Item Detail
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12464
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2
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0
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English
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Mormonism in France : A Study of Cultural Exchange and Institutional Adaptation
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Washington State University
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Ph.D. diss.
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"American Mormonism's movement into France provides a valuable setting for close study of cultural exchange because the values and ideologies involved in the transmission of religious culture are more observable and measurable than many other manifestations of human culture. Two fundamental questions guide my investigation: Why is Mormonism, an indigenous American religion, succeeding upon French soil despite formidable cultural barriers? And, what is the impact of this foreign religion upon the lives and the values of French citizens once they are converted? A major characteristic of the highly diverse body of French LDS recruits (68% native-born French, 32% non-natives) is a significant attachment to family ideals, traditional moral values, and religious practices, all of which are in a period of crisis in contemporary France. Mormonism succeeds by appealing to this basic core of ideas, beliefs, and values. The genius of Mormonism's adaptability lies in its encouragement of a unique blend of institutional and individual responsibility for shaping community growth around this core. Although Mormonism emphasizes behavioral conformity among its members, its lack of institutional insistence upon ideological conformity, and its willingness to share decision-making power through a lay clergy, encourage a multi-directional cultural exchange: members absorb institutionally encouraged behaviors and ideas at the same time that the institution absorbs the cultural diversity of its French recruits. Cultural exchange in the French Mormon case involves voluntary participation in processes of behavioral and ideological adaptation that all participants perceive to be in their own interests. It occurs in a setting offering large numbers of alternative choices and freedom to make those choices. LDS success in this setting derives from the institution's ability to offer recruits certain desirable "cultural goods" in exchange for personal commitment and involvement in the community. In turn, community membership encourages members to participate in maintaining, shaping, and renewing the desirability of these "goods" over time, facilitating the entertwining of their personal identities with the larger identity of the institution." [Author's abstract]