Two teams of researchers conducted participant-observation studies in Middletown in the past fifty years. The first study was made by Robert and Helen Merrill Lynd in 1929 and subsequently, they re-evaluated their work in the 1930’s. The early sixties brought a third to fruition. Whitney Gordon concentrated on Temple Emanu’El, the Jewish Reform synagogue in Middletown. Gordon, following the organizational structure used by the Lynd’s, attempted to study the temple using the concept of stress as his frame of reference.As a revisit, my research attempts to study and understand the ritualand belief patterns within the framework of Temple Emanu’El Temple, a cultural system. Described are the temporal and spatial dimensions which define the tangible boundaries in which the ongoing ritual processes occur. As demonstrated here, a cultural system regulates as well as it is regulated by its membership, the human element necessary for existence.Due to the unique history of Middletown, this revisit study was enhanced. It succeeded three previous studies, the last of which took place in the same cultural system. The question of ethics which is generally faced by a social scientist as well as his subjects received significant attention in this research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/180025 |
| Date | January 1970 |
| Creators | Finnegan, Dorothy E. |
| Contributors | Scruton, David L. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | iii, 113 leaves : ill. 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
| Coverage | n-us--- |
Page generated in 0.0017 seconds