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Sociology & Anthropology

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Photo of Professor Emerita NicolaTannenbaum

Nicola Tannenbaum

Professor Emerita of Anthropology

610.758-3829
nt01@lehigh.edu
Williams Hall Room 206
Education:

Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1982.

MA in anthropology, University of Iowa,1975.

BA with honors in anthropology, Grinnell College, 1973.

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Research Areas

Additional Interests

  • Southeast Asia, primarily Thailand and Burma
  • Shan
  • Shan cosmology and worldview
  • lived Theraveda Buddhism

Biography

Born in Bloomington Indiana and have lived in Illinois, Colorado, Iowa, and now Pennsylvania. I started doing research about Shan in northwestern Thailand in the summer of 1977 and haven't stopped yet.  My research foci have shifted through time: I began doing research on farming and agricultural decision making, moved on to explore Shan worldview, including the nature of Shan Buddhism and the importance of spiritual power.  Lately my research is focused on the ways in which my research community has changed through time, including cultural, political,and economic change as well as the changing nature of my relationship with my Shan family.  My retirement project is a memoir mixed with the social history of my Shan family and their surrounding community.

Books: 3 edited volumes, one co-authored monograph, and one monograph, Who Can Compete Against the World? Power-Protection and Buddhism in Shan Worldview. Monograph and Occasional Publication Series, no. 51.Association for Asian Studies., 1995.

25 articles: Most recent article: Power Protection, Social Relations, and the Ethnographer, Anthropological Forum 32(1):59-75, 2022.

20 book chapters:  Favorite book chapter: Forward to Tribes of the North Thailand Frontier, Jane Richardson Hanks and Lucien M. Hanks, pp. xi-xxxix. Yale University Southeast Asia Program Monograph no. 51., 2001.