Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Brokering Marriages: War, Displacement, and the Production of Futures among Jaffna Tamils

博士论文改进补助金：婚姻中介：贾夫纳泰米尔人的战争、流离失所和未来的生产

• 批准号: 0613163
• 负责人: Veena Das
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Johns Hopkins University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-08-01 至 2007-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0613163&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Brokering

Graduate student Sidharthan Maunaguru, supervised by Dr. Veena Das, will undertake research on the growth of marriage brokers among Christian and Hindu Tamils on the Jaffna Peninsula of Sri Lanka, as an effect of thirty years of chronic civil conflict and violence. Families are employing marriage brokers to find Jaffna wives for sons who have migrated out of Sri Lanka to escape the violence. Based on preliminary research, Maunaguru hypothesizes that families are employing the marriage brokers for two primary reasons: to assure the short term safety of their children and to provide for the continuity of inheritance and social status when the situation becomes safer and children can return. Marriages of this type have become so common that the government and foreign embassies have set up new. Thus the contemporary Jaffna marriage broker not only has to contend with traditional concerns of caste, kinship, and status, but also must know the ins and outs of bureaucratic processes and cultures, and sometimes actively assists with marriage ceremonies. The research plan calls for: (1) two months of archival work to track changes in Sri Lanka's marriage policies since independence, as well as the changing immigration and marriage policies of the places to which Jaffna Tamils have migrated; (2) four months of survey work in Jaffna, collecting information on family, genealogies, marriage patterns, and marriage activities; (3) two months of survey to map marriage broker locations; and (4) four months doing participant observation in a marriage broker's office.The research is important as a contribution to the growing social science literature on the changing role of government in citizens' everyday lives; the new roles played by kinship and marriage in the contemporary world; and the role of cultural and social brokers in hierarchical relations (with the state) and horizontal relations (bridging spatial distances). It also will help social scientists understand how people cope with the subtle effects of long-term displacement and civil strife, a situation only too common throughout the world.

由Veena Das博士指导的研究生Sidharthan Maunaguru将对斯里兰卡的贾夫纳半岛进行基督教和印度教泰米尔人之间的婚姻经纪人的成长研究，以此对三十年的长期民间冲突和暴力的影响。家庭正在雇用婚姻经纪人来寻找从斯里兰卡迁移出来以逃避暴力的儿子的贾夫纳妻子。基于初步研究，Maunaguru假设家庭正在雇用婚姻经纪人的原因有两个主要原因：确保其子女的短期安全，并在情况变得更安全时提供遗产和社会地位的连续性，并且孩子可以返回。这种类型的婚姻已经变得如此普遍，政府和外国大使馆已经建立了新的。因此，当代的贾夫纳婚姻经纪人不仅必须应对种姓，亲属关系和地位的传统关注，而且还必须了解官僚程序和文化的来龙去脉，有时会积极地协助结婚仪式。该研究计划要求：（1）自独立以来的两个月档案工作，以跟踪斯里兰卡婚姻政策的变化，以及贾夫纳·泰米尔人迁移的地点的移民和婚姻政策的变化； （2）在贾夫纳（Jaffna）进行四个月的调查工作，收集有关家庭，家谱，婚姻模式和婚姻活动的信息； （3）两个月的调查以绘制婚姻经纪人地点； （4）四个月在婚姻经纪人办公室进行参与者的观察。这项研究对不断增长的社会科学文献的贡献至关重要。亲属关系和婚姻在当代世界中扮演的新角色；文化和社会经纪人在等级关系（与国家）和横向关系（桥接空间距离）中的作用。它还将帮助社会科学家了解人们如何应对长期流离失所和民间冲突的微妙影响，这种情况只有在世界范围内太普遍。