* tmc * in patientia vestra habetis animam vestram * tmc *

Dear Reader,

The ASIAN STUDIES WWW MONITOR
(including all its subsidiary (and/or sister) pages on "coombs.anu.edu.au" server) has permanently ceased its publishing operations on Friday 21st January 2011.

All of the online resources reported here have been thoroughly checked at the time of their listing. However, it is possible that, with the with the passage of time, many of the originally reported materials might have been removed from the Internet, or changed their online address, or varied the scope and quality of their contents.

Fortunately, in several cases it is possible to access many of the older versions of the resources listed in the MONITOR. This can be easily done via the free services of the "The Internet Archive" http://web.archive.org/, a remarkable brainchild of Brewster Kahle, San Francisco, CA.

- with warm regards -

Editor, Dr T. Matthew Ciolek.

Canberra, 21 January 2011.


29 April 2009

A Virtual Village [in the State of Bihar, India]

http://virtualvillage.wesleyan.edu

5star
26 Apr 2009

Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, US

Supplied note:
"Mathew Schmalz (College of the Holy Cross [mschmalz--at--holycross.edu]) and I designed [...'A Virtual Village',] a free pedagogical tool [...] that allows students to interactively explore the social worlds of a north Indian village through its material culture. This free, online website provides a variety of background materials regarding the pseudonymic 'Arampur,' including updates on changes to its physical conditions. But the central feature allows students to virtually 'roam' within this village in the state of Bihar through a series of interconnected images. Hotspots on the scenes allow the user to enter buildings, closely examine objects, and 'interview' residents with a list of prescribed questions.

As they roam, students can observe how the many communities in Arampur express their identities through the images, buildings, apparel, and household objects found in streets, homes, stores, and places of worship. Moreover, users can also witness through the interviews how individuals may belong simultaneously not to one but to many communities. These experiences help destabilize the prevailing bifurcation of 'Hindu' and 'Muslim.' -pg."

Site contents:
* About Arampur (Introduction, The village nexus, The natural environment , Within Bihar, Banaras connections Within India, Globalization);
* Roam [an interactive map + images of the village];
* Topics in Village Live (Village Life, Society, Agriculture, Economics, Religion, Gender, Languages, Arts, Architecture, Education);
* Thematic Maps (Medical practitioners, Perceptions of Change, Shops, Services, Interviews, Food, Hindu Temples, Hindu Shrines, Muslim mosques, Sufi Tombs, Domestic Spaces);
* My Life (Introduction, Documentary photographs taken by 5 Arampur residents: Bhadra Jaswar, Sayyid Firdaus, Lakshmi Devi, Shiv Mistri, Indra Jaswar, Mathews bhai); * Interviews [annotated transcripts of 34 interviews with Arampur residents]; * History [of this Indian village];
* Glossary (Agrawal, Allah, Allopathy, Ansari, Arati, Ashura, Ayurveda, Azadi, Baba, Backward Caste, Banaras, Baqr Id, Betel leaf, Betel nut, Bhakhtiyar Khilji, Bhang, Bhojpuri, Bhut, Bidis/biris, Bihar, BJP, Block, Bombay, Brahm, Brahmin, Burqa, Calcutta, Caste, Chadar, Chamar, Chamtol, Chaudari, Chaurasiya, Chistis, Chuna, Dai Ganj, Daiganj, Dalits, Dargah, Darshan, Dham, Dharm/dharma, Dhoti, Divali, Diwali, Doordarshan, Dua, Durga, Faqir, Fatiha, Friday Mosque, Ganesh, Ghost, Gita, Gulab Jamun, Hanuman, Havan, Hindi, Hindi films, Hindu, Hinduism, Hizri/hijri, Homeopathy, Husayn, Id, Id ul-Fitr, Idgah, Ilachi, Islam, Jama Masjid, Jati, Ji, Kali, Karbala, Kasba, Katha, Khan, Khir, Krishna, Kumar, Kurta, Laddu, Lakshman, Lakshmi, Ling, Linga, Lingam, Lungi, Madarsa, Mahabharat, Mala, Mandir, Masjid, Mazaar, Mosque, Mughuls, Muhalla, Muhammad, Muharram, Murti, Murtikar, Muslim, Namaz, Naxalite, Occultation, Ojha, Paan, Pandit, Pardah, Parikrama, Parvati, Pathan, Pinda/Pindi, pir, Prashad, Pret, Puja, Pujari, Purohit, Qasbah, Quran, Raja Vicitra, Rajput, Ram, Ramayan, Ramzan, Ranvir Sena, Rickshaw, RSS, Rupee, Sandals, Sari, Scheduled Caste, Shahid, Shankar, Sharia, Shastri Brahm, Shia, Shiv, Shiva, Sita, Sufi, Swastika, Syed, Tawaf, Taziya, Temple, Tola, Trishul, Urdu, Vali (wali), Vicitra, Vishnu, Yadav, Yantra, Yoni, 786) [and links between these terms and the relevant sections of the transcribed interviews];
* Updates [photographs of and notes on new developments in the village since 2004 - ed.] ; * Resources/Bibliography; * Teaching Materials; * Methodology; * Credits/contacts; * Technical requirements [QTVR movies panoramas: All videos are in Quicktime format (.mov), Quicktime Player (Mac and PC); Roam map and audio interviews : Flash Player (Mac and PC)] * Feedback [an online questionnaire]; * Acknowledgements.

URL http://virtualvillage.wesleyan.edu

Link reported by: Peter Gottschalk (pgottschalk--at--wesleyan.edu)

Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://virtualvillage.wesleyan.edu

* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]:
Study/Documents
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]:
Academic
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]:
Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000
- under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 100

Please note that the above details were correct on the day of their publication. To suggest an update, please email the site's editor at tmciolek@ciolek.com