This project involves the dissertation research of a cultural anthropologist from the University of Kentucky. The research problem is to understand how devotion to the cult of the Virgin Mary in Ireland is mediated by the gender of the individual, how these beliefs and practices affect the individual's health behavior, and how devotion and the religious beliefs affect opinions about Ireland's relations with the larger social and political environment, specifically the European Community. The methods used in this exploratory project include participant observation in a representative urban location, intensive interviews of healing narratives and ritual processes, several formal surveys of selected religious congregation members, and analysis of archival material on the religious organizations, ceremonies, and social activities. This project is important because it will provide information on how religious beliefs and activities impact on normally secular beliefs and practices, in this case about health and international politics. While the connections between these social variables are normally not in the public eye, the behavior of people in the world -- e.g., in the former Yugoslavia-- shows that the local group identities often rise to be of paramount importance. Case studies such as this will provide information to build a general social theory relating religion, gender, health and political behavior.
