Archives - Page 2

  • The Curse and Absolution: A Study on the Role of Origin Myths among the Nomads with Special Reference to Boom-Boom Maattukkaarar Community - By A. Dhananjayan
    Vol. 4 No. 7 (2007)

    This essay attempts to describe the various folkgroups who belong to different ethnic communities and lead a nomadic or semi nomadic life in Tamilnadu.This paper presents functionalist perspective on the role the origin myths along with other traditions of nomads. The ethnographic data of the respective communities also help in understanding the role of myths among the nomads, especially, the Boom-Boom Maattukkaarar community.

  • Fieldwork Report: Performance of the Prahaladha Myth in Tamilnadu - By Balaji Srinivasan and Gandhi
    Vol. 4 No. 7 (2007)

    This essay examines the various folk theatre activities in Thanjavur district of Tamilnadu in religious contexts. One among them is the Prahalada Charithram. The focus is on the iconography of Narasimha— history of the cult and sociological factors and its influences. The main story of the Prahaladha Charithram begins on the stage with the Iranian Kolu. Each lead performer enters on stage and before he begins his performance, sings Saint Thyagaraja’s composition signifying the importance of devotion to the divine. The accessories and the symbolisms used to represent certain elements and moods in the nadagam (dramas) are quite interesting. The author also presents his theatrical experiments, the hearsay stories, and the sentiments concerned during each stage performance.

  • Malki and Keema – A Panihari Song - By Heda Jason
    Vol. 4 No. 7 (2007)

    Shri Komal Kothari drew our attention to a village folk song from Rajasthan, his home province. The song is about the meeting of a girl and a youth at the village well. It is a well-known theme in village life, since the Biblical times. For some time I looked for oral versions of the song, but found very few: three from contemporary India and four from Southern Slavs, from the eighteenth century. The literary-historical and literary–semiotic aspects of these seven songs are discussed in this article.

  • Book Review of 'Histories for the Subordinated' - By Parag Moni Sarma
    Vol. 3 No. 6 (2006)

    (To be added)

  • Book Review of 'Affective Communities: Anticolonial Thought and the Politics of Friendship' - By Susan Seizer
    Vol. 3 No. 6 (2006)

    (To be added) 

  • Understanding the Socio-cultural Experiences of Pahari Folk: The Jagar Gathas of Kumaon and Garhwal - By Mily Roy Anand
    Vol. 3 No. 6 (2006)

    Most generalisations about North Indian society and culture are in reality generalisations about the Indo-Gangetic plains. The Central Himalayan region comprising Kumaon and Garhwal (now known as Uttaranchal) has largely been neglected or ignored due to lack of information or indifference on the part of scholars towards this region. From early times, geographical factors have played a key role in shaping the history and culture of this region. Another factor which contributed towards the culture of Uttaranchal is the waves of migration to this region from the Gangetic plains, Punjab and Rajasthan particularly in the medieval period. The impact of these migrations can be seen in the religious and socio-cultural practices of the people of Kumaon and Garhwal. This is particularly evident in the rich folklore of Uttaranchal, which throws a vivid light on the social and cultural conditions of this region.

  • The Oral and the Written in a Period of Globalisation - By Parag Moni Sarma
    Vol. 3 No. 6 (2006)

    The author deals with the effects of globalisation on the oral and written expressive forms rooted in oral antecedents. He develops a context for retriving and transmitting the oral as a discourse under the regime of globalisation by arguing that technologies can be exploited for preserving the oral traditions and for their dissemination.

  • Performance of Caste Myth: Towards Negotiating Identities - By Y.A. Sudhakar Reddy
    Vol. 3 No. 6 (2006)

    This paper captures the different facets of a pastoral community through the ritual performances that exhibit the nature of dualism between the content and the expression modes on applying performance theory.

  • Fieldwork Report: Discourse of the blurred genre: Case of Draupadi Kuravanchi Koothu - By M.D. Muthukumaraswamy
    Vol. 3 No. 6 (2006)

    This paper analyses how folk creativity finds expression in the context of village festival ambience by blurring many genres. This paper also describes how framing devices of the blurred genres are used to transport the audience between fiction, ritual and reality. One of the most recognizable framing devices ofTherukoothuistheendlessrepetitivedescriptionsofDraupadi’s humiliation in the Kaurava court as exemplified by the text and performance of Kuravanchi.

