutes (a 5-10 minute ride). For the shortest travel time, board the shuttle in front of the B. Jones Center or at the corner of Dowman and Fishburne (across from Glenn Memorial) at approximately 4, 24, and 44 minutes after each hour. A complete schedule and the route map are available on the web at http://www.epcs.emory.edu/AltTransp/route-a.htm Please tell the receptionist at the front window
that you are here for the
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