People in Berkeley, California, and the Visayas Islands in the Philippines will have unique opportunities to learn about a couple of peaceful societies in coming weeks.
Laura Nader, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, will be showing some recent documentary film footage of the Zapotec people at a presentation this coming Monday afternoon on her campus. Her presentation will be on October 22 from 12:00 noon to 1:15 pm in the Conference Room of the Center for Latin American Studies, which is located at 2334 Bowditch Street, Berkeley.
According to a press release from the university, she will discuss how the cultural knowledge of the Zapotec people is being forgotten and lost—and regained—in the Rincón area of the State of Oaxaca. Nader has published books and articles on conflict resolution in Zapotec villages, where people try to diffuse tensions and not focus blame on one another. She has written extensively about the idea that societies can promote harmony and compromise as an alternative to a right versus wrong mentality that dominates much of American legal thinking. Her books about law and anthropology range from the village to the international level.
People in the Visayas group of islands in the central section of the Philippines will have the opportunity, over the next several months, to view an exhibition about the Mangyan societies of Mindoro Island to their north. The Buid are one of the eight Mangyan peoples on Mindoro.
Materials from the Mangyan Heritage Center (MHC) in Calapan City, Mindoro, are now on display at the Museo it Akean in Kalibo, the capital of Aklan province, located at the northwest corner of Panay Island in the Visayas. The exhibit, prepared with the theme “The Mangyans of Mindoro: Myth and Meaning,” will be in Kalibo until October 24th. It will then move to Cebu Island, then on to Bohol, and finally back to Cebu, where it is tentatively scheduled to close on February 14th.
The press release announcing the opening in Kalibo gives details about the exhibit and where it will be displayed. It quotes some remarks by Emily Catapang, an official of the MHC: “The exhibit showcases the indigenous and rich Mangyan culture. They (Mangyans) are perceived as illiterate and beggars for generations, but with this must-see exhibit in the town of Kalibo, the Mangyans have the rare chance to prove they are a gentle, non-violent and peaceful people.”