First Advisor

Sharon Carstens

Term of Graduation

Spring 1990

Date of Publication

6-4-1990

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.) in Anthropology

Department

Anthropology

Language

English

Subjects

Pinesdale (Mont.) -- Social life and customs, Latter Day Saint women -- Social networks -- Montana -- Pinesdale, Polygamy -- Montana -- Pinesdale

DOI

10.15760/etd.5909

Physical Description

1 online resource (3, xvi, 199 pages)

Abstract

The present study is comprised of two parts: 1) an exploratory ethnography of a contemporary polygynous community governed by a strong patriarchal ideology in Pinesdale Montana with emphasis on social relationships, and 2) an analysis of the factors which have allowed women's groups to develop in Mormon fundamentalism. The ethnographic account of the community contextualizes the occurrence of female groups in Pinesdale. A model of the formation of female groups designed by Nancy Leis (1974) in her study of the West African Ijaw is used to provide a better understanding of how female groups are formed, and is applied to the Pinesdale community. This model suggests that the combination of features relevant to the occurrence of female groups are virilocality, patrilineality, polygyny, and economic independence. In spite of the kin-based nature of her African study, which limits its applicability to Western society, Leis suggests that her model "would predict the presence or absence of women's groups elsewhere," and encourages a cross-cultural study to prove her hypothesis. My thesis investigates the strengths and limitations of Leis' model within an ethnographic framework.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this dissertation or thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to pdxscholar@pdx.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/22966

Download

Share

COinS