Cross-Regional Fieldwork Experience: Semiotics from Laos to Assam

CHSS Fellow Sommor Panyavong led a group of Lao researchers from the National University of Laos and Souphanouvong University to present their research at the international conference “Ritual and the Organization of Semiotic Diversity in South and Southeast Asia” on 22-23 of May in Guwahati, India.

The conference was hosted by the Pragjyotish Center for Cultural Research and the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, and funded by a Wenner-Gren grant.

After presenting her CHSS-supported PhD research on multlingualism and ritual practice in a Khmu village in northern Laos, Sommor and the Lao group joined Indian researchers on a field trip to the Tai Khamti of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Lao researchers and their Khamti hosts explored their shared cultural heritage, working together directly in Lao and Tai on the language of food, livelihood and ritual, as well as proverbs and written texts.