195 lines
12 KiB
HTML
195 lines
12 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
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<html>
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<head>
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<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
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<title></title>
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<meta name="generator" content="LibreOffice 6.0.5.2 (Linux)"/>
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<meta name="created" content="2018-01-05T14:03:39.991112897"/>
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<meta name="changed" content="2018-04-21T16:13:46.319356388"/>
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<style type="text/css">
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@page { margin: 1in }
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p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120% }
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<body lang="en-US" dir="ltr">
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<div title="header">
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in; line-height: 100%">KUMBH
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MELA <sdfield type=PAGE subtype=RANDOM format=PAGE>0</sdfield></p>
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</div>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Kumbh
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Mela</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Importance</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Joseph
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J. Green</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Northern
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Arizona University</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%; page-break-before: always">
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<font face="Times New Roman, serif"> The Kumbh Mela festival is an
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important ancient festival, religious pilgrimage, and temporary city
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from Hindu tradition. The festival’s history is linked with ancient
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Hindu tradition, and has much spiritual significance. However, as a
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subject of study and testing, the festival also has great
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significance outside of religious contexts.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> In
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the Hindu tradition, there was a mythical war between the Devas and
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the Asuras over the Nectar of Immortality. This resulted in drops of
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nectar spilled over four spots on earth which now contain the cities
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of Haridwar, Prayag, Ujjain, and Nashik. It is within one of these
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four cities that the Kumbh Mela springs up. The festival happens
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every 12 years during the cycle when the sun, moon, and Jupiter are
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all within the Leo constellation (Cameraculture.media.mit.edu, 2015).
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The festival has been said to have started in the early first
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millennium, and has been going on ever since (Gsd.harvard.edu, n.d.).
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What’s most interesting about this festival is that all the
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infrastructure relating to the festival only exists once every 12
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years, for a period of 40 days, before it is torn down
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(Depts.ttu.edu, 2017), and the land is used for various agricultural
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needs between festivals (Gsd.harvard.edu, n.d.).</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> The
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Kumbh Mela is exceptionally significant in terms of religion and
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human gatherings. This festival is the largest pilgrimage in the
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world with over 100 million attendees (Depts.ttu.edu, 2017). Many
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consider this festival to be a sort of pop-up mega city which also
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makes it the largest city in the world, even if it only exists for a
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short period of time every 12 years. This is reminiscent of a more
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recent American event in which more than 70,000 people gather every
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year to create Black Rock City that exists only for one week
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(Scallan, 2018). During this festival, pilgrims use this time to
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express individual as well as collective expressions of faith. What
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makes this pilgrimage especially significant to Hindus’, indeed the
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primary purpose of the journey, is the prospect of potentially
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breaking the cycle of reincarnation and hopefully ascend to heaven
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after death. The people gather to bathe themselves in the “three
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sacred rivers in India, the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical
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Saraswati, to touch the divine and wash away their sins”
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(Depts.ttu.edu, 2017). What greater significance could a Hindu seek
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than to achieve paradise?</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> Outside
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of the obvious religious importance of the event, the Kumbh Mela
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provides an opportunity to encourage the adoption and spread
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non-religious ideas. One such idea that has been implemented is the
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idea of mass vaccinations. When the infrastructure to support the
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festival is created, that brings with it the full infrastructure of
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any city from basic sanitation to medical facilities. With this
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infrastructure, and its incredible amount of visitors, it provides an
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ideal place to provide vaccinations to the public (Gsd.harvard.edu,
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n.d.). It’s also a great time to encourage technological
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advancements in the medical field. For example, a Harvard project
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from the South Asia Institute, the Jane Swasthya Project, looks to
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surveil health during the festival to prevent disease outbreak. This
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surveillance has already proven beneficial when a mobile health
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surveillance system detected an outbreak of diarrhea which quickly
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prompted the government to respond by testing the waters. Another
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success from the project introduced the idea of using tablets by the
