Looking for Grants

Just looking at a few sources for funding. One grant possibility that might be a good fit is the

American Anthropological Association Small Grants For Collaborative Problem Solving. I am researching sacred mountains. I would like to take my study abroad. Using descriptive language and multi-media, I will record the cultural significance of mountains in the practice of local healers and community rituals.

I have been composing a story about sacred mountains. First, I am studying the Utes of the San Juans. The mountains were their maps. Then, I will dispatch from the sacred mountains of Mongolia, reporting on current cultural significance of the mountains and any changes that might be influenced by changes in the role of creature both symbolic and practical in daily life for many Mongians: the horse.

With access to petroleum fueled transportation, Mongolian nomadic tribes are experiencing a change in the horse's role in their lives. Some shepherds no longer rely on horses for the practical work they once did in moving the family's ger (yurt) or herding livestock. A national and cultural symbol since the time of Khan, the horse is a featured partner in the prowess of a Mongolian warrior or warrioress, and features in the horse races of Nadam. The horse is also a symbol recurring in "shamanic" practices . To what extent may Mongolian cultural identity be changed if horses are relegated to ceremonial uses and absent from the everyday practice of herding and following nomadic migrations? As modes of transportation change, what view does a traveller see of a mountain that marks the center of the world, as XXX does for the people of XXX(Campbell's axis mundi). What is the symbolic relationship between the sacred mountain and the horse? What are the ways in which horses remain an actively useful steed and symbol for Mongolia?

Wind Horse to the Mountain:

An Anthropological Study of the Orientation of Two Sacred Symbols in Mongolia.

Part 1. The Utes of the San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Experience: Oral Storytelling in Morocco, Graduate study of the epic as a literary form, Marabhout TOmbs of Morocco, tavel in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, and along the Appalacian trail of the New Jersey Skylands.