Anthropologists on the Road Series(4): Living with Differences-- Lessons from a "Primitive Paradise"

As the world we live in has become increasingly globalized, it seems that more conflicts are reported due to ethnic and religious differences between people. At the meanwhile, when people constantly and consciously essentialize their differences, and draw boundaries between "us" and "them" accordingly, conflicts seem to have occurred because of the boundaries they have drawn. And thus a deepen awareness of these differences. 

However, this is apparently not the case in Bingzhongluo, a small township at North Western Yunnan Province. Our former assistant professor Wu Keping discovered through her anthropological fieldwork that, at this "primitive paradise", which is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious place, "there have been minimal ethnic conflicts and very few religious conflicts". How do the local people live with differences peacefully? And what could we "modern" people learn from these "primitive" peoples living in Bingzhongluo? 

To discover the full story, please click here and read Dr. Wu Keping's article "Living with Differences: Lessons from a 'Primitive Paradise'" published in Hong Kong Discovery (Vol 76), Anthropologists on the Road Series.