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medical professionals. The tablets were used to input patient data
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from the various attendees, and the software would try to track
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illness patterns. The team was initially told that medical
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professionals wouldn’t see value in the system, but after having
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training and using the tablets in the field, the medical
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professionals began to see the value. The local government, after
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seeing the benefits, decided to sponsor the systems, and it is hoped
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that mass adoption to daily practice will occur (Feldscher, 2015).</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> There
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is one more important general idea that can be gained simply by
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studying the festival. The idea of successful temporary cities. This
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is a gathering of over 100 million people where physically and metal
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safety is exceptionally important. The more success this festivals
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sees, the more relevant it is to study it for other purposes. For
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example, there could be a situation where a large group of people
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leave a country for various political reasons such as when the United
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State invaded Iraq and many people fled the country to escape the
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violence (Humanitieswritlarge.duke.edu, 2016). For other countries to
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accept these refugees, they need a way to house and care for them in
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a humane fashion. Observing how the Kumbh Mela manages its temporary
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city could help countries accepting refuges create an adequate place
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to keep them. Similarly, these studies could help care for people
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temporarily displaced by disasters such as those who were displaced
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by the damages caused by hurricane Katrina (Locke, n.d.).</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> Not
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only is the Kumbh Mela historically an important Hindu event, it is
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also a significant contribution to human ingenuity. The Hindu people
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are cleansed of their sins and obtain a shot at paradise. Every 12
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years, an impressive infrastructure is built to include all the
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necessities to care for more than 100 million period for about a
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month and a half before it is torn down. The Kumbh Mela is truly a
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marvel of humanity. All thanks to a mythical war over the Nectar of
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Immortality.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%; page-break-before: always">
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<br/>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">RESOURCES</font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Cameraculture.media.mit.edu.
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(2015). <i>Kumbh Mela – The World’s Largest Moving City |
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Camera Culture</i>. [online] Available at:
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http://cameraculture.media.mit.edu/kumbh-mela-the-worlds-largest-moving-city/
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[Accessed 21 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Depts.ttu.edu.
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(2017). <i>India’s Kumbh Mela (Festival of the Pot) | OIA
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Events | International Affairs | TTU</i>. [online] Available at:
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https://www.depts.ttu.edu/international/events/2017/kumbhmela.php
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[Accessed 21 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Feldscher, K.
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(2015). <i>Tracking disease at the world’s largest religious
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festival • Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute</i>. [online]
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Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute. Available at:
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https://southasiainstitute.harvard.edu/kumbh-mela/post/tracking-disease-at-the-worlds-largest-religious-festival/
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[Accessed 21 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Gsd.harvard.edu.
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(n.d.). <i>Kumbh Mela - Harvard Graduate School of Design</i>.
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[online] Available at: http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/project/kumbh-mela/
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[Accessed 21 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Humanitieswritlarge.duke.edu.
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(2016). <i>Arab Refugee Oral History | Humanities Writ Large</i>.
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[online] Available at:
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https://humanitieswritlarge.duke.edu/projects/arab-refugee-oral-history
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[Accessed 21 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Locke, W.
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(n.d.). <i>Understanding Katrina</i>. [online] Hurricane
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Katrina. Available at:
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https://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/katrina/understanding.html
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[Accessed 21 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in">
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<font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-variant: normal"><font color="#000000"><span style="letter-spacing: normal"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">Scallan,
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M. (2018). </span></span></span></font></span><span style="font-variant: normal"><font color="#000000"><span style="letter-spacing: normal"><i><span style="font-weight: normal">Once
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each year, a city pops up in a desert. See the art of Burning Man
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without the dust</span></i></span></font></span><span style="font-variant: normal"><font color="#000000"><span style="letter-spacing: normal"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">.
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[online] Smithsonian Insider. Available at:
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https://insider.si.edu/2018/04/once-each-year-a-city-pops-up-in-a-desert-see-the-art-of-burning-man-without-the-dust/
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[Accessed 21 Apr. 2018].</span></span></span></font></span></font></p>
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</body>
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</html>
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