Dickinson College Department of Anthropology

Ann Maxwell Hill
Professor of Anthropology, Ph.D., University of Illinois
Phone: (717) 245-1649
FAX:(717) 245-1479
E-mail:hillan@dickinson.edu

    For the last ten years, I have done fieldwork in the area often called the Sino-Tibetan frontier. I have focused on one ethnic group there, the Nuosu, and work closely with a Nuosu researcher in China. In fact, good relationships with scholars in China are as important as the fieldwork itself for reasons of cooperation and sharing of research results.
    The two Nuosu ladies you see in the photo above have lived long lives. When I interviewed them, they had many personal stories to tell about coming of age before Nuosu society had much contact with the Chinese. They also had keen memories of the Maoist era and its policies that changed their lives after 1956. While they are somewhat nostalgic about the early, pre-communist era, they say their lives have improved dramatically over the last few decades. The two are good friends and are looked after by their married children.
    The Nuosu, like all of the people in China, are thoroughly part of the 21st century. They may dress differently, but have access to consumer goods, TV, and in most areas, modern education. They think a lot, and often out loud, about how to keep their traditions intact. They understand perfectly that modernization affects their ethnic identity, language, and community bonds.
    Although I don't teach an entire course on my fieldwork, it figures into all my courses. I'm a rather traditional cultural anthropologist, teaching classes on cultural anthropology, language and culture, gender, religion, and diaspora. The course I enjoy most is the one on the anthropology of religion because it reflects my latest fieldwork on the religion of people like the Nuosu, who grew up outside the major "world" religions, such as Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism. Their religion reveals a great deal about the intellectual sophistication of people whose religious traditions are oriented toward the natural environment and in comparative context, gives us clues about connections between the development of "world" religions and the rise of state societies.