Programme
Glynis George
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Windsor
E/ ggeorge@uwindsor.ca
Bearing Culture and Servicing Seniors: ‘Older Tamils’, Multiculturalism and the Constructions of Personhood in Toronto’s East End.
This paper builds on the notion that particular social groups are positioned as bearers of culture (Handa, 2006) and contests depictions of personhood more generally, as a fixed, monolithic social node which is produced in a closed cultural context ( Lamb, 2005). Specifically, it explores the experiences of 'older Tamils' who frequent Harmony Hall, a community center for seniors in Toronto's East End. The focus of the organization on 'multiculturalism,' and "active living" provides a lens through which I examine the articulation of Tamil identity with ideas about age, culture, "social suffering" (Quayson, 2004) and personhood. On a surface level, there is a narrative construction of Tamil seniors as 'traditional' and dependent, notions which are informed by the position many of them occupy as recent, sponsored immigrants. At the same time, many seniors bring with them more complex experiences in which ideas of gender, aging and respect intersect with social suffering in the past, and present. As Tamil seniors interact with "English" and "Chinese speaking" members they, both contest and reproduce these constructs, to enact identities in a diasporic and multicultural context which also reconfigure the social and cultural terms through which they understand self.
_____
Prof. George teaches in the areas of gender and culture, social justice and
international perspectives on culture and crime. Her recent publications include
"Interpreting Gender Mainstreaming by NGO's in India: a Comparative Ethnographic
Approach", Gender, Place and Culture 14:6 (2007), "Pineapples and Oranges, Brahmins and Shudras: Periyar Feminists and Narratives
of Gender and Nationalism in South India", Anthropologica (2003);
"Four Makes Society": Interpreting Gender, Caste and the Dravidian Social
Movement",
Contributions to Indian Sociology (2002);
The Rock Where We Stand: An Ethnography of Women's Activism in Newfoundland
(2000); and "Violence and Poverty on the "Rock": Can Feminists Make a
Difference?", Canadian Woman Studies (2000).