AHP 40: AT HOME IN THE WORLD: GLOBALIZATION AND THE PEACE CORPS IN NEPAL

Abstract

It is something of a truism - if not a cliché - that cross-cultural encounters of the kind epitomized by the United States Peace Corps program can be life-changing experiences. Immersion into landscapes, languages, and cultures half a world away from where one is brought up cannot help but be transformative. Some flourish under the disorienting - or reorienting - spell of culture shock and emerge perhaps less certain about the world but more enamored of it. Others find such experiences tumultuous, sometimes making a hasty retreat back to familiar geographies or making it through these experiences but opting not to repeat them. In the case of James Fisher, his deep dive into the peoples and cultures of the Himalaya as part of Peace Corps 1 in Nepal (1962-1964) shaped not only his views of the world but also his professional trajectory in profound ways. Peace Corps was Fisher's gateway into a life of ethnographic exploration, teaching, and anthropological collaborations stemming half a century. ...