Item Detail
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21893
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0
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0
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English
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Processes of Cultural Reproduction in Material Culture : A Study of Latter-day Saint Home Decor
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Salt Lake City, UT
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The University of Utah
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241
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Ph.D. diss.
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"Material culture is an entry point to studying cultural processes and meaning-making. This study observes and analyzes objects of home decor in everyday life to determine how meanings and identities are created and sustained within a subculture. Based on interviews with women who have past or present association with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and observations of their homes, this research is an empirical study designed to test and enrich theories of cultural reproduction. Observation and analysis of the material world of the home demonstrates the influence of social knowledge on individual performances and the ways in which individuals appropriate social meanings for their own purposes. The material culture of the home provides tangible, physical evidence of cultural values and identities. The study is premised on examining the tension between the social and the self as represented in the struggle for meaning between social determinism and individual agency. A three-tiered analysis was used to interpret observations and interviews with 23 women who participated in the study: the first analysis considered the objects themselves; the second analysis focused on selection processes as described by study participants; the third analysis examined cultural influences and processes that contribute to cultural reproduction in home decor. Using a process of interpretive inquiry, field data were placed in dialogue with existing cultural theories to support interpretive claims about the ways in which meaning and value is conferred on objects of home de?cor." [Author's abstract]