Mission

The iCross-Cultural Citizen Project is a cultural anthropology course-based project meant to raise critical consciousness about the rich cultural diversity in our indigenous world. Being totally aware of the limitations of being outsiders, we are a group of multidisciplinary undergraduate students who believe in cross-cultural sensitivity and participatory agency aimed at disseminating information about indigenous realities as accurately as possible.

Vision

The iCross-Cultural Citizen Project’s vision is to create an online cross-cultural space for students, professionals, and youth to learn and exchange cross-culturally sensitive information about contemporary indigenous experiences. From that outsider student’s perspective, we will try to theoretically explore possible collaborative solutions to problems that affect the indigenous populations of our planet. Finally, we hope for the future creation of a space where indigenous youth can share their experiences and their realities with us for real mutual collaboration to take place.

Values

We value the maximization of benefits to indigenous peoples and other vulnerable populations in the world.

We value the respect for persons all over the world.

We value the equal treatment of people, and we are against the exploitation of vulnerable groups around the world.

We value collaborative cross-cultural learning and critical thinking.


Monday, June 1, 2015

Religion


The main focus of this post will be the Sgaw-Karen. The reason for this focus is that there are many different ethnic groups that compose the Karen tribe and the Sgaw-Karen is one of the major groups (which with the Pwo-Karen, compose 350,000 of the 700,000 members of the Karen living in Northern Thailand) (Platz 2003:473). The villages of the Sgaw-Karen are mainly Christian or Buddhist. Between 20-30% of Sgaw-Karen are Christian while the rest are Buddhists (Platz 2003:474).

Officially, Animism is treated as a form of Buddhism. One of the main ancestral rituals involves all family members in the matrilineal order staying together for three days, once a year (Platz 2003:475). During this time, no one is allowed to enter the house and animal sacrifices proceed. They slaughter the animals and if the animal’s liver reveals a bad omen, the ritual must be done again (Platz 2003:475). The more straightforward Buddhists, on the other hand, do not partake in such rituals. This is not due to a conflict in Buddhist beliefs, they just find the ritual to be “cumbersome” and “ineffective” (Platz 2003:475).

The Karen tribe also has ties to Christianity. A Karen creation myth states that “the children of Yoa (the Creator God) had received [the book of wisdom] but later lost due to carelessness” (Platz 2003:478). The second part of the myth states “one day… a white brother would bring the book back to his Karen brethren” (Platz 2003:478). When Christian missionaries arrived in the early 1800s, the Karen saw them as the “white brother(s)” with their Bible being the “book of wisdom”. Along with that, some missionaries believed the Karen were one of the lost tribes of Israel because of the similarities between their two Gods (Platz 2003:478).

If you ask about religious conflicts between the Karen people, you may not get a straight answer (Platz 2003:486). The problem usually arises from religious beliefs within the household. The Karen people put an emphasis on a single belief in each household, that is, everyone in one household holds the same religious belief. Buddhists and Animists emphasize the freedom of religion as do the Christians. The Protestants in Burma are the least tolerant in this regard because they are more strict about their practices. One source of the tension between the Buddhists and the Protestants is the support from the churches. Buddhists do not have churches that support them like the Protestants do (Platz 2003:486).

The Civil War in Burma has indirectly surged the amount of Christian believers in the Karen population. Organizations that support the Karen refugees are mainly made up of Christians. The Karen people see Christians as "the good guys" and so want to adopt the same religion as them. This then spreads quickly through friends and family members.


References

Platz, Roland
2003, Buddhism and Christianity in Competition? Religious and Ethnic Identity in Karen Communities of Northern Thailand. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 34(3): 473-90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20072533. 8 June 2015.
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1 comment:

  1. Daniel TroyaJune 8, 2015 at 6:28 AM

    Before studying the Karen people, I had no idea how religiously diverse Burma is. I'm glad they have the freedom to choose their own religion and my family is similar in this regard. My family consists of two different religions, so I have had exposure to two very different practices. Personally, I'm not a religious person, so I never quite aligned with either side, but I respect their beliefs. In Burma, there could be villages with households of different religions and they get along just fine. Although they would like to have one religion per household, the Karen people are very relaxed about multiple religions under one roof. I experience this everyday and it has never been an issue.

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