  • Fieldwork Report: The Dangi Ramakatha: An Epic acculturated? - By Aruna Ravikant Joshi
    Vol. 3 No. 6 (2006)

    The adoption of the pan-Indian epic of Ramayana by the Dangi tribal community is the focal point of this research paper. The bards of Kunkana community of the Dang district in Gujarat narrate the Ramayana in such a way that it becomes a narration of their own social history. Set in a creolized tribal dialect its understanding calls for a special knowledge on the region’s history, inter tribal relations between Kunkanas and Bhils and their bearing on the timber politics of the region. This research paper deals with how the colonial period politics imposed itself on the lives of the tribal people of this region and how they are still struggling to come to terms with it.

  • Constructing Community, Gender and Kinship through Epic Singing - By Kishore Bhattacharjee
    Vol. 3 No. 6 (2006)

    This research article throws light on the gender perspectives prevalent in two cultural geographies existing in Dhubri and Kamrup districts on southwestern Assam. The study of the narrated performances of the story of Manasa reveals the feminine worldview of life in the western districts of Assam. This paper elaborately discusses the epic narration through folk ritual theatre performance of the Rajbongshis in Dhubri district focusing on construction, reinforcement, and contestation of kinship, caste and gender identities. In Kamrup district, the spirit possession and religious integration of tribal belief system perceives Manasa worship also as an occasion for propitiation of animistic gods and goddesses.

  • Do the virtuous cheat? An ethical problem in the Mahabharata - By Heda Jason
    Vol. 2 No. 5 (2005)

    The author summarily deals with an aspect of Mah@bh@rata and compares it with similar aspects of south Slavic epic tradition. Suggesting that in epics the form and sequence of events are formulaic and follow preset literary models the author argues that the ethical question of virtuous cheating in epic duels and encounters is secondary to the demands of the epic model and to the demands to belong to the literary reworking of the poem. The author concludes that the problem of the virtuous champion’s cheating in epic duels should be discussed in the framework of all cultures which feature the genre of epic and not just in the framework of Indian culture.

  • Shakespeare and the Natyasastra - By John Russell Brown
    Vol. 2 No. 5 (2005)

    The practical examples found in the Natyasastra were taken from the culture in which it was written, a world that has long been lost. Acting that derives from these observations will have almost no relevance to our times and society but the basic method of working could be followed by contemporary English- speaking actors if they were to observe their own daily lives very closely ,and those of their audiences. The Natyasastra instructs actors to consider a rasa as the consequence of one of the nine dominant emotions. By starting with rasa, understood as the sensation or predominant feeling of the person to played become able to reflect and recreate the lives of actors and audiences. Applied to Shakespeare’s texts, when speech and action derive from the sensation of being –that is from rasa- an entire person will be presented on stage and Shakespeare’s language becomes a contemporary idiom. The author presents his theatrical experiments done with Shakespeare’s plays based on the principles of Nataysastra.

  • Young Kattaikkuttu Students and their Development - By Esmee Meertens
    Vol. 2 No. 5 (2005)

    Kattaikuttu also known by the other names Kuttu and Terukuttu is lively flexible Tamil folk theatre tradition. This paper documents the Tamil Nadu Kattaikkuttu Kalai Valarchi Munnetra Sangam in Kanchipuram an organization founded by Kattaikuttu actor P.Rajagopal along with sixteen other performers and Hanne M.de Bruin an indologist from the Netherlands. The focus of the paper is to reflect over the effects of Kattaikuttu and Kattaikuttu training on the personal development of the young students of the School conducted by the Sangam.

  • The indigenous tradition of Syrian Christians of Kerala a perspective based on their folk songs: marriage, customs and history - By Mathew Varghese
    Vol. 2 No. 5 (2005)

    This essay attempts to delineate the original structure of Christianity practiced by the Syrian Christians of Kerala and relates it with their folk songs on the one hand and their current customary practices on the other. In the process the paper traces the historians’ views on the early Christianity in Kerala, finds the historical elements in their folk songs, describes marriage ceremonies, songs and dances, and presents the texts of the folksongs.

  • Rivalries inside out: Personal history and Possession Ritualism in Coastal Andhra - By David M. Knipe
    Vol. 2 No. 5 (2005)

    This paper examines the narratives of lay and professional women and men whose vocation is the ritual use of possession by a goddess, god, deceased person, or other divine power. Observation, interviews, still photography, and videography took place in the Godavari River Delta of coastal Andhra between 1980 and 2000 with the majority of interviews occurring through the 1990-2000. The focus here is on ritual rivalries in two dimensions, not only objective competitions observed and readily acknowledged among possession ritualists themselves, but also the subjective rivalries among divine powers described by ritualists as competing possessors. A comprehensive glossary of Telugu terms is appended to this essay.

