Translating Service: An Ethnography of the Mennonite Central Committee

Abstract

This thesis examines the work of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Indonesia. In describing the inner workings of MCC it draws on a diverse range of historical and contemporary sources as well twenty-two months of ethnographic field research. The argument focuses on two themes. First, it explores the ways in which the practices of MCC are informed by the Anabaptist-Mennonite Christian religious tradition in North America. The influences of Mennonite vernacular theologies, identities and practices are far-reaching. Particularly important is the idea of service, which constitutes a distinctive Mennonite paradigm of development. Second, the thesis analyses processes of translation. MCC is an interstitial organisation located between different socio-cultural milieux. The factors propelling North American Mennonite donor participation in MCC must be translated into Indonesian contexts. Because translation involves both transference and transforma tion, MCC's work is dynamic and unpredictable. Therefore, while Mennonite religion is deeply influential, actual practice in Indonesia involves collaborations with a range of actors who come from different positions. In exploring the practices of translation in MCC the thesis pays attention to the place of individuals and relationships. In doing so, it highlights the agency of people in the midst of wider networks and processes.

The thesis interrogates the debate regarding the place of religion in the international development system. It argues that the historical expulsion of religion by mainstream development actors and also much of the interest in the current resurgence of religion are examples of an artificial bounding of religion as separate from a supposedly neutral secular domain. Rather than assuming a universal and essentialised definition of religion, the thesis is grounded in the particularities of how a specific religious tradition informs one particular actor. The influences of Mennonite religion on MCC are traced through time and in interconnections across cultural difference. The 'friction' of these cross-cultural encounters is profoundly generative. This necessitates close and detailed studies rather than simplistic generalisations. By examining the diverse ways in which Mennonite religion permeates throughout MCC's work in Indonesia the thesis challenges those who continue to question whether religion has a legitimate place in development activity.