Colonialism, Memory and Massacres in India

Pavneet Singh shared about the massacres that took place in India/Pakistan in the late 1940s. He wanted to share this sad and brilliant ethnographic video of a elder Sikh man recalling the massacres from his past. Very emotional. What kind of courage does it take to share this still today and what kind of courage and compassion do ethnographers need to bring?

Ch. 6 Political systems: Indian Caste System

One of the most controversial topic regarding Indian society and culture is its stringent caste system. The word "caste" is taken from the Portuguese word casta. It can be defined as a rigid social system in which a social hierarchy is maintained generation after generation and allows little mobility out of the position to which a person is born. This is a perfect example of Max Weber's theory.

This system dates almost 3000 years back and was formed on the need to form a social order in ancient India. It is still very prevalent as part of India's society. Today, it occurs more in the rural villages than in big urban cities; and more in the social matters of kinship and marriages than in impersonal day-to-day interaction, such as taking the bus. Having been around for centuries, it is highly doubtful that the caste system will die out completely. Its presence will still be felt in the near future.

The four major roles excluding the dalits are:

Brahmans - priests, holy men, arbiters
Kshatriyas - kings, warriors, soldiers that protect and guard the country
Vaishyas - businessmen, traders, commercial class
Shudras - farmers, producers, peasants

The lowest class and the one excluded from even being in the list is the dalits. These have it the worst of the worst and as the video explains not even because of government amendments does it fade away from people's customs and beliefs. The true meaning of a social construct.

Shift Happens 2.0 Video viewed by 5 million + Remix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U

An official update to the original "Shift Happens" video from Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, this June 2007 update includes new and updated statistics, thought-provoking questions and a fresh design. For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com -- Content by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, design and development by XPLANE.

Check out this REMIX of Shift Happens 2.0 which is esp. compelling to students and teachers in US.

Desi Salons

The topic of the mini-ethnography that I am working on is about Indian Salon’s. My ethnography does not deal with a specific salon, but, the entire group of “desi” salons located in New York and how they exist in a diverse culture and help globalize. I used the term “Desi” Salons because “Desi” is a slang word that stands for the South-Asian community and a South Asian person will be fully aware of the existence of a desi salon in the area, while the same salon might seem like a just another salon to a pedestrian on the sidewalks of NYC. There are numerous salons in NYC, but nobody thinks of a salon based on a specific cultural background. These salons are separated from the usually salons because they use certain techniques that is only known to the South-Asian community and is popular amongst the South Asian public. For instance let us take an example of Henna Tattoos. Henna tattoos have been a part of the Indian culture since centuries, but, now it is becoming more popular worldwide. There are certain designs that are classified as traditional and the artists who know this can only be found in the “desi” salons in New York. Threading has been one of the famous techniques of eyebrow hair removal and in recent years and more people are becoming familiar to it. The ethnography will deal with who first started the Indian techniques in the United States and how it speeded out.

Chapter 8 – Families, Kinship, and Marriage

Posted by ANT1001 4:10 section (Aditi, Adiba, Fahim, and Marija)

We learned about nuclear families in this chapter. It is said that a person lives in at least two nuclear families during his or her lifetime. An American would be surprised to know that how many countries still live in extended family. I [Adiba??] remember living in an extended family when I was in India. Everyone member from the patrilineal side of the family lives in the same house and all the children in the house live as siblings, there are no cousins, its just a one big family. This type of living can be classified as an extended patrilocality.

Talking about the divorce rates in recent years, they have soared unbelievably. It is not only in Canada and the United States that these numbers have gone up, but, also in other nations which are becoming westernized. As a result of these divorces the number of single parents has gone up. There are still debates going on in the eastern world if this right or wrong. It is one of the favorite topics with that psychologists in the East discuss.

Another interesting topic that was discussed in this chapter was about descent and lineages or clans. I belong to a patrilocal culture and it was interesting to know from my fellow group members about the matrilocality descent lineage in their culture. The most interesting topic in the chapter was marriage. I could personally relate to this topic because it mentioned about the complicated marriage system that exists in India. Being a witness to endogamy and caste system, this section of the chapter made the most sense to me. Dowry and plural marriages have also been discussed in this chapter. Dowry has existed in the South Asian community since the civilization started. It still exits. Even though there are oppositions to it, but, still one can hear cases of suicide or murder due to dowry and bride wealth quiet often in India. The question that arises in relation to this chapter is, due to westernization of the world, many cultures are loosing their form of institution of marriage, kinship and parenting, is this the right way to go and what should North America adopt from other cultures in order to drop the soaring divorce rates?

Video on kinship and marriage-
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3590143710531876202&q=family+and+kinship&total=25&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2
Funny Video of comedian Russell Peters speaking on relationship between immigrant parents and their kids-
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5jlrxcpkI