[Anthropgrad] Friday seminar, 7th December

[nelia.hyndman-rizik at anu.edu.au]

Hi all,

 

We have a seminar this Friday, the 7th of December at 3pm in the Milgate
Room, AD Hope.  Dorji Penjore will present a seminar entitled:
"Understanding Bomena, a traditional courtship custom, in Wamling village,
Central Bhutan"

 

Abstract: 

 

My research is the study about Bomena, a traditional courtship custom,
predominantly practiced in the villages of eastern and central Bhutan. In
this custom boy stealthily enters a girl's house at night for courtship or
coitus with or without prior consultation. It is an institution through
which young people find their partners and get married, besides performing
unacknowledged roles such as providing "spaces" for socialization,
pre-marital and post-marital sexual access, sexual education, entertainment
and a rite of passage into adulthood. The majority of marriages are still
formed through this custom.

I have decided to study Bomena because some sections of Bhutanese 1) society
have labelled it as a "shameful", "primitive" and "barbaric" practice, 2) it
is understood as a form of sexual exploitation of rural people by urban
people, and of women by men, and as encouraging promiscuity, spreading
venereal diseases, and increasing the number of illegitimate children,
teenage pregnancies and single motherhood; and 3) it is a complex cultural
practice, that is much misunderstood by many Bhutanese and virtually all
non-Bhutanese, which calls out for an anthropological study to describe how
it actually works and to place it in context.

I have studied Bomena as practiced in my home village, Wamling, in central
Bhutan. It records the practice from the farmers' lips and attempts to
bridge a gap between Bomena as actually practiced in Wamling village and the
popular perception of it by the urban population as an intensive case study
of this custom as practised in a particular locality. It places Bomena in
the context of the village's geography, economy, history, ethnicity,
culture, beliefs, social structure and institutions, and the changes taking
place in the village. The study also provides insights into Bomena's place
in the life of this isolated village: the influence of kinship, descent,
parents' occupation, temperament, wealth, and ideas of beauty, character and
the extent of individual agency in Bomena, especially that of women. Finally
I consider the reasons behind the changing notions of a good marriage, and
public attitude towards Bomena which together with other factors are leading
to decreasing frequency of the practice.

See you all there,

Nelia Hyndman-Rizik

PhD Candidate

School of Archaeology and Anthropology

ANU

nelia.n at bigpond.com

nelia.hyndman-rizik at anu.edu.au

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/anthropgrad/attachments/20071203/42a09309/attachment.html