Ten Years of Research Culminate in Major International Achievements for Professor

JUPITER, FL (October 10, 2008) – Dr. Jacqueline Fewkes, assistant professor of anthropology at Florida Atlantic University’s Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, is reaping the fruits of more than ten years of research into trade routes and their influence on modern cultures.  First, her major new book, Trade and Contemporary Society along the Silk Road: An ethno-history of Ladakh, has been released by Routledge Press.  Second, she will present her a summary of her ground-breaking research on the Maldives at a national meeting of anthropologists in San Francisco.

Fewkes’ book is an ethno-historical study of the trade system in Ladakh, a region of northern India that was once a busy center of trade on the Silk Route between central and southern Asia.  Previously a crucial part of a global trade network, Ladakh later became increasingly isolated as national boundaries were defined and enforced during the 20th century. Fewkes’ study provides a cultural history of an important area in Asia, exploring the lives of traders and illustrating how social issues in modern communities are inseparable from events of the past.

Then, during the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in San Francisco, Fewkes will present new research on the Maldives, a small island nation in the Indian Ocean south of India.  Her research there has been supported through grants from Florida Atlantic University, the American Historical Association, and the Library of Congress.  The Maldives have historically been at the center of major trade routes and has different cultural influences from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe. These influences have produced some interesting cultural practices in a nation that is said to be one hundred percent Muslim.  One practice in the Maldives that is rare in the Muslim world is the establishment of separate mosques form women, overseen by female Imams, the scholars and teachers who lead the prayers.  Fewkes interprets this tradition as a “very interesting social institution for female scholarship and religious life in the Maldives.”

Fewkes has explored contemporary practices in the Maldives and their historical antecedents in order to determine whether specific activities may be connected with major trade routes.  In addition to her presentation, “A Woman’s Place in Islam:  Spatial Practices of Women’s Mosques in the Maldives,” Fewkes will chair the panel of scholars sponsored by the Anthropology of Religion Subcommittee.  The papers presented by this panel of international scholars spans a wide range of religious and cultural traditions from different cultures.  Fewkes regularly incorporates the latest anthropological research into the courses she teaches students of Florida Atlantic University’s Honors College in Jupiter.

byline: Tamara Howard