This dissertation research project will allow a graduate student in cultural anthropology to study a religious cult community in Northern California. Using ethnographic methods of participant observation and structured interviewing, the student investigator will study how the religious community survives and adapts to its social environment through analysis of the tension between the social structure of the group and the expressive, affective relationships between individuals in the community. This research is important because so-called "new religions" are a significant part of modern American society. Increased understanding of how such religious communities survive and adapt to their socio-cultural environment can help the social groups they deal with and policy-makers interact with them more successfully.
