This dissertation is an in-depth study of a Lao community in Columbus, Ohio. Based on extended ethnographic fieldwork within the city’s Buddhist temples and on the analysis of threee life history narratives, I explore how identity is negotiated and managed in the context of long term refugee resettlement and a changing sociopolitical climate. Lao maintain a cultural identity in large part through the religious institutions they established. I focus on those institutions and on the three related Buddhist concepts of dana (giving or generosity), boun (merit) and kamma (action). These offer motivation for exchange and for the growth and operation of community institutions. They also provide a way for individuals to make meaning and to find identity in the face of discontinuity. In combination with this long term approach, I also analyze identity as emergent from local linguistic interaction. I conclude that in combination, the two approaches are complementary and valuable in understanding how refugees cope with change over time.
