Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Studying childhood

Reading about childhood in varied cultures has been a rich experience as I prepare to visit Thailand and India to study childhood in these settings more closely.  I find myself clarifying the scope of study.    Currently I'm most fascinated about how children develop their social and ecological competency, how they acquire their understanding of the culture around them, the impacts of parenting and schooling, children's roles in the family and community dynamics and their development of gender identities and agency.   

As we travel in both Thailand and India, we are also likely to be able to view the impacts of globalization and possibly the disruptions to long held cultural patterns that globalization has manifested. 

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Middle Way - Tibet & China

There will be many aspects of this trip that will astonish, delight and challenge us as we travel.  One stop and event on the itinerary that I am particularly grateful to witness is the 50th anniversary of the "Tibetan Uprising Day" - March 10, 2009.  This is the anniversary of China's invasion of Tibet and the exodus of the young Dalai Lama and his followers.  

This anniversary has marked a re-examination in the exiled Tibetan community.  The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader for the Tibetan people in exile, has long advocated a 'middle way' - seeking autonomy for the territory without independence - but he has grown frustrated in recent weeks over fruitless talks with China and the length of this exile.  He has called a weeklong retreat in Dharamsala, the northern India hill town that is the base of Tibet's self-proclaimed government in exile, so that his followers can re-evaluate this Nobel Peace prize-winning 'middle way.'

The Dalai Lama will not attend the meetings himself, but that the meetings are occurring at all is momentous, as any deviation from that policy would almost certainly scuttle the already tenuous relations with Beijing, which has long accused the Dalai Lama of fomenting an independence movement in Tibet. 

Five years ago, in a statement to the US Senate, the Dalai Lama said, "My hope is that this year may see a significant breakthrough in our relations with the Chinese government.  As in 1954, so also today, I am determined to leave no stone unturned for seeking a mutually beneficial solution that will address both Chinese concerns as well as achieve for the Tibetan people a life in freedom, peace and dignity.  Despite the decades of separation, the Tibetan people continue to place tremendous trust and hope in me."  

It seems that now the Dalai Lama himself has lost some of that hope.  The re-evaluation of the 'middle way' would be a radical turn in Tibetan/Chinese relationships.  We shall see what 2009 brings.

M

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Learning to negotiate rural Thailand

James and I have been facilitating a seminar with the students we will be traveling with in Thailand and India.  Last week we had a speaker, Judy Pine, an anthropologist who has spent significant time living in rural northern Thailand, near where we will spend the bulk of our time.  A few things we learned.

First, it is rude to sit with your legs crossed so that your foot points toward another person.  The bottom of your foot is considered unclean so you don't want to point it toward someone.

Second, when speaking to someone of higher status than you (an elder, a person of greater rank) the top of your head should be below the top of his or her head.  The top of the head is the most sacred part of the body.  This means that if you are tall, you might spend quite a bit of your time bent low.

We also learned how to bath at the public well, since most of the time we will not be in areas with indoor plumbing.  It's a complicated procedure involving tubular sarong like garments.  You put one on and get wet and soap up (reaching inside the sarong to wash).  After rinsing, you drop another dry sarong over the top of the wet one, and let the wet one drop to the ground.  I just hope I can negotiate this procedure without an embarrassing incident!

Finally, we are learning a children's song (about an elephant).  She says it's kind of like "Row, Row Your Boat."  Everyone knows it, and she says they will be delighted if we can sing it.  A good entree to make conversation.

Marie

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tentative Intinerary

Ted and Peg Hope, who direct the Institute for Village Studies and will also be traveling with us on this journey, have been leading trips like this one for the last 20 years and they have taken the lead in developing an itinerary that will give us the opportunity to spend time in some rural villages in both Thailand and India - away from the sophisticated and Westernized cities of Bangkok or Kolkata.  At these sites we'll be working with children and in schools and also be working on some micro-hydro projects.  Here's the tentative dates and places we will go.  More details later.

January 20 - Group leaves Seattle (I will actually be leaving on January 27th)
January 22 - Arrive Bangkok
January 25 - Travel to Phra Tat, a small village on the edge of the Erawan National Forest to the west and a little north of Bangkok.  (I'll join them there).  We'll be doing a micro-hydro project in this village, studying ecotourism and also working in a school.
January 29 - Travel to a Karen Hill Tribe village near Marsot, a village north of Chaing Dao, Thailand (close to the Myanmar border) to work in schools and an AIDS orphanage and perhaps do another micro-hydro project.  
February 9 - Back to Bangkok and fly to Kolkata, India.  In Kolkata we'll be looking at demographic intensities, human needs and human rights with some NGOs there.
February 11/12 - Train to Varanasi, India, then north to Sarnath, a village north of Juanpur to work with schools that serve the Dalit children.
February 24 - Travel to Dehli, India and perhaps Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal
February 25 - Travel to Amritsar, India
March 1 - Travel to Dharamsala, India to work in the Tibetan Children's Refugee Village, study the Tibetan Congress and aspects of Buddhism.  
March 11 - The 50th anniversary of the exodus of the Dahli Lama from Tibet
March 12 -Travel to Gangtok, India to go trekking in Sikkim
March 18/19 - Travel back to Bangkok
March 19 - Depart for Seattle

Getting Ready

There is so much to do to get ready for this trip.  James Loucky (a faculty member in the Anthropology Department) and I have been meeting in a weekly seminar with 15 students over the fall term to try to prepare for our studies in Thailand and India.  Although we don't leave until the middle of January, we have been studying about the culture and history of the places we will visit.  We have also been trying to set up some parameters for the questions we will ask about how each culture views their children, how the children see their own roles and the functions of the social structures (such as schooling) that surround children.

And, of course, we've been getting visas and immunizations.  Lots to think about.

Marie