SURVEILLING THE BODY AND THE SOUL: COMMITMENT/RETAIN MECHANISMS AND THE CONSTITUTION OF MORMON IDENTITY
SURVEILLING THE BODY AND THE SOUL: COMMITMENT/RETAIN MECHANISMS AND THE CONSTITUTION OF MORMON IDENTITY

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I hope to contribute to the study of one of the most rapidly growing American religious communities, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. By drawing on the Shepherd brothers’ interpretation of Mormon commitment mechanisms (1986), which they based on Kanter’s typology, the paper maps the various interpretations this typology offers with regard to the Mormon community and identity, including the members’ relation to the Church and to their Others. The discussion draws on propositions put forth by Giddens (1984), Hall (1996), Zizek (2000) and Foucault (1982), among other scholars, and is presented from the position of an author who is neither an American nor a Latter-day Saint.

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