John Whitton and Dr. Jacob Hickman, Department of Anthropology

Initially, the research proposed consisted of two sections constituting the last two semesters of my undergraduate education. The first included collecting published sources regarding millenarianism and messianism within the larger global context and organizing them into a database. The second included systematically cataloging each source in the database for future analysis, not only for Dr. Hickman’s personal use but also for the larger academic and professional community. These circles will encompass the study of nationalism, religion, globalization, and in Dr. Hickman’s specific use, the Hmong diaspora and generational views of morality.

Through bi-weekly meetings we discovered that the original scope of the project that we were to undertake was much larger than we had anticipated and thus our time-table was outdated. We adapted, expanding our search terms from millennarianism, to messianism, revitalization, cargo cults, and a few more variations, probing the depth of our subject. In response to the influx of data, Dr. Hickman hired four additional research assistants to help in the cataloging and gathering of sources, and I was set over them to bring them up to speed regarding the goals, scope and progress that we had made thus far. By the end of March we had an EndNote database with 1100 sources with full bibliographical information and physical copies of the books, papers, dissertations and presentations on the FHSS server.

We then systematically applied a group of questions to categorize each sources according to certain variables such as: discipline, geography, religion, questions regarding prophetic or charismatic leadership, utopianism, political resistance theory, type of data (historical, ethnographic), and lastly the rating of relevance to the larger scope of the project and accuracy to research question. I continued this process into the summer after my graduation.

During this research, we found articles linking the messianistic Third Reich of Hitler’s Germany to Cargo cults in the islands of Melanesia, showing the enormous breadth of the topic at hand. I was specifically interested in studying the prophetic Mahdi, a Muslim leader that has been used in history and prophesized to bring in the Millennium. The search for a messiah and savior to herald in prosperity has been used by Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists for political, social and purely religious reasons, and in many contexts, including to inspire a people to throw off colonial rule, much of which was centered in the Indian and African geologies and cultures. The 80 year coverage of this project’s
published research has created a database with the expanse of sources brought together and sorted, which will assist in any research on this topic.

The project was impaired from a lack of clear boundaries and exploded into a larger timetable, scope and involvement, but working with Dr. Hickman was one of the most valuable experiences that I had at Brigham Young University. I learned the intricate variability of the research process and the discovery and satisfaction that can take place upon completing set goals and meeting the expectations of colleagues. Most importantly, I have gained experience to continue on to my masters degree this coming fall, in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics. I hope to have access to this database for my further education. I will also be able to apply my experience of mentored research to approach professors at my university, and apply the skills I learned from Dr. Hickman.