Creating Culture in the Mythopoetic Men's Movement: An Ethnographic Study of Micro-Level Leadership and Socialization

Abstract

This paper analyzes the complex interactional processes of cultural interpretation and transmission engaged in within the context of the mythopoetic men's movement. Employing a micro-level but also cultural approach, the study examines the nuances of the process of meaning formation in this contemporary social movement. The ethnographic data shows that the men's movement group leader utilizes his authority and interactional power to develop the cultural identity of the group and to act as a socializing agent to its members. The analysis conceptualizes the leader as a kind of grassroots intellectual, the creative connection between the movement high intellectuals and the local members that constitute the mass of the movement. The leader works to develop a cadre of motivated movement participants who will work toward the goal of what they see as the counter-hegemonic achievement of new forms of masculinity. The detailed empirical examination of key interactional practices within the men's group context suggests new ways of understanding the dynamics through which local leaders work to interpret and transmit meaning on the micro level.