Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) 1-1-2011 Making Moral Worlds: Individual and Social Processes of Meaning-Making in a Somali Diaspora Anna Jacobsen Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd Recommended Citation Jacobsen, Anna, "Making Moral Worlds: Individual and Social Processes of Meaning-Making in a Somali Diaspora" (2011). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 592. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/592 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Anthropology Dissertation Examination Committee: John R. Bowen, chair Geoff Childs Carolyn Lesorogol Rebecca Lester Shanti Parikh Timothy Parsons Carolyn Sargent Making Moral Worlds: Individual and Social Processes of Meaning Making in a Somali Diaspora by Anna Lisa Jacobsen A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2011 Saint Louis, Missouri Abstract: I argue that most Somalis living in exile in the Eastleigh neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya are deeply concerned with morality both as individually performed and proven, and as socially defined, authorized and constructed. In this dissertation, I explore various aspects of Somali morality as it is constructed, debated, and reinforced by individual women living in Eastleigh.