initiating cultural studies- 1st entry

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Hello!
This first entry is really as much for me as you, noble reader: I am orienting myself to the blog format and mechanics to better blog from overseas. Here is the setting for the beginning of this journey....
About a year ago I contacted Auroville, after finding the community at the website IC.org (a website for networking and information about intentional communities). Auroville is a commune based in the Integral Yoga philosophy and spiritual teachings of Sri Aurobindo and his disciple, called The Mother. Auroville seeks to become a city that achieves goals in sustainable agriculture, sustainable energy, education and universal brotherhood. the population of Auroville currently holds people originating in over 140 countries, all who are drawn to the interesting proposition that Auroville represents. The Auroville website (to better acquaint yourself) is: www.Auroville.org
I highly recommend the image gallery- to see the changes in landscape these dedicated people have wrought is incredible. One of the other things that fascinated me from the start is that Auroville claims to not allow religion, while focusing on spirituality.
I explained that I am a PhD student in Cultural Anthropology at Purdue University who wished to do research on environmentalism and spirituality (that is the short form- the actual research also involves understanding the manner in which people communicate about ill-defined topics and reach consensus to inform projects the community wishes to initiate, how people develop value attachments to places both past and present, how people define terms like spiritual, sustainable, environment and other topics).
Throughout the past year I was offered, accepted and then lost an internship, before gaining the current internship I have (more in a moment on that)- Beryl, my wife, has been offered a different position at Auroville, and we are currently awaiting the slow wheels of bureaucracy and the post to finish all the "T" crossing, "I" dotting and red-taping we need to leave this country and arrive legally and safely in another.

A bit more about me: I have studied intentional communities before: My Master's thesis focused on environmentalism and spirituality at land trust community in Ohio. I also have even been the founder of a commune- allbeit short-lived- in Massachusetts. In my undergraduate studies I did an Honor's thesis on ecotheology and anthropology... so you can probably see a theme.

As this blog gets updated, I will fill you in more on what is happening as I collect fieldnotes, take Yoga classes, discuss spirituality, environmentalism (&...) with strangers from different countries and explore this portion of India.
So, from North America (for now)...
Thanks for reading and see you again soon,
Peace!

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