Asian Ethnology

Urdu film Shamim Ara South Asia Southeast Asia This article examines the material culture of Urdu action heroine films released in the era of Pakistan’s Islamization (late 1970s through 1980s) by a woman-led company called Shamim Ara Productions, which…

Asian Ethnology

Madhyadeśa Mlecchadeśa dharmaśāstra caste system marriage Dalit In the premodern world, many communities believed that they were located in the center of the world. The Hindu community, too, invented the idea of Madhyadeśa (Middle Country) in the first…

Asian Ethnology

Indian circus itinerant communities migration cosmopolitanism Kerala Indian big top circuses carry an ensemble of people, animals, and infrastructures over long distances. Interviews with circus managers and owners about their itineraries suggest their…

Asian Ethnology

sacrificial text ritual performance ancestor worship keying device imperial metaphor Huizhou Through the lens of performance study, this article analyzes five sacrificial texts that are read or sung in ritual performances worshipping ancestors (and dei…

Asian Ethnology

Templestay engaged Buddhism South Korea (un)happiness branding wellness tourism This article examines Templestay, a short-term retreat program held for laypersons at Buddhist monasteries, as a form of wellness tourism amid the prevailing social malaise…

Asian Ethnology

Bhojpuri folksongs Hindi literature Anglo-Indian literature ethnography migration indentureship orality This article examines Bhojpuri folksongs that have migrated from north Indian villages to overseas locales, or that have migrated from oral traditio…

Asian Ethnology

competition display Fire Festival myth-history social and cosmic renewal Southwest China Each year the Nuosu, a Tibeto-Burman group of Southwest China, celebrate their Fire Festival with vibrant displays that evoke the myth-historical blunder of a hero…

Asian Ethnology

shamanism Korea spirit portrait American power politics of anti-superstition A notable feature of contemporary Hwanghae-do (now a region in North Korea) shamanism in Incheon, west of Seoul, is a body of material symbols of American power that are famil…

Asian Ethnology

processions aesthetics display Balinese Hinduism religious pluralism Lombok In the Hindu Balinese imagination, demons (buta kala) are ambiguous figures of the crossroads. Across Indonesia, the display of giant demon puppets (ogoh-ogoh) has increasingly…

Asian Ethnology :: Conflicts over Local Beliefs

Local beliefs feudal superstition intangible cultural heritage Hongtong Zouqin Xisu “receiving Aunties” Ehuang and Nüying On June 14, 2008, the Hongtong Zouqin Xisu in Hongtong County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province, was announced as one of the 510 natio…

Kutiyattam, Heritage, and the Dynamics of Culture

UNESCO intangible cultural heritage Kutiyattam theater heritage policy cultural continuity Kerala In recent years, global heritage discourse has increasingly focused upon the intangible, part of a movement led by the global South to decenter the hegemo…

*Mak Yong*, a UNESCO “Masterpiece”

intangible cultural heritage UNESCO Masterpiece Islam politics nationalism communities of practice safeguarding Mak yong, a form of Malay theater, was proclaimed a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005 and incorp…