  • Book Review of 'Thanjai Mavatta Naattupura Nadagam - Prahaladha Charithiram' - By S. Srinivasan
    Vol. 1 No. 4 (2004)

    (To be added) 

  • Book Review of 'Pattole Palame: Kodava Culture - Folksongs and Traditions' - By M.N. Venkatesha
    Vol. 1 No. 4 (2004)

    (To be added) 

  • Book Review of 'Folklore, Public Sphere and Civil Society' - By Herbert Reid
    Vol. 1 No. 4 (2004)

    (To be added) 

  • Fieldwork Report: Lives and Struggles of Migrant workers in Okhla Industrial Area: Delhi - By Shankar Ramaswami
    Vol. 1 No. 4 (2004)

    This fieldwork report attempts to reflect on the lives and struggles of male migrant workers in Okhla Industrial Area, Delhi. Focusing on a metal artwork polish factory employing approximately fifty workers this report documents their attitudes, cosmologies, everyday speech, constraints and relationships.

  • Lost Land and the Myth of Kumari Kandam - By S.C. Jayakaran
    Vol. 1 No. 4 (2004)

    The concept of Lemuria was born in the 1860s when certain British geologists noted the striking similarity between rock formations and fossils found in India and Africa. There is confusion between the concept of the lost land south of India linked with the literary history of Tamil tradition and the myth of the lost land of Lemuria. With reference to the records of sea level fluctuations, climatic changes, glacial advances and glacial retreats, this article tries to trace the factors that had given rise to the myth of Kumari Kandam and briefly touches upon the development of the European concept of Lemuria that found its way into the Tamil literary tradition.

  • Women in Hydromythology: A Discourse on the Representation of Tradition and Counter Tradition in South Indian Folklore - P.S. Kanaka Durga
    Vol. 1 No. 4 (2004)

    By discussing the structural analysis of the narrative of Musalamma tradition, this article attempts to describe the socio-cultural and psychological aspects of narrative and show the existence of women in society who offer stubborn resistance to the long cherished value system besides the women who abide the rules of the male dominated society. This further tries to examine how the surface structure and deep structure of the tale unfold the voice of the marginalised challenging the hegemony of the dominant traditions, which represent their ‘selves’ as righteous and the ‘others’ as unrighteous or inferior.

  • Capturing Birsa Munda: The virtuality of a Colonial-Era Photograph - By Daniel J. Rycroft
    Vol. 1 No. 4 (2004)

    By using the images of Birsa Munda’s photograph, copy print of a portrait and poster, this article analyses the historical and ideological conditions that brought about the two- fold capture of Birsa Munda (the anti-missionary, anti-diku, anti-Raj and freedom fighter from Ranchi) by Anglican missionaries and Raj police in 1895 and discusses the dissemination of these photographic images from camera to archive to mass viewership. It cites the writings of contemporary academics and activists to relate the viewing and celebration of Birsa’s image to issues of post-nationalism. It also debates the form, meaning and history of this memorializing process.

  • The Drama Unfolds: Tuluva Myth and Ritual in its Western Stage - By Peter J. Claus
    Vol. 1 No. 4 (2004)

    In the annual siri rituals, hundreds of women sing the story of siri and become possessed by the siri spirits. The ritual performance is regarded as curative. This article makes an attempt to study and analyze this oral text highlighting how the Anthropologist and the Folklorist approach the text and performance, and the difference between textual analysis and performance analysis. This also attempts to contrast the two academic approaches to the study of kinds of oral textual traditions that exist in ritual contexts.

  • Myth & Identity III: Narrative Construction of one’s Social Entity by Parīt Communities in Maharashtra - By Guy Poitevin
    Vol. 1 No. 4 (2004)

    On account of the principle of double significance, narratives as social forms of symbolic communication can carry several unsaid and possibly opposite significations. By taking this view into account, this article attempts to prove that ‘a narrative may discursively function as a covert asset for cultural and social counter moves of counter-power, and unavowed wishes of dissent or discontent.’ Eight oral narratives have been taken for study, collected from the Parīt community of Maharashtra, a community traditionally assigned the occupation of washermen in the service of the village’s dominant castes. This also attempts to represent the cognitive status of the eight narratives to prove a self-configuration of Parīts within a given dispensation and the dynamics of a discursive construction of one’s social entity as Parīt.

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