Ethnicity is an important source of identity and community and as such needs to be understood in terms of the issues of legal pluralism in our own society. Ms. Evans-Pritchard's study applies the theoretical, methodological, and empirical insights that have been gained in this arena as well as the perspectives and concerns of folkloric research to a study of how the American legal system goes about maintaining what it considers to be ethnic traditions--the way arguments and definitions are formed and the way that the matter of ethnic values and traditions are made justifiable in a multi-ethnic society. Through her doctoral dissertation research under the direction of Drs. Jones and Georges, she plans to examine the conceptualizations of tradition that emerge from the judicial process and the relationship such conceptualizations have to ethnographic reality. Specifically, Ms. Evans-Pritchard focuses on the "Portal Case," a highly controversial lawsuit in which an Anglo craftsman challenged the Indian-only policy of Santa Fe's traditional Indian market. She compares the Portal Case with five recent court cases in various parts of the country which have involved similar issues of tradition and ethnic or cultural boundaries in order to operationalize the process by which the formal legal apparatus is currently handling the informal social force of tradition. A key element of her work is to establish the ethnographic context of three related New Mexico cases, including the Portal Case, involving Native American arts and crafts in order to illuminate the relationship between the codified conceptualizations of tradition expressed in the court proceedings and the imbedded views of tradition held by the affected Native American craftsmen. Through systematic, comparative analysis of diverse sources of data, this project holds substantial promise of advancing our understanding of how courts and litigants construct boundaries around cultural or ethnic groups.
