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We had a discussion with village leaders about putting trash systematically in our field visit. We gave them some dustbins to implement this. Our discussion focused on whether the villagers knew how to put trash systematically, and if we could get their permission to share our knowledge with the children of their village.
After meeting the elders of the community at the village administrator's office, I and my students started looking at ways in which we could reach out to the children of the village.
The Saunders Weaving and Vocational Institute (SWVI) is situated in Yay-twin-nyi-naung ward, Lay-su quarter, Amarapura Township, Mandalay Region on the side of Mandalay-Sagaing road.
Till 1910, the local weavers used the hand throwing loom which could weave 24 inches only. When Mr. L. H. Saunders, Judicial Commissioner of Upper Burma, found that the technology of hand loom in Myanmar was old, he introduced in 1910, a fly shuttle loom used in England.
In order to link the classroom with the real world for the course of Urban Anthropology, our department decided to interact with the community elders to find out about the Taunghtaman Village Tract.
Our group met the village head and community elders of Taunghtaman Village in the village administrator’s office. The elders shared that nowadays most school children who grow up in Taungthaman do not know much about their home village and don't cherish it; and because of this, they are forgetting their cultural heritage.
"I think we were too fast with it all. Perhaps it was World War II that shaped the Naga soul. People come of age or in the process of coming of age, I think, in many ways we have been too idealistic. Instead of trying to work towards national construction, we were caught up in idealistic nationalism and I think traces of that idealistic mission still linger on today especially among the older generations... but the younger minds are beginning to be very critical and analytical at the same time, so I wish that the Naga movement began today.
For the Konyaks, tattoos are associated with traditional customs and culture which have their own distinct origin and significance and are called Huhtu or tatu in their language. The word ta means body, tu means to prick and ‘huh’ means ‘thorn’, which translates to pricking the body with thorns. The word huhtu is more commonly used among the Konyak Nagas over tatu.
The housing pattern is usually with bamboo matting in Htan Taw Village. The people in Htan Taw village depend mostly on natural products like this kind of bamboo matting for their housing pattern rather than artificial products. On the other hand, in contrast, these kinds of natural products are more perishable than artificial. They have to cope with this problem with their intuition. Some of them apply emulsion paint, oil rust and the substance that drive the insects away on these bamboo mattings to protect the roof from insects and the climate condition.
The school children of the Htantaw village in the Taungthaman Village Tract were asked – What is the most beautiful place in Taungthaman? They could either draw pictures or describe in words. The children drew from their imagination and showed it to the students.
Snacks are important part of a community’s cultural heritage. We included this in our session and served traditional snacks like noe-hta-min or rice mixed with milk.
In the initiation ceremony, people borrow horse cart from me. But they prefer the bullock cart that is well decorated with the crystals and golden paint over my horse cart. In the last 20 years the bullock cart has become more valuable and fashionable.
This was shared by a lady who is one of people who lends cart to others.
I found that the people are still proud to use the bullock cart for the initiation ceremony.
Dr. Thidar Htwe Win drew small engagement curriculum to foster value and connection of the local children with their locality. To do this, the school children were asked - "what are the most beautiful and valuable places for them in their village and around it." By asking this, we could draw out what the children unconsiously valued.
At first the children were too shy to speak in front of the crowd. We persuaded them with incentive of rewarding them with cute stickers. This helped them to become more engaged. We could even create a competitive environment among them.
Since 2007, I have been assisting Kojo Opoku Aidoo of Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, to develop a humanistic Syllabus on ‘Mobilities of Grassroots Pan Africanism’as part of the Humanities across Borders Program. The project attempts to contextualize the praxis of mobilities as a grassroots pan Africanism issue in its multiple manifestations and nuanced dialectics. It also examines the tensions and contradictions of the academy and the community dialectic, bringing up questions of social mobilities and intellectual inquiry.
What is the most beautiful thing or place in your village? The question asked was to the young school children from Taungthaman Village.
The first drawing is of U Pain Bridge and the second one of Taung Tha Man Thitsar.Many children also drew pictures of their grandparents, Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda, Taung Tha Man Lake.
We asked them to explain their drawings - what they know about the particular place or thing - the dos and dont's.
“In the past, we would pack the trash in a big bag and threw it into the lake at night. When the flood would come, all of the trash would come back out with the water,” she said laughing.
We asked her then, “Did any of the elders (your parents, the governor of the quarter, etc.) say anything about it?"
She answered, “at that time, all people in the village did like that. We didn’t really care as other people did the same thing that I did.”
Some people were not clear how the plastic bucket was to be used. Actually, this bucket is for wet waste and the plastic bag should be put in it first before putting trash in.
They used the bucket in wrong way as shown in the photos. We reminded them again, “the basket made with palm raffia is for dry waste and the bucket is for wet." We encouraged them to use it the correct way.
In this picture, we can see that a person understood how to correctly the bucket. Most people did not have any problem in using the basket for dry waste. They understood that clearly. But we were facing problems in making people understand how to use the bucket for wet waste correctly. I was glad that this person had a clearer the idea what we had said. Fortunately many others also understood the right way to use the bucket eventually.
I want to maintain this bridge as our daily wage depends on this,” told to me (Khin Khin Nyein) by one of the women vendors. We observed that she was chewing the beetle leaves and we asked, “where do you spit the beetle juice?” She replied immediately, “[o]n the ground” with a shy laugh. I think the reason why she laughed was because she recognised that she herself did something which made the bridge dirty.
"We used to pack food while wearing gloves but some customers would ask us to take them off and then pack with bare hands," one of the vednor's response to us when we asked her why she didn't wear gloves while packing food.
We were puzzled by this response. Why did the customers ask the vendors to remove their gloves? How did the customers perceive gloves? Is there lack of awareness over hygiene? Do people - vendors and customers- view hygiene differently?
I am Wekoweu Tsuhah (Akole) and I belong to the Chakhesang tribe of Nagaland. I am a women’s rights activist and a development practitioner, an advocate for gender equality, social and environmental justice. While growing up, I experienced fear and rage as I lived through armed conflict, alcoholism, domestic violence, poverty and these shaped the person I am today. I am passionate about working with people, women in particular; but it is only after I started working with a women’s rights organization – NEN, the North-East Network, did I truly realize and recognize these social injustices.
Sano Vamuzo is the founding President of the Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA), an important civil society organization formed by women in Kohima in 1984. The follwing is excerpted from an interview with Dr Rakhee Kalita Moral.
It was believed that if one made a wish with their arms wrapped around the Iron pillar with their back against it their wish would be granted. Before the iron railings that ‘protect’ the Iron Pillar today, many visitors, both young and old, would try their luck at making a wish. Similar are the memories of long-time residents of Mehrauli. Many remember being able to freely enter the Qutub Minar complex and playing or picnicking, before the ticket booths and high walls of today.
