Performing conversion among the Dine Oodlani (Navajo believers)
by Marshall, Kimberly Jenkins, Ph.D., INDIANA UNIVERSITY, 2011, 470 pages; 3488097

Abstract:

In this dissertation, I examine the ways that identity is re-imagined in the contemporary Native American context, using data I gathered from 18 months of ethnographic work with members of an Indigenous Pentecostal movement among Navajos (known in Navajo as Oodlání). Fundamentalist Christian in theology, charismatic in worship style, Navajo led, and independent in affiliation, the Oodlání movement can now, by some estimates, claim the undivided allegiance of up to ten percent of population living in Navajoland. I focus this dissertation on the tent revival as the performative locus of Oodlání identity and action. Specifically, I examine the ways in which the idea of 'conversion' is performed by Diné Oodlání at revivals, both in the sense of evangelical project (using the tent to spread their faith to other Navajos) and in the sense of identity project (how they construct themselves as "converted" and perform a converted identity). Music making, specifically, provides a particularly useful lens through which to view the social effects of revivals. In researching this movement, I conducted extensive fieldwork, participating in three summer revival seasons, between 2006 and 2008. My research centered on a particular Navajo-speaking, Navajo-led Oodlání church located in Northwestern New Mexico and the church services, activities and revivals in which this community engaged. Throughout this dissertation, I argue that attending to the social "work" being accomplished through the performative space of the tent revival emphasizes a project of cultural discontinuity, articulated as "conversion" despite the local adaptations and relevance of the movement. I contend that it is only through an adequately flexible concept I call "points of resonance" that we can conceptualize this balance between continuity and discontinuity in ways that will ring true for Navajos who see themselves as both fully Navajo and fully Christian.

 
AdvisersRuth M. Stone; Anya P. Royce
SchoolINDIANA UNIVERSITY
SourceDAI/A 73-04, p. , Jan 2012
Source TypeDissertation
SubjectsReligion; Cultural anthropology; Music; Native American studies
Publication Number3488097
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