Lutheran in Two Worlds: Remaking Mission from Madagascar to the Midwest United States
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LUTHERAN IN TWO WORLDS: REMAKING MISSION FROM MADAGASCAR TO THE MIDWEST UNITED STATES by Britt E. Halvorson A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology) in The University of Michigan 2008 Doctoral Committee: Professor Gillian Feeley-Harnik, Co-Chair Professor Thomas E. Fricke, Co-Chair Associate Professor Paul C. Johnson Associate Professor Erik A. Mueggler © Britt E. Halvorson All rights reserved 2008 DEDICATION In memory of my father, who felt torn between two worlds, and for my mother, who has long lived between worlds with grace ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation draws upon twenty-two continuous months of ethnographic fieldwork (December 2004-October 2006) in Minneapolis/St. Paul and the Upper Midwest United States; travel to southern Madagascar in November-December 2005; preliminary interviews in Minneapolis/St. Paul in June-July 2003; and a short follow-up visit in May 2008. The research could not have been conducted without the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Center for the Ethnography of Everyday Life at the University of Michigan. I also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Anthropology and the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies. I greatly appreciate the constructive and insightful guidance of my dissertation committee during my research and writing. Whatever merit exists in this work is due primarily to their teaching. Gillian Feeley-Harnik carefully read numerous chapter drafts and provided critical comments with great insight and kindness. Her mentorship has indelibly shaped my graduate education at all stages and to say that she has been inspiring would be an understatement. Tom Fricke has given me crucial encouragement for this project in every stage and led me to important sources on religious history in the Midwest United States. His insightful words of advice and support always seemed to come at just the right time. Erik Mueggler’s comments on several chapters emboldened me to be more precise about my contribution to the anthropology of religion, and his support has been crucial throughout my graduate education. Paul Johnson’s suggestions iii directed me to broader issues concerning religion and space, and his interest in the thesis has been extremely welcome. I owe special thanks to Emanuela Grama, Josh Reno, Xochitl Ruiz, and Cecilia Tomori for stimulating conversation and suggestions on earlier drafts of the material, as well as countless gestures of support and friendship along the way. I could write volumes about the latter, but I trust each person knows how grateful I continue to be for his or her friendship. Elana Buch, Sallie Han, Karen Hebert, and Erin Prus provided helpful advice to me as I began to muddle through the process of writing. Sallie in particular offered me her friendship and advice throughout my years of graduate school. The members of my dissertation writing group – Sonia Das, Henrike Florusbosch, Erika Hoffmann, Karen Smid, and Vanessa Will – supplied guidance and support at an early stage in the writing process. Laurie Marx, Judy Baughn, and Jana Bruce at the University of Michigan graciously answered my questions on countless occasions, and their knowledge and humor helped me through my graduate education. Molly Mullin of Albion College first introduced me to the world of anthropology and continues to be a kind mentor. I am grateful to the Semiotics Work Group at the University of Michigan and Richard Parmentier of Brandeis University for encouraging comments on a conference paper that became Chapter 6. Moreover, the participants of two conferences discussed the research that became part of Chapter 3 in a supportive and discerning manner: the Imagining Kin Conference at the University of Michigan in March 2005 and the panel, “The Stuff We Are Made Of: New Studies in Substance, Material, and Kinship,” at the 2005 American Anthropological Association Meetings. I thank my discussants Gillian Feeley-Harnik (Imagining Kin) as well as Joëlle Bahloul of Indiana University and Janet iv Carsten of the University of Edinburgh (AAA Meetings). Finally, I presented the material that became Chapters 5 and 6 at the 2006 Meeting of the Yale-Edinburgh Mission Studies Group. I am grateful to my discussant Elizabeth Koepping of the University of Edinburgh for her interest in the research. The greatest debt I owe is to the missionaries and Lutherans in Minneapolis/St. Paul who took me into their homes and lives, sharing with me and teaching me many things. I do not name them here because of my commitment to their privacy, but I hope they recognize that I will always remember their many acts of kindness. I give special thanks to the family with whom I traveled to Madagascar in November-December 2005. The man whom I call Lynn, the founder and director of the agency Malagasy Partnership in suburban Minneapolis, became a good friend and made it possible for me to travel to the April 2006 meeting of Technical Exchange for Christian Healthcare in Tennessee. In Minneapolis/St. Paul, I received instrumental support from the Luther Theological Seminary, which granted me permission to use its library. The staff of the ELCA Region 3/Luther Theological Seminary Archives in St. Paul, particularly the archivist Paul Daniels, gave me invaluable guidance as I made my way through the extensive collection of Madagascar mission materials. Paul and his staff welcomed me to the archives and treated me as a friend, which made my research there enjoyable and productive. I am grateful for the help of Joel Thoreson during my May 2006 visit to the ELCA Churchwide Archives in Chicago. I thank David Cuddohy for the great gift of his companionship, humor, love, and support with everything. He kept me up when writing sometimes got me down. It is impossible to mention all the friends who gave encouragement to me as I embarked on v the long road of conducting research and writing the dissertation. My brother Bengt asked me insightful questions about what I was writing and made me strive to be more reflective, subtle, and critical at the same time. My mother Berit continues to teach me the art of her resilience, empathy, and peaceful way of being with people. I wished many times throughout this project that I could ask my father questions about my research. He passed away just before I began graduate school, but he lives in this text in more influential ways than I could possibly explain. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION .................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................................... X LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................ xi GLOSSARY ..................................................................................................................... xii INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Moral Personhood, Exchange, and Materiality .............................................................. 6 Toward a Theology of “Accompanying”: Post-World War II American Lutheranism ....................................................................................................................... 12 Christianity and Nationalism in Madagascar ............................................................... 17 Studying “Post-Colonial” Missionaries and Christianities .......................................... 21 Methodology and Positionality .................................................................................... 31 A Few Notes on Archival Research, Sources, and Confidentiality ............................. 37 Structure of the Dissertation ........................................................................................ 41 CHAPTER 1: “MADAGASCAR IN MY HEART”: THE CONSTRUCTION OF DISPLACEMENT AS A LIVED THEOLOGY OF DWELLING .................................. 45 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 45 Evangelical Protestantism, Missionaries, and Theories of Place ................................. 50 Tracing the Connections of Norway, the Midwest U.S., and Madagascar .................. 62 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 94 CHAPTER 2: COMMEMORATING FAITH: SILVER BRACELETS AND SOCIAL HISTORIES OF SOUTHERN MADAGASCAR ............................................................ 99 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 99 Materiality, History, and Missionary Evangelism ..................................................... 104 Bondage, Freedom, and Faith: Bracelet-Wearing and Christian Social Difference .. 106 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 126 CHAPTER 3: INHABITING HOUSES “IN THE ROUND”: EMBODIED PRACTICES AND SPACES OF MEMORY IN MINNEAPOLIS AND SOUTHERN