Anthropologists on the Road Series: Traveling Through Ethnicity, Forests and Fields in Sichuan

“While language and style of dress is rarely as diverse in such a small section of the planet as it is in this part of Sichuan, what is unique about agriculture is that producing crops can define boundaries between cultures but it also is an activity shared and understood by farmers around the world.”

—Edwin Schmitt

Cultural identity of a community can be manifested in various forms and ways—agricultural practice is one among them. The variety of crops grown and the planting and harvesting methods used are some of the hints giving us insights into the culture of a community. Edwin Schmitt, a PhD Candidate of our Department, had went to Sichuan earlier and talked to the ethnic groups there to discover more about their rituals, agricultural practices and perceptions towards forest and ecology in relation to the construction of their cultural identity.

Want to know more about what he had encountered and discovered? Click here and read Schmitt's full article on "Traveling Through Ethnicity, Forests and Fields in Sichuan" published in Hong Kong Discovery (Vol. 78), Anthropologists on the Road Series.