The Bun Festival of Cheung Chau

Figure 1: Participants climbing a bun tower (Source: HongKongFP)

 

Cultural groups around the world have unique traditions and celebrations that they observe.  The purpose of these festivals varies.  Ultimately, celebrations bring groups of people together for a specific purpose, leading participants to feel a sense of belonging or togetherness with their fellow attendees.  Today’s blog post is dedicated to discussing a unique festival celebrated on the island of Cheung Chau, outside of Hong Kong: their Bun Festival.

 

The Bun Festival of Cheung Chau originated 200 years ago.  It came about after the Hailufeng, an ethnic group originating from the Guangdong Province of China, migrated to the Cheung Chau island.  Their migration, however, was not without challenges.  They suffered greatly from famines, plagues, and pirate attacks.  According to local lore the Hailufeng’s reaction to these challenges was the creation of the Taoist ritual and festival named Taiping Qingjiao.  It is unclear if this festival came about as a means of honoring a principal god, Pak Tei (or Beidi), the ‘Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven,’ who is credited with ending the plague, or if the festival is the result of a collective desire to appease the spirits of the dead (similar to the Hungry Ghosts Festival).  Whatever the reason, the Bun Festival continues on today as a cherished tradition the celebrates the islanders’ continued resilience.

 

The Bun Festival of Cheung Chau typically takes place in April or May (based on the Lunar Calendar).  This five-day festival hosts several festivities, including a children’s parades, street cleaning rituals, offerings to the gods, lion and dragon dances, opera, vegetarian meals, and specific religious activities that are only observed by specific islanders.  The end of the five-day festival, however, is punctuated by the tradition from which the festival derives its name: the bun collecting tournament (Figure 1).  Three 13 meter (60 feet) high towers that hold close to 20,000 hot buns are erected, and participants race up the towers, collecting as many buns as they can before their time runs out.  The hot buns are believed to bring good luck to the participants. 

 

Ultimately, the Bun Festival of Cheung Chau is a fun ritual that has evolved over time.  Today, it continues to serve the needs of local residents, but it is also used as a means of drawing foreign tourists to the island.  This helps the islanders increase their revenue streams, while also showcasing their unique culture and heritage to outsiders.

 

Works Cited

Hiu Yan, Lee. "A CASE OF “DISNEYIZATION”? THE CHEUNG CHAU BUN FESTIVAL, HONG KONG." Tourism, Culture & Communication (2017): 107-117.

No Author. " The Cheung Chau Bun Festival: A Hong Kong Soundscape Study ." n.d. The University of Hong Kong, Department of Music. 17 March 2026.

Richards, Greg and Brian King. "The experience of cultural festivals: evidence from Hong Kong." Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events (2022): 296-309.

Gift Giving Guide 25: Ideas for the Budding or Current Anthropologist in Your Life

Biannually I dedicate blog posts to the presentation of gifts that may be suitable for anthropologists or individuals interested in anthropology (any and all subfields).  As we are currently in the December holiday (and gift giving) season it seems appropriate to dedicate a post to this very topic.  Below are some of the latest additions to the list of gift ideas that may be appropriate for your anthropologically interested person.

Archaeology

Witty and funny archaeologically themed lanyards; available through PirateSnerk.

 

Archaeologists typically spent their summers in the field excavating sites to learn more about people's existence and ways of life in the past.  They do, however, attend conferences where they present their research and network with colleagues.  Either way, these humorous archaeological themed lanyards could be the appropriate gift for the archaeologist you know.  They can use it to hold their IDs, name tags, keys, or anything they may need to carry-be it in the field or a scholarly conference.  You can purchase one or more of these through PirateSnerk. 

 Cultural Anthropology

Sticker with a Margaret Mead quote, available through AnsleyStreetPress

 

Cultural anthropologists study living human groups throughout the world and even in their own backyard.  It can be difficult to find something that works for the variety of cultural anthropologists, particularly as they may always be on the go.  Therefore something light weight that they can carry around on anything they want, such as the Margaret Mead sticker, may be just the thing!  They can stick it on their water bottle, computer, luggage, notebook, or wherever they choose. Check it out through AnsleyStreetPress!

 

Biological Anthropology

A fancy tie could be just what the bioanthropologist you know needs, particularly if they study skeletal biology.  Available from Cyberoptix.

