Paper short abstract:

This talk discusses interactional data between a guide, children, and the cows at the community's goshala (cow pen).

Paper long abstract:

Based on twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork in Mayapur, a utopian community in Northern India, this talk discusses interactional data between a guide, children, and the cows at the community's goshala (cow pen). Mayapur was founded in the 1970s as a homeland for devotees of Krishna, a deity in Hinduism. Part of this community's planning was to integrate farming and cows into everyday life. To this end, the community's goals include fostering positive relations between children and cows, and creating positive experiences for non-Indian children especially with regard to a cow's feces and urine, which has manifold use in rural India (paddies for fire, glue for huts, paint, anti-sun reflection, antiseptic etc). For the non-Indian devotee families who have immigrated to join this utopian project, it is often the first time that children are living among cows as normal occurrences in their everyday life. A crucial element in scaffolding "love" for cows are weekly trips the goshala where children can pet, clean, and feed cows. Featuring conversations that children have at the goshala, this talk explores the role of touch in fostering love and appreciation for cows, and explores the multimodal ways that a cow becomes a "holy mother" to the children.