relations with outsiders
An Inspiring Piaroa Leader
Hortimio Ochoa, a 33-year-old Piaroa leader, was featured in a lengthy Venezuelan newspaper article on Wednesday last week for his dedication to preserving the traditional values and culture of his people as well as for his efforts to protect their lands and waters from illegal miners and armed groups. The author of the piece, María […]
Hutterites Cultivate Business Relationships Based on Friendship
National Public Radio broadcast a feature last week about the cooperation between a Hutterite colony in Montana and a dude ranch/resort complex located five hours away. The complex, called The Resort at Paws Up, has a long tradition of friendly cooperation with the Cool Spring Hutterite Colony that predates some of its present employees. The […]
Altruistic Values of the Orang Asli
An anthropologist who has studied the Orang Asli for 40 years advises Malaysians to expose themselves more effectively to their lifestyles and cultures in order to better understand them. Professor Alberto Gomes argues that societies such as the Semai, Batek, and Chewong are not respected as they should be by the broader population of Malaysians—the […]
Kadar Gaining Self Confidence
A couple months ago, some Kadar were working to restore one of their worship sites in Kerala’s Vazhachal Forest when forestry department officials going past asked them to stop. They politely refused, citing their rights under India’s Forest Rights Act (FRA). According to a report last week by Sibi Arasu in The News Minute, a […]
Should a 13-Year Old Get Married?
The Yanadi in Andhra Pradesh are asking why their customs do not seem to have any standing with local officials. They are upset that a marriage between a 17-year old Yanadi boy and a 13-year old girl was broken up by officers who decided that the girl was too young to be married. The Yanadi […]
Amish Diapers—for Horses
Over a dozen Amish men are scheduled to appear in a Logan County, Kentucky, court on August 2, 2017, for ignoring a local ordinance requiring diapers on their horses. An article last week in the News-Democrat & Leader of Russellville, the county seat of Logan County, described the refusal of some Amish to put the […]
Encouraging Amish to Move to West Virginia
The Amish are hassled by American communities about the manure their horses drop, the outhouses they erect, the building codes they sometimes ignore, and the slow moving vehicle warning triangles some of them refuse to use. One Amish store in Pennsylvania was condemned because it did not sell American flags, much like hundreds of other […]
Photos of the Hutterites
Canadian photographer Tim Smith was roaming the prairies near his home in Brandon, Manitoba, when he spotted a group of Hutterite women working in one of the colony gardens. After he stopped to take some pictures of them, one of the young women pulled a phone out of her dress and took a photo of […]
The English Are Coming, the English Are Coming—Run! Hide!
The showdown began at 7:45 AM on Friday, November 19, 1965, when a school bus pulled out of Oelwein, a city in northeastern Iowa, headed for the Old Order Amish settlement a few miles away. The Amish had established two of their own schools, staffed by uncertified teachers, a violation of Iowa law at the […]
Violence Threatens the Lepchas
Trouble in India’s West Bengal state involving the Gorkhas and the Lepchas was in the news last week, as violence again disrupted life in the hills of North India where these people live. The dispute between the Gorkhas, the Lepchas, and the government of West Bengal made headlines in India early in February, as the […]
