Jana Fortier
Jana Fortier is an anthropologist at the University of California, San Diego in the Department of Anthropology and in the School of Global Policy and Strategy where she teaches courses on sustainability issues and heritage preservation. Her expertise centers around the resilience of communities facing threats to their language and culture. This work has resulted in numerous articles and two books. The book 'Kings of the Forest: The cultural resilience of Himalayan hunter-gatherers’ (U. of Hawai’i Press) portrays the life of highly endangered hunter-gatherers; and ‘A Comparative Dictionary of Raute and Rawat’ (Harvard Univ. Press) documents their Sino-Tibetan languages. Her research has been funded by numerous agencies including the Wenner-Gren Foundation in 1989, 1996, and 2000; the National Endowment for the Arts in 2004; the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2001, and the Fulbright Foundation in 1990, 2004, and 2015. She received her doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Anthropology with a concentration in South Asian Studies and has spent several years in Nepal and India on various research trips. Now located in San Diego, she also advises government agencies such as the City of San Diego, the Department of the Navy, and the California Dept. of Transportation on public folk arts, sustainable development of local cultures, and preserving traditional cultural properties. She is currently working on an book concerning environmental knowledge and practices among indigenous communities.
Supervisors: Katherine Bowie, J. Mark Kenoyer, Kirin Narayan, Joseph Elder, Rob Brightman, and Aiden Southall
Address: Dept of Anthropology-0532
Univ of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0532
Supervisors: Katherine Bowie, J. Mark Kenoyer, Kirin Narayan, Joseph Elder, Rob Brightman, and Aiden Southall
Address: Dept of Anthropology-0532
Univ of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0532
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Books & Monographs by Jana Fortier
The dictionary book provides a full set of information about entries, including a provenance of which speech community uses the word, its part of speech, and its gloss in English, Nepali, and Kumauni. In addition, most entries have an example of usage in a sample sentence, notes on cultural significance, and meticulously studied etymologies. The book also provides a useful reference work all on its own with previously unpublished information about the speakers’ ethnic identities and their culturally significant plants, animals, deities, and material culture.
This dissertation focuses on work strategies known as khalo, jajmãni, hali, ãdhiyå, baure, parimã, and sahayog. These translate as "artisanship," "Brãhman priestly services," "plowing services," "sharecropping," "daily labor," "reciprocal exchange," and "labor gifting." Together, these practices constitute a system of ethnomanagement essential for small-scale production in Nepal.
The method of ethnography used involved both qualitative and quantitative data collection. Conversational interviews were used to understand the cultural construction of labor relations. Socio-economic surveys were administered in Jãjarkoë District and two hundred and sixty households were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment correlations. The data support the hypothesis that combinations of named labor practices enhance elites’ social control over non-elites. Thus, using all of the labor practices, and not simply jajmãni, elites engage in negotiated labor exchanges which are often structurally unequal.
Structurally unequal exchange is part of an economic system labeled “paternalism.” Paternalism is marked by unequal exchange; patron-clientism (e.g., jajmãni); land ownership as a primary marker of social status; prominent barter and labor exchange systems; and workers continuing to control their own means of production.
In summary, Nepalese indigenous labor relations solidify Nepali social caste and class hierarchies; employ paternalism as a mechanism of unequal exchange; continue as viable strategies despite intrusions of capitalism; and form a network of labor strategies rather than one monolithic jajmãni system.
Published Articles & Papers by Jana Fortier
The dictionary book provides a full set of information about entries, including a provenance of which speech community uses the word, its part of speech, and its gloss in English, Nepali, and Kumauni. In addition, most entries have an example of usage in a sample sentence, notes on cultural significance, and meticulously studied etymologies. The book also provides a useful reference work all on its own with previously unpublished information about the speakers’ ethnic identities and their culturally significant plants, animals, deities, and material culture.
This dissertation focuses on work strategies known as khalo, jajmãni, hali, ãdhiyå, baure, parimã, and sahayog. These translate as "artisanship," "Brãhman priestly services," "plowing services," "sharecropping," "daily labor," "reciprocal exchange," and "labor gifting." Together, these practices constitute a system of ethnomanagement essential for small-scale production in Nepal.
The method of ethnography used involved both qualitative and quantitative data collection. Conversational interviews were used to understand the cultural construction of labor relations. Socio-economic surveys were administered in Jãjarkoë District and two hundred and sixty households were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment correlations. The data support the hypothesis that combinations of named labor practices enhance elites’ social control over non-elites. Thus, using all of the labor practices, and not simply jajmãni, elites engage in negotiated labor exchanges which are often structurally unequal.
Structurally unequal exchange is part of an economic system labeled “paternalism.” Paternalism is marked by unequal exchange; patron-clientism (e.g., jajmãni); land ownership as a primary marker of social status; prominent barter and labor exchange systems; and workers continuing to control their own means of production.
In summary, Nepalese indigenous labor relations solidify Nepali social caste and class hierarchies; employ paternalism as a mechanism of unequal exchange; continue as viable strategies despite intrusions of capitalism; and form a network of labor strategies rather than one monolithic jajmãni system.
My companion that day was Carmen Lucas, who lives in the area and is a Kwaaymii Laguna Band member of the Kumeyaay Indians. She recalled, "Woodpeckers put holes in my cabin and stuffed in their food until they laced the cabin."
Also, a collateral loan [bhandaki ko rin] was carried out that morning in the household. This is a written note in which the borrower gives collateral such as a copper water pot or other metal cooking wares in exchange for money from the lender. If the borrower fails to pay back the loan in the written amount of time, the lender keeps the kitchen wares and the borrower still is pressured to repay the original loan amount.'
incorporating etymology, and also ones which document specialized terminology in the areas of religion, law, foods, botany, biology, etc. Such language documentation will contribute not only to better endangered language programming, but to better understanding of the migrations,
livelihoods, and cultural heritage of the Tou peoples and other Sino-Tibetan speaking communities. Guest lecture, UCSD Dept. of Linguistics, in preparation for Himalayan Languages Symposium, Sydney, Australia, 2019.