Under the supervision of Dr. L. Keith Brown, graduate student researcher Rebecca C. Englert will investigate the relationship between religious practice, gender identity, nationalism, and state ideology in Chiapas, Mexico. Previous research has found that in families that convert from Catholicism to Protestantism, men are less "machismo" oriented, drink less, contribute more to domestic chores, and give their wives more autonomy. At the same time, the state continues to promote a machismo identity as a core male identity of true Mexicans. The researcher proposes to extend those earlier findings with a natural experiment, in which she will compare gender relations and notions of state and ethnic identity among Mestizo (non-Indian, Spanish descendant) neo-Pentecostal families with Mestizo Catholic families in the highlands of Chiapas. The researcher, who is fluent in Spanish, will employ a mixed-methods approach for a well-rounded and systematic investigation. She will begin with two months of participant observation field research in two church groups in San Cristobol de las Casas. She will then follow-up with in-depth interviews and cognitive analysis tasks (pile sort tests, triage tests) of a sample of 20 men and 20 women from Pentecostal and Catholic families. Finally, she will survey a sample of households from other communities, repeating the cognitive tasks, to see if the findings hold up more generally.
The research is significant because although Mestizos are the dominant group in Mexico, they are understudied in indigenous areas, such as Chiapas; thus the research will contribute to filling a gap in the ethnography of the region. It also important that as Protestantism spreads in formerly Catholic countries, we understand the political as well as social consequences. This will be one of the first studies to go beyond simple association and try to isolate the cognitive models that underlie the changed behavior. The research project also will contribute significantly to the education of a graduate student.
