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Posts from the ‘Ritual’ Category

May 29

“Field Huts” Among the Upland Tai and Dai

I am presently reading a chapter in the monumental Fowler Museum exhibition catalog The Art of Rice: Spirit and Sustenance in Asia (Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2003). It is “Rice Harvest Rituals in Two Highland Tai Communities in Vietnam” by Vi Vǎn An and Eric Crystal. I was drawn to this essay because it contextualizes a kind of basket-like plaited bamboo object used in ritual contexts among the related Tai peoples of Southeast Asia and Southwest China. More on that eventually Here I just take a minute to make note of another material form of interest. The name that the authors of this catalog chapter use for it is “field hut” and that seems like a suitable English name. The authors picture one in their figure 7.2 on page as shown here:

Figure 7.2 in An and Crystal (2003, 120). “A field hut stands in the distance in a dry-rice field. “Photograph by Eric Crystal. Ban Ðôc, 2000. [See screenshot image above for the full Vietnamese diacritics.] On a pole to the left of the hut is the kind of woven bamboo item that I am studying. The house shown here is of concern to the authors because it is a focal point for a rice harvest ritual of one of the two groups of Tai that they discuss.

My photographs of such field huts in the uplands of Southwest China are often poor because they are taken through the window of a moving van or bus, but I have taken a stead interest in them throughout my visits to the region. Most recently, I saw many of them in the fields and tea tree groves on Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er [Prefecture-Level] City, Yunnan, China. The best example among my photographs from this most recent of my trips is probably this one:

A “field hut” in a mixed-crop truck garden lower down on Jingmai Mountain. Photograph by Jason Baird Jackson. Near Balao in a predominantly Dai and Hani area. December 27, 2023.

These kinds of buildings get mentioned here and there in the ethnographic literature for the broader region. I hope to return to them someday and here I note them as just another interesting aspect of the region’s vernacular architecture. Those who know me and know eastern Oklahoma will recognize my interests in such buildings in the comparative case of ceremonial ground and church family camps.

Feb 19

Instruments of Prayer: Musical Instruments in the Expressive Cultures of the Native American Church

Flyer promoting a lecture by Daniel Swan at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures.

Nov 2

Remembering Kara Bayless (1982-2010)

The wonderful memorial statements authored by American Folklore Society members and read publicly at the opening ceremonies of the 2011 AFS meetings are now online on the AFS website. Among them is a beautifully written statement about Kara Bayless an amazing Oklahoman, folklorist, and doctoral student in my home department. A star student, Kara was enrolled in my seminar at the time of her tragic passing last year during the 2010 AFS meetings. She is so missed by her many friends and colleagues.

Also remembered at the meetings, with statements now on the website were three distinguished elders in the field. Stetson Kennedy (1916-2011), Roger E. Mitchell (1925-2011) and Kathryn Tucker Windham (1918-2011).

Learn about their lives and work here: http://www.afsnet.org/?InMemorium

Oct 17

Sukkot=Time to Check Out Gabrielle Berlinger’s Beautiful Photographs of People, Buildings, and Food

It is Sukkot time again and I urge everyone to check out Gabrielle Berlinger’s beautiful photographs. She is at the end of her current fieldwork period in Tel Aviv where she has been studying many interlocking topics, with Sukkot at the center of things. Her reporting and her photographs are beautiful. Don’t miss out.

Sep 27

“Ritual and Oratory Revisited” in Annual Review of Anthropology

The final, stable 2011 edition of the Annual Review of Anthropology (a vital, not-for-profit undertaking co-edited by Don Brenneis and Peter T. Ellison) is now available (toll access). Because the topic is of great interest to me, I was pleased to see Rupert Stasch‘s review essay on “Ritual and Oratory Revisited: The Semiotics of Effective Action.” Looking more closely, it was a welcome and nice surprise to see that he knew about my work in this realm and found a generous way to weave it into his general narrative. My writings are sometimes high in area studies interest and, conversely, less immediately engaging for scholars working elsewhere in the world, thus it is always nice when it is clear that they have been discovered by, and made sense to, a colleague working in a different context. This essay will be an invaluable resources as I take up new work on the topic. Thanks!