Biological anthropologists come and all different shapes and sizes, at least academically speaking.  It is the most broad of the four subfields, but this spine and sternum themed tie may be the right fit.  Paleoanthropological types, forensic anthropologists, and skeletal biologist may truly appreciate this customizable piece from Cyberoptix.  This store offers a variety of other ties that may fit the bill for biological anthropologists, including ties themed for genetics, brains, and more.

Linguistic Anthropology

International Phonetic Travel mug by BilingualSLTStore makes staying hydrated a breeze!

 

Last but not least is the linguistic anthropologist, who not only study but may play with language, too.  All that listening and talking, however, is bound to make a linguist thirsty, and this travel mug with an International Phonetic theme could do the trick by mesmerizing your giftee.  It and several other linguistically themed gifts is available through BilingualSLTStore.

Pet Cemetery: 2000-year-old Cemetery for Pets Discovered in Egypt

 

Figure 1: Cat wearing a collar buried at the pet cemetery at Berenice (Source: M. Osypinska)

Today people often have strong attachments to their pets.  This is seen in the language people use to refer to them (e.g., “fur babies”), the multimillion dollar pet food, clothing, and accessories industries, memes, pet animal social media accounts, and more.  For a long time people believed that this was a more recent phenomenon, but research is demonstrating that was not actually the case.  Today’s blog post will share the results of a decade’s worth of research concerning what may be the world’s oldest pet cemetery.

 

The port site of Berenice was a Roman period stronghold that served as a trading center for much of the Mediterranean.  Various imported and exported goods, including ivory, fabrics, and other high status items from India, the Middle East, and Europe, passed through this city, delighting residents far and wide.  Unexpectedly, however, scholars discovered something else at this site: potentially the world’s oldest pet cemetery.

 

Initially, an archaeological team led by Marta Osypinska and her colleagues at the Polish Academy of Sciences initially discovered a trash dump outside of the city walls.  As they excavated further they discovered the remains of hundreds of cats.  A fellow scholar at another institution wrote off the discovery, assuming it was an extension of the trash dump, but Osypinska and her team wanted to be certain.  This led to a ten-year excavation and analysis that ultimately yielded 585 deceased animals, including cats, dogs, a small sampling of macaques, and one piglet.  

 

Figure 2: Dog buried under a ceramic pot at the pet cemetery of Berenice (Source. M. Osypinska)

 

 

The dogs and cats were adorned with collars (Figure 1) and necklaces.  Their bodies were carefully placed on mats or under pottery (Figure 2), further demonstrating that this was not a trash dump.  Further analysis of the animals’ remains showed that they died from natural (e.g., old age or disease) and accidental (e.g., traumas from falls) causes.  Many lived long beyond a time when they would have been able to care for themselves as evidence by toothless animals and animals with healed injuries that rendered them incapable of meeting their daily nutritional needs.

 

As the evidence came together Osypinska and her team reached the conclusion that these animals were well taken care of and potentially loved by their human counterparts.  They may very well have been treated similarly to modern day pets, demonstrating that humans have had a long history of caring from animals outside of utilitarian purposes.  Some scholars are hesitant to make this declaration, however.  They cite the presence of the cemetery at a port city as potential evidence that these animals were used for utilitarian purposes: they may have protected the imported and exported goods from vermin, pests, or thieves.  This may have rendered them indispensable and cherished above other animals, such as farm animals. 

 

While it remains unclear why specifically the residents at Berenice cared so much for these animals they were cared for differently than animals used solely for agricultural purposes.  Ultimately, this 2000 year old cemetery is not just the first evidence of a pet cemetery, but it broadens our understanding of human-animal relationships throughout human history.

 

References

Geggel, L. (2021, March 8). World's oldest 'pet cemetery' discovered in ancient Egypt. Live Science.

Grimm, D. (2021, February 26). Graves of nearly 600 cats and dogs in ancient Egypt may be world's oldest pet cemetery. Science.

