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UID:238@buddhiststudies.utoronto.ca
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260323T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260323T170000
DTSTAMP:20260226T163344Z
URL:https://buddhiststudies.utoronto.ca/events/mayfair-yang-posthumanism/
SUMMARY:Mayfair Yang\, "Chasing the Sarus Cranes: Hindu and Buddhist Mult
 ispecies Assemblages in Lumbini\, Nepal"
DESCRIPTION:Description\nOnce common across Nepal and northern India\, Sar
 us Cranes (Grus Antigone) are an endangered species today. 690 Sarus cran
 es remain in Nepal\, over 90% of whom choose to reside in the Lumbini area
  of southern subtropical Nepal\, the birthplace of Buddha Gautama. Why is 
 Lumbini so attractive to the cranes? \n\nTo answer this question\, I assem
 ble together disparate elements\, features\, actors\, and conditions in th
 e lives of these largest flying birds of the world\, through what Bruno La
 tour calls Actor-Network-Theory (ANT). In the course of fieldwork in Lumbi
 ni and textual study of Hindu and Buddhist texts\, I try to give agency to
  the cranes by imagining and ascertaining what might be attractive about t
 his place to the cranes. What is it about Lumbini that is to the cranes’
  liking? Is it the abundance of rivers and lakes? Or the local climate\, w
 hich is hot and moist\, fronting onto the Gangetic plain? Perhaps it is th
 e wet rice paddies and other agricultural products of the local people\, w
 hich provide the cranes with food and a watery habitat and protection from
  predators for their nests? Or is it the Buddho-Hindu religious culture of
  the local human inhabitants? \n\nToo often\, secular environmentalism neg
 lects to examine ancient and living religious cultures\, whose teachings m
 ay be more effective in environmental protection than scientific arguments
 \, because these cultures tap into deep-seated emotions and religious ethi
 cs. Similarly\, Anthropology has remained steadfastly anthropocentric\, in
  contrast to the rich multispecies narratives of the religious cultures th
 ey study\, where humans interact and communicate with animals\, plants\, a
 nd divinities\, and deploy them in ethics that extend to more than-humans.
  \nAbout the Speaker\nMayfair Yang 楊美惠 is a professor in the Depar
 tments of Religious Studies and East Asian Languages &amp\; Cultural Studi
 es\, University of California\, Santa Barbara. She specializes in the Ant
 hropology of Religion\, Modernity\, and the State\; Environmental Humaniti
 es\; China Studies\; and Gender and Media Studies. She was elected Presid
 ent of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion (2023-2025)\, a divis
 ion of the American Anthropological Association. She was Director of Asia
 n Studies at the University of Sydney\, Australia (2007-2009). She has al
 so served as Director of the East Asia Center at UCSB (2005-2006\, 2009-
 2013). She was also Director of the UCSB Confucius Institute\, organizing 
 conferences\, events\, and visiting lecturers to UCSB.\n\nShe is the autho
 r of two monographs: 1) Re-enchanting Modernity: Ritual Economy and Societ
 y in Wenzhou\, China (2020)\, which won an Honorable Mention for the Cli
 fford Geertz Book Prize\, and 2) Gifts\, Favors\, &amp\; Banquets: The A
 rt of Social Relationships in China (1994)\, which won an American Ethno
 logical Society Prize. The latter is published in Chinese. She also edited
  the following four books: Anthropology of Ascendant China (2024)\; Chin
 ese Environmental Ethics: Religion\, Ontology\, and Social Practices (202
 1)\; Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity &amp\; State Formati
 on (2008)\; and Spaces of Their Own: Women's Public Sphere in Transnatio
 nal China (1999). She produced\, wrote\, and directed two video documenta
 ries: Through Chinese Women's Eyes (distributed by Women Make Movies) and
  Public and Private Realms in Rural Wenzhou\, China. She is currently wri
 ting a monograph: "Religious Environmentalism in the Age of the Anthropoce
 ne: Potentialities and Actualities in China\, Taiwan\, and Nepal."\n\nThis
  talk is part of the ongoing Posthumanism and Buddhism Series.\n\nHybrid. 
 Please register to attend either in-person (in SS 2106) or virtually on Zo
 om. If you choose to attend virtually\, the join meeting link will be sent
  to you several hours before the event begins.
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 ploads/2026/02/Buddhism-Posthumanism-Poster-2026-Mayfair-Yang-2.jpg
CATEGORIES:Lecture
LOCATION:SS 2106\, 100 St. George Street\, Toronto\, ON\, M5S 3G3\, Canada
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