relations with nature
Laughing with the Batek
The Batek firmly oppose laughter yet they sometimes laugh together anyway, feeling guilty about engaging in the forbidden activity. Their prohibition against laughing is an important part of a complex of beliefs regarding the natural and supernatural agents that surround them in their Malaysian forest homes. Alice Rudge, an anthropologist who is employed by the […]
Lepchas Celebrate Nature
An old Lepcha ritual honoring “Mother Nature” and its bounties was one of the focus points of a celebration called Muk Zek Ding Rum Faat in Pangthang, Sikkim, on February 23. A news story about the celebration published on the 26th used the gendered term for nature. The Sikkim Lepcha Youth Association, which organized the […]
Mocking Wildlife and Other Eccentric Behaviors
My wife and I live in a clearing in a Pennsylvania forest and, like most forest dwellers, we have interesting relationships with animals and birds. Take the Carolina wren family, whose antics have puzzled and charmed us for the past six months. In April, they brought their fledglings down to our porch from their nest […]
Progressive Paliyans
The participants in a three-day program designed to provide awareness of the Paliyan people came away from the event last week cherishing a strong admiration for the peaceful tribal society. The Times of India published a news story on Monday last week about the three-day educational and cultural event held in Pannaikadu village, a Paliyan […]
Conference Focuses on the Lepchas
Cherishing the Lepcha culture while searching for ways to strengthen their society were the basic themes of a day-long conference held in Gangtok, Sikkim, on April 27. The Balipara Foundation, based in Assam, India, sponsored the conference titled “Community, Conservation and Livelihoods: The Lepcha Community” held at Sikkim University. One news report about the event […]
Flowers for the Paliyans
Peter Gardner describes the ways the Paliyans employ “a tranquilizer,” a flower that angry individuals crush and press to their foreheads to dissipate anger. In a 1966 journal article, the anthropologist, reviewing several approaches they use for social control, mentions that they use the flowers of sirupani pu, or “laughing flower,” for help in preserving […]
Butterfly Treasures of the Dzongu
A young Lepcha has turned his fascination for the natural world into a career as a nature writer and photographer. He feels that documenting the environment will be the best way for him to express his love for nature and to pass along his appreciation to future generations. The commitment of Sonam Wangchuk Lepcha, who […]
The Zapotec Treasure their Birds [journal article review]
The authors of a recent journal article found that what they call the “folk ornithological taxonomies” in two Zapotec mountain villages of Oaxaca demonstrate that the people in both communities are intimately familiar with their local birdlife. The three authors, G. Alcantara-Salinas, E.S. Hunn, and J. E. Rivera-Hernandez, catalog the birds they have seen and […]
Sacred Lepcha Landscapes Saved by Stories and Activists [journal article review]
Dorjee Tshering Lepcha sits on his floor cross-legged every morning and chants, asking the spirits to forgive him for any intrusions he might make that day against nature. He plays a tune on his flute to welcome the day and to add to the sincerity of his plea in advance for forgiveness. The room where […]
