Doctoral Dissertation Research: Shared Consciousness and Collective Action

博士论文研究：共同意识与集体行动

• 批准号: 1637010
• 负责人: Aaron McCright
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-06-15 至 2017-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1637010&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Shared; Consciousness

Shared Consciousness and Collective ActionThis dissertation investigates the origins and influence of Africans' collective consciousness (or shared identity and way of thinking) in the years prior to the 1791-1804 Haitian Revolution, the most successful slave uprising of the modern era. This research proposes to examine the relationship between collective consciousness and important forms of resistance between the years 1750 and 1791. The project addresses the following questions. What was the role of Africa-inspired rituals in shaping collective consciousness? How did this collective consciousness influence patterns of escape from enslavement? How and why did patterns of escape from enslavement change over time and space in the few decades before the Haitian Revolution?Preliminary results suggest the following hypotheses. First, Africa-inspired ritual events were gathering spaces for rebels to raise oppositional consciousness, campaign for freedom, and mobilize recruits. Second, runaways' social ties, knowledge of specific destinations, self-assertive behaviors, and longer durations of escape seem to be reasonable indicators of an oppositional consciousness. Third, runaways strategically responded to structural and environmental windows of opportunity (such as natural disasters, changes in colonial law, and geographic proximity to isolated zones). To test these hypotheses, the Co-PI will perform (a) qualitative and quantitative content analysis of over 11,000 digitally archived Haitian runaway slave advertisements; (b) a systematic review of primary documents held in several key archives in the Americas and Europe; (c) a systematic review of critical secondary sources published during and since the period of study; and (c) qualitative field research in present-day Haiti. The findings on antecedents to the Haitian Revolution will improve our understanding of the role of shared consciousness, social ties and networks, and human cultural expressions in collective action processes.

共同的意识和集体行动这一论文调查了1791 - 1804年海地革命之前的几年，非洲人集体意识（或共同的身份和思维方式）的起源和影响，这是现代时代最成功的奴隶起义。这项研究建议研究1750年至1791年之间集体意识与重要形式的抵抗形式之间的关系。该项目解决了以下问题。非洲启发的仪式在塑造集体意识中的作用是什么？这种集体意识如何影响逃脱奴役的模式？在海地革命之前的几十年中，从奴役中逃脱的方式以及为什么逃避奴役的模式？初步结果表明了以下假设。首先，非洲启发的仪式事件正在为叛乱分子聚集空间，以提高对立意识，自由运动和动员新兵。其次，逃亡者的社会关系，对特定目的地的知识，自我保证行为以及较长的逃生持续时间似乎是反对意识的合理指标。第三，Runaways从战略上响应了机会的结构和环境窗口（例如自然灾害，殖民法的变化以及与孤立区域的地理位置）。为了检验这些假设，Co-Pi将对（a）超过11,000个数字归档的海地失控的奴隶广告进行（a）定性和定量内容分析； （b）对美洲和欧洲几个关键档案中的主要文件进行的系统审查； （c）对研究期间和自研究期间发表的关键次要来源进行系统的综述； （c）当今海地的定性现场研究。关于海地革命的先决条件的发现将改善我们对共同意识，社会关系和网络以及人类文化表达在集体行动过程中的作用的理解。