This dissertation is a multi-methodological investigation of a lifestyle community and its members' relationships to material culture, to each other, and to the wider institutional context of contemporary society. I conducted ethnographic research for three years as a participant-observer in the Indiana Four-Wheel Drive Association and its member clubs. I also conducted formal interviews and distributed a survey to members of the Association. Additionally, I analyzed relevant print media and internet discussion forums, and collected visual data in the form of photographs of my participants, their vehicles, and the events I attended.

The first empirical chapter analyzes my participants' relationship to material culture. I focus on the process of "building," which renders a mass-produced commodity an "identity anchor:" a cultural tool which is representative of—and constitutive of—an authentic self, one that can be wielded in the grounding of identity. The second empirical chapter analyzes my participants' relationships with each other. Because Jeepers' interactions with each other are built from selves that they view as authentic, trust and commitment take root quickly. Off-road clubs have become a primary source of social identity, friendship, and social support for my participants.

The third and fourth empirical chapters analyze the community's interactions with the wider social, political, and economic environment. I analyze the community as a fledgling social movement: as political and economic interests threaten to limit Jeepers' access to public and private lands, my participants work to increase membership and involvement in the formal associations that represent their lifestyle interests in the political arena. I also analyze the relationship between the producers and consumers of the Jeep brand. As "true believers," my participants provide images of authenticity that strengthen the brand's identity capital in the market. However, as market rationality undermines the brand's commitment to a design heritage that favored simple technology, ease of maintenance and modification, and rugged utilitarianism, the community's cultural boundaries increasingly reflect Jeepers' purposeful appropriation of symbolic goods, rather than the brand image marketed by DaimlerChrysler. In the concluding chapter, I discuss the implications of my findings for theories of identity and community in a consumer society.