Tomomi Naka
Background:
Since 1996 when I spent a year at the College of Wooster in Ohio, I have been interested in the beliefs and practices of Amish and Mennonites in the United States. After I finished my MA in American Studies at Doshisha University, Japan, I came here to Iowa to pursue my training in Anthropology. Broadly speaking, I am interested in the question of how daily economic pursuits are conceptualized in relation to religious principles. For example, I consider how religious beliefs may influence on church members’ choice of occupations and how church members’ occupational pursuits may affect their religious understandings. In my dissertation fieldwork, I have worked with conservative and liberal Mennonite church members in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Currently, I am writing about how their religious beliefs are intertwined with their occupational choices. More specifically, I discuss how Mennonite religious values become attached to church members’ economic pursuits when entrepreneurial activities come to be seen as either a form of ministry or as an inappropriate engagement with the secular world.