 Osypinska, M., Skibniewski, M., & Osypinski, P. (2020). Ancient Pets. The health, diet and diversity of cats, dogs and monkeys from the Red Sea port of Berenice (Egypt) in the 1^st-2^nd centuries AD. World Archaeology, 52(4), 639–653. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2020.1870545

Anthropologist Profile: Dr. Daniel Lieberman, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology

Dr. Daniel Liberman (Source: Julian J. Giordano)

 

“Live long and prosper,” is a famous saying spoken by the Star Trek character, Mr. Spock (played by the late, great Leonard Nimoy).  This idiom appropriately encapsulates a dominant value in American and many Western cultures: the desire to live a long life but not let the ravages of age show or rob one of their youth.  This is very much seen through the various aspects of popular culture, such as anti-aging creams, young models in advertisements, the “30 Under 30” tributes, and more.  Americans and Western cultural groups are obsessed with staying young, but there has never been an “acceptable” answer on how best to do that.  This is where the work of Dr. Daniel Lieberman comes in.  Today’s blog post is dedicated to exploring his research and how it helps us better understand how humans evolved to become who we are, as a species, today but also how we can achieve the famous adage spoken by Spock.

 

Dr. Daniel Lieberman is a self-proclaimed evolutionary biologist who has several academic posts at Harvard University.  He is a Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology and the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences at Harvard University. His primary research focus has been on understanding human physiology and anatomy, specifically from an evolutionary perspective.  His research not only concerns how we became who we are in a biological sense, but he also seeks answer questions concerning human health, injuries, and disease.  He, too, wants to live a long time, but unlike so many he does not fear aging.  He worries about being unhealthy and unable to continue doing what he loves, and he argues that the best way to avoid that outcome is to remain physically active throughout one’s lifetime. 

 

He recognizes that humans are unique in various ways, including our expanded head size, our ability to walk on two legs, and the longevity of humans compared to other nonhuman primates.  This latter point (about humans living long past their biological reproductivity) has been a driver in much of his research concerning human health.  Since humans live a long time, far long than other nonhuman primates, it is important to figure out ways to capitalize on that extended lifespan, and to ensure it is lived in the healthiest ways possible.  Liberman’s work is based in the fields medicine, exercise, morphology and locomotion, and evolutionary theory, and from these he believes he has solved the mystery to living a long and happy life: daily physical activity.

 

This conclusion is not revolutionary by any means.  Medical professionals for decades have advocated for people to be more physically active, but Lieberman’s cross cultural studies of humans in foraging and agriculturally based societies across the globe really drives home this point.  He has consistently found that foragers outlive agriculturalists by years.  Again, this is not a new point as bioarchaeologists have also documented that agriculturalists tend to be unhealthier than foragers, but they argue it was for different reasons.  Lieberman argues that the defining difference between foragers and agriculturalists is the amount of physical activity they engage in.  He has found that individuals who are more active, and not necessarily elite athlete level, live longer and healthier lives than those who are more sedentary.  Active people also suffer fewer degenerative declines compared to sedentary individuals, including in unexpected health areas such as incidents of Alzheimer's disease (a degenerative brain disease that leads to memory loss and loss in cognitive function over time). 

 

Lieberman believes so strongly in this work that he feels compelled not just to share his research with his colleagues (fellow scholars) but also with the public.  He takes just as much pride in publishing in high impact journals as he does writing for the public.  He has authored several books that are available and accessible to the general public, and he always welcomes the opportunity to talk to the public through interviews (e.g., podcasts, YouTube videos, newspaper articles, and more).  This is because he believes his work is not just a public health issue but a social, educational, and political issue.  Society must understand what he is doing to change the social norms that view exercise as a necessary evil and recognize that any physical activity, be it as simple as walking more, has profound benefits.  Also, by doing so people can achieve what they have sought for generations: the ability to live longer and healthier lives.

 

Bibliography

Liberman, D. (2020). Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding. Pantheon Books.

Lieberman, D. (2023). Episode 206: Daniel Lieberman: The Evolution of Human Exercise. (G. LaBlanc, Interviewer)

Lieberman, D. (2026). Daniel E Lieberman, Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences; Professor, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology; Affiliate, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Retrieved from Harvard University: https://heb.fas.harvard.edu/people/daniel-e-lieberman

Zeldin, D. (2024, February 16). Daniel E. Lieberman ’86 on Extending ‘Healthspan’, Scientific Humor, and Running Barefoot Along the Charles. The Crimson.