September 2013
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Living Water Culture in the Eastern Himalayas
Thursday, October 3, 7:30pm
Betsy Damon, Proteus Gowanus exhibiting artist, will discuss her research, documentation and experience of Tibetan water culture and its sacred water sites in the Eastern Himalayan Mountain Range. This culture has thrived for the last 1500 years, maintaining pristine water sources. Like many indigenous peoples, their culture is threatened by urban expansion and natural resource extraction. Betsy will discuss the origins of the Tibetan water culture, her own stories working with Tibetans and the relevance of the Tibetan understanding of water to contemporary water issues. [continue reading…]
Flood/Stage: Performing Transhumance on the Zambezi
Performing Transhumance on the Zambezi
Sunday, September 22, 5pm
Admission: $5
This illustrated anthropological lecture by anthropologist Thomas Miller focuses on the role of water in a particular history through the lenses of ritual, politics, symbolism and music.
In western Zambia, the Lozi of the Barotse floodplain practice “transhumance,” a distinct migratory way of life. During the rainy season, when the Zambezi River inundates their homes and leaves their fields underwater, the people migrate to seasonal quarters in the hill country. Every year the royal barge of the paramount chief, who according to Lozi tradition has divine spiritual and moral authority over nature, leads the people to higher ground in a ceremony called Kuomboka (“Getting out of the water”). [continue reading…]
