SIL International Media Release
Ethnic Kenyan worldview paper presented at conference on ritual
(September 2008) The 12th Annual Conference on Holidays, Ritual, Festival, Celebration and Public Display, is being held 25–27 September at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio. The conference celebrates the 100th anniversary of the publication of Les Rites des Passage, by Arnold Van Gennep.
Ashdown teaching at a tertiary institution in Kenya
SIL anthropologist Shelley Ashdown, D.Miss., is presenting a paper titled, "The ceremony of eldership among the Ndorobo of Kenya: Notions of obligation and time continuity." She teaches at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics in Dallas, Texas.
Participation in community events is essential
The purpose of the annual conference is to stimulate research about topics relating to rites of passage from international popular culture. It was organized by the Faculty of the Department of Popular Culture of BGSU, the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association.
Ashdown's fieldwork was in Kenya
Each of the 27 papers involves original research, and is analytical or theoretical in nature. Papers are scheduled in eight panels, each consisting of three or four papers on related topics. Ashdown is presenting her paper in the panel on "Performance of Death."
Ashdown teaches at GIAL in Dallas, Texas
Panel topics
- Immigration, Performance and Identity
- Applications of Research
- Emerging Festival
- Case Studies of Ceremonies
- Public Display
- Ritual in Artistic Expressions
- Ritual Failure? Theorizing Rites of Passage
- The Performance of Death
- Transnational Holidays
Related links of interest
- Official conference website
- Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics (GIAL)
- SIL academic training
- Anthropology in SIL
- Publications by Shelley Ashdown
- Ethnologue on languages of Africa