Name and Culture

I found he article "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Cheif" by Richard Kurin very interesting. He goes to Punjab for his ethnographic fieldwork. Kurin mentions the scene where his lungi accidently fell off and people took him as a pervert. This was hilarious. But I have to say wearing lungi is not easy at all because in my mother's hometown, Butwal which is near India, men still do wear lungis and I have tried to learn how to wear it and it was not easy. And even in Nepal we call such clothing with the same name.

The author's name is Richard Kurin but he prefers to be called "Rashid Karim" which is very understandable since it is a Pakistani name and easier to pronounce by the people from Punjab. When I came to Luther College, many people could not pronounce my name correctly. Some people did not even attempt to say it in fear of butchering it and asked me if I had easier nickname. Then one of my friends started calling my "Swo" which is pronounced as "Sue" and later I went with that name. I preferred them to call me "Swo" instead of "Sworupa" just as the author preferred to be called "Rashid" instead of "Richard" for the convenience of people around.

But Kurin was commonly called Angrez (English man). Even in Nepal white men are called Angrez or Kuirey which means white man. My TOEFL teacher in Nepal was American from Iowa and his name was Kevin Hodges but he went with the name "ke ho" which is Nepali word that means "what". He told us that people call him Kuirey most of the time.

By all these examples, I have observed how people change their name in different places according to the culture around them. They try to adjust in their surrounding and go with an easier name for the convenience of people around them which I think is a common practice not only followed by ethnographers but other people according to their surrounding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDO6KWJXqQU