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As untrained social agents endeavor to create new, grassroots nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), they quickly discover that in order for their nascent organizations to gain official status, and thus enjoy the benefits that come with it, they must first do the compliance necessary to register with the government agency or agencies responsible for regulating and monitoring their practices. Although it may not be regarded as such, the official registration process is more than just a means to an end; it has the power to produce new subjectivities that organize and constrain the social experience of NGO activism. As discontented citizens attempt to realize their unique visions of social justice by entering the field of NGO‐based social activism, they “fall into” a habitus that disposes them to certain patterns of thought and behavior while rendering other patterns undesirable. This article uses ethnographic accounts of the evolution of a local development NGO founded and administered by Rastafari elders in Trinidad, West Indies, to illustrate how this habitus, a product of the iterative experiences surrounding the establishment and maintenance of an official NGO, structures the way grassroots social activists, with little or no prior administrative experience, understand, and respond to the problems and situations they encounter as they attempt to create their own NGOs.

R e s u m e nEn este artículo exploro el proceso por el cual organizaciones no gubernamentales basadas en la fe (FBOs) se incorporan, reproducen, y cuestionan construcciones hegemónicas de desarollo en su intento de llevar los frutos del desarollo a sus comunidades locales. Centro mi análisis en la Organización Nacional Rastafari (NRO) de Trinidad y Tobago-una pequeña FBO de base cuyos dirigentes diseñaron e implementaron un programa de desarollo para sus comunidad local que, a pesar de ser pensado de acuerdo a los principios contenidos en el "evangelio del desarrollo" de Haile Selassie, tiene más en común con el programa nacional de desarollo neoliberal promovido por el gobierno de Trinidad que con los programas de desarollo típicos de otras organizaciones Rastafari en la region Caribe. El NRO no mantuvo el sentido de todos los temas, lógicas o prácticas recomendadas en dicho "evangelio del desarollo". Por el contrario, su conexión con el nivel hegemónico les llevó a adoptar aspectos en circulación en aquel momento que resonaban con los discursos oficiales del estado de desarollo participativo neoliberal. [Caribe, desarrollo, política, religión, Trinidad y Tobago] A b s t r a c tThis article explores the process by which faith-based nongovernmental organizations (FBOs) incorporate, reproduce, and contest hegemonic constructions of development as they attempt to bring the fruits of development to their local communities. The analysis focuses on the National Rastafari Organization (NRO) of Trinidad and Tobago-a small, grassroots FBO, whose leaders designed and implemented a localThe Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 126-147. ISSN 1935-4932, online ISSN 1935-4940. C 126J o u r n a l o f L a t i n A m e r i c a n a n d C a r i b b e a n A n t h r o p o l o g y

This study examined the effects of Sharing the Environment (STE), a situated professional development pilot program that uses an inquiry-based approach to teaching Environmental Education (EE) to elementary students in the US and Trinidad. Inquiry is difficult to incorporate in both cultures because proficient performance on national tests is a priority. As a result, teachers must cover the curriculum via transmission of knowledge rather than its discovery. In order to capture an early understanding of the effects of this program on its participants, focus groups and ethnographic interviews were conducted with ten participating teachers from both countries. Using a grounded theory approach on the data sets, three themes emerged that describe conditions required for replicating this program: structural, cross-curricular, and cultural disconnections, technological needs, and environmental and sociocultural knowledge gains. The findings indicate that cultural factors had a significant impact on how Trinidadian and American teachers and administrators perceived, valued, and reacted to the concrete experiences they had in the course of their participation in the STE situated professional development program.

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