Book Review: ‘Ethnicity and Democracy in the Eastern Himalayan Borderland’

In the book Ethnicity and Democracy, Mona Chettri offers a rich ethnography originating from fieldwork conducted in three EH borderland areas: Darjeeling (India), Sikkim (India), and Ilam in East Nepal. These three areas were traditionally seen as continuous cultural landscapes bounded by fluid and porous borders, defining trade, livelihood, and everyday life in the region. Chettri’s book is one of the first few works to identify the continuous yet discrete nature of Darjeeling, Sikkim, and East Nepal. Invoking the EH as a conceptual, geographical, and political space, Chettri offers a new framework within which questions of ethnic revivalism, ethnic politics, representation, political and economic vagaries, and political rights across these regions can be analysed. 

Ep # 90: The First Year Special: This Month on TFS. 

The Familiar Strange · Ep # 90: The First Year Special: This Month on TFS Welcome back to the Familiar Strange.  We’re back with a special panel episode with familiar stranger Alex sitting down with some of the First year PhD students doing Anthropology at ANU. Mamta, Maddy and Andy were kind enough to take … Continue reading Ep # 90: The First Year Special: This Month on TFS. 

A Trinket, a Trifle, and a Novel New Disciple: Fandoms and Consecrated Commodities

Religious commodification is an arena that has gained increasing interest among social scientists, especially where religious symbols and artefacts are being appropriated by both adherents and non-adherents in an attempt to capitalize on growing worldwide markets. In what Sophia Rose Arjana calls the “mystical marketplace,” these objects, many of which are distinctly associated with orientalist versions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, are stripped of their original contexts and then reimagined as representatives of a kind of timeless, exotic, spirituality to be consumed by economically dominant Westerners. But this short thought-piece is about those consecrated objects whose marketing and sale is what made them sacred in the first place (like the Tibetan Singing Bowls but drawn from Harry Potter and Star Wars rather than the Tripitaka and the Mahayana Sutras). This is about a growing link between religion and fandom and the “ritual objects” that the latter now produces.

Ep # 89 Growing Pains in the Valley: Dr  Eric Hirsch on Growth in the Colca Valley 

The Familiar Strange · Ep # 89 Growing Pains in the Valley: Dr Eric Hirsch on Growth in the Colca Valley Welcome back to the Familiar Strange!  This week Familiar Stranger Alex sits down with Dr Eric Hirsch. Dr Eric Hirch is currently an assistant professor at Franklin & Marshall College in the department of … Continue reading Ep # 89 Growing Pains in the Valley: Dr  Eric Hirsch on Growth in the Colca Valley 

Ep # 88: Creating Queer Space & The Lenses of War: This month on TFS

The Familiar Strange · Ep # 88: Creating Queer Space & The Lenses of War: This month on TFS Welcome back for another Panel! This week we’re joined by familiar strangers Carolyn West, Matt Phung, Ruonan Chen and Alex D’Aloia.  Carolyn starts us off this week by sharing her recent experiences at a Hen’s night … Continue reading Ep # 88: Creating Queer Space & The Lenses of War: This month on TFS

Ep # 87: Squatters in The Stag: Adrian Watts on Activism & Squats

The Familiar Strange · Ep # 87: Squatters in The Stag: Adrian Watts on Activism & Squats Before we dive into today’s episode we’d just like to add a content warning for this episode for sexual assault and drug use. This week, Familiar Stranger Carolyn sits down with Adrian Watts, a PhD Candidate from the … Continue reading Ep # 87: Squatters in The Stag: Adrian Watts on Activism & Squats

The Weight of History: Doing Fieldwork as an Ethnic Chinese Researcher

I have been asked about my research in China as a researcher from Taiwan by my colleagues in the US. One of them commented: “It’s not common for someone from Taiwan to do research in China.” I have attributed this sudden recognition of my ethnocultural and legal identity as a Taiwanese and the subsequent framing of my actions as uncommon to the pandemic and its impact on the tensions in current international politics. identity with global geopolitics and how these geopolitical forces have real-life impact on my research and social life.

Ep# 86: The Funging the Non-Fungible & The Changing Face of Protests: This Month on TFS

The Familiar Strange · Ep# 86- The Funging The Non - Fungible & The Changing Face Of Protests- This Month On TFS Welcome back to The Familiar Strange! We’re joined this week by our newest Familiar Stranger, Kathryn! You might have heard her on Episode 84 last season but we’ve convinced her to stick around! … Continue reading Ep# 86: The Funging the Non-Fungible & The Changing Face of Protests: This Month on TFS

Waiting to Be Seen – How I Spent My Time in a Pain Treatment Center as a Patient

I am hospitalized while I am typing this, waiting to be seen for cervical vertebral disease, which is causing a daily numbing sensation in both hands. The wait time in the hospital provides me with a perfect chance to do autoethnography—to observe how I, as a patient, experience the medical system. I find that waiting is one of the main themes in my hospitalizing experience. The medical system dehumanizes me by means of turning me into a bed number and I have to take actions to be human again while waiting in the system.