This project supports the dissertation research of a cultural anthropology student from the University of Arizona. The project will study the cultural models local people use in dealing with the "troubles" in Northern Ireland between Catholics and Protestants. Using the methods of ethnography (in-depth interviews about life histories, participant observation) as well as a small survey of households, the student will investigate significant processes underlying ongoing interpretations of conflict among rural Protestants who live in the border area of County Armagh. The project will add to scholarship on interpretive aspects of group conflict and the "sectarian divide" between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. This research is important because the roots of such enduring conflict are invariably cultural, reproduced in the daily household experiences of people as they grow up and live their lives. Increased understanding of the specific content and forms of conflict reproduction can help planners and officials design programs to ameliorate the causes and reduce the strength of the mechanisms that maintain the conflict.
