Displaying 1 - 14 of 14
<p>This is the fourth issue of the <em>Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies</em>, edited by Ken Bauer, Geoff Childs, Andrew Fischer, and Daniel Winkler and released in December, 2008 (Bill McGrath 2009-03-31).</p>
<p>This paper outlines a methodology that makes possible a nuanced understanding of past Tibetan societies by exploring the tensions between structure and agency. Ethnographic data from a recent project on the historical demography of Skyid grong District is used to demonstrate how one can move beyond normative descriptions of a past society by using interviewees as both informants (who impart normative views) and respondents (who reflect on their own individual circumstances). In this way one can gain a perspective on the widely accepted rules of a society, while also using case studies to illustrate how individuals negotiated these rules in practice. This paper details the process by which one particular anthropologist came to know what he claims to know, and as such is a commentary on the reliability and validity of ethnographic data. (Than Garson 2005-09-22)</p>
<p><strong>Creator's Description</strong>: This article reports on an ongoing sociological study of the first Tibetan refugee settlement established in India, Lugs zung bsam grub gling located in Bylakuppe near Mysore. Data from camp registers and the old files of the settlement office have been digitalized and subjected to an exploratory analysis that focuses on two interconnected issues: resource competition between the Tibetan refugees and the local Indian community, and high population growth during the first decade of the settlement's existence. The demographic analysis demonstrates that women in the settlement experienced a high fertility rate from 1962 to 1976. Population growth was further intensified by in-migration resulting from the creation of more camps, and from the in-migration of unregistered Tibetans including deserters from the army. The article discusses how these and other factors created friction between the camp's administrators and Indian government officials, conflicts between camp residents and the surrounding Indian communities, and may have countered some of the positive effects on local development resulting from the creation of the settlements.</p>
<p><strong>Creator's Description</strong>: This paper focuses on fertility transitions that have recently occurred in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and among Tibetan exiles living in South Asia. The Tibetan cases are compared with fertility transitions in China, India, and historical Europe with respect to (1) the social and demographic forces that shaped pre-transitional levels of fertility, (2) frequencies of marriage and non-marital fertility, (3) the timing, duration, and magnitude of the fertility transitions, and (4) the impact that fertility transitions have had on sex ratios. The analysis shows that fertility in pre-transitional Tibetan societies was more similar to Europe than China or India, due to factors related to the family system and the limitations it imposed on marriage; that although Tibetan fertility transitions started comparatively late in time, they proceeded at an extraordinarily rapid pace; and that unlike in China and India, fertility transitions among Tibetans have not been accompanied by increasingly skewed sex ratios that favor males.</p>