Soldiers of the Cross

Abstract

Field theory largely treats the cultural dimensions of social fields as an emergent property of their objective structures. In this article, I reconsider the role of culture in fields by studying how the logics that govern their emergence develop. As a study case, I examine the rise of the field of transnational humanitarianism by focusing on the early endeavors of the International Committee of the Red Cross (established 1863). I show that the specific nineteenth-century strand of Calvinist doctrine espoused by the early Red Cross activists motivated and shaped the genesis of the humanitarian field through its convictions about the nature of war, state and society relations, and charity. Activists drew on this doctrine to justify and advocate the establishment of a permanent, independent, and neutral humanitarian field. Based on this analysis, I argue that preexistent belief systems have a key role in differentiating new fields from existing social institutions.