Author: Bruce Bonta
Birhor Girl Completes Schooling
Nirmala was celebrated by a local official in India’s Chhattisgarh state for being the first Birhor girl to complete class 12. A photo that accompanies the Times of India news story last week shows the District Collector for the Jashpur District, Nileshkumar Mahadev Kshirsagar, congratulating the girl in a ceremonial setting. Nirmala says she hopes […]
Gender Equality among the Batek
It is not too soon to begin celebrating the centenary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees American women the right to vote. Already, our news media are reporting on local celebrations of the growing gender equality in the U.S. that the amendment symbolized, which will presumably culminate on the actual anniversary […]
A Zapotec Village Meets the Spirit of Gandhi
A nonprofit business flourishing in a village of Mexico’s Oaxaca state is inspired by traditional Zapotec values and the ideals of Mohandas Gandhi. A story in Yes! magazine last week describes the revival of the traditional spinning culture of the village, its adoption of effective business practices, and the influence of the Mahatma. The story […]
The Kadar Defend Their Rights
A nightmare for the Kadar is returning. Kerala announced last week that the State Electricity Board has been granted permission to resume planning a large power dam on the Chalakudy River. The proposed dam, which has generated extensive news coverage over the years, would harm or destroy a couple Kadar villages and inundate the habitat […]
Achievements of a Semai Scholar
Dr. Bahari Belaton, a Semai scholar, has been promoted to a high-level academic dean position in Malaysia. According to an enthusiastic news story about him in the New Straits Times last week, he is the first Orang Asli person to reach that level of academic achievement. Bahari received a bachelor’s degree in computer science in […]
Maine Amish Cope with the Pandemic
Some Amish living in the Central Maine town of Unity were willing to tell a reporter, Hannah Yechivi, how they are coping with the coronavirus pandemic. According to her news report on May 26, they are mostly following the orders from the state without too much disruption in their lives. There are about 20 Amish […]
Collective Spirit of Tristan da Cunha
A “collective spirit” still sustains Tristan da Cunha, the New York Times argues in a wonderfully illustrated story published on the Times website on May 20. The descriptive text and the photos of the island and its inhabitants are by Andy Isaacson, who spent a month there in 2009. He supplemented his investigation with recent […]
Website Moves
The Peaceful Societies website has moved again. As of May 2020, it is being hosted by the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The website was independently hosted by Matthew Albright from January 2005 through January 2016 when it moved to the Department of Anthropology in the […]
Lepcha Bongthing and the COVID-19 Demon
Curiosity about the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic to the peaceful societies led to a news report in a major Indian newspaper on April 10 which indicated that as of that date Sikkim had not yet reported any cases of the coronavirus. Sikkim, a small state in northeastern India, is the home of the Lepcha […]
Birhor in West Bengal
The government of India’s West Bengal state is taking pains to keep the Birhor and the other tribal groups safe as long as the COVID-19 pandemic lasts. While most of the earlier news reports about the Birhor focus on their lives in Jharkhand state immediately to the West of Bengal, a news story dated April […]
