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Popular rhetoric on gender relations in tribal societies in general, and the status of tribal women in particular, swings between two uncompromising extremes. While the development administrators and some selected NGOs perceive an impressive state of empowerment of tribal women, thanks to the post-independence developmental interventions, their critiques, on the other hand, highlight their destitution in more than one instances. Looking at these mutually antagonistic paradigms, I contend that tribal gender relations have not yet received critical attention, which is due to them. As I have been arguing for quite some time now, it is not prudent to assert a rigid Cartesian dichotomy between a 'higher' and a 'lower' status of a tribal woman vis-à-vis a tribal man. Contrarily, I suggest, it is a mixed bag of specificities and complexities that needs critical examination without being tempted to make a sweeping generalization. I intend to discuss in this paper how economic self-sufficiency and structural dependence, ritual power-holding and ritual segregation, submissiveness and stiff resistance to domination, etc. are witnessed in the life of a tribal woman that should refrain us from looking at status as a monolithic entity rather than as a dynamic one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India Journal of Asian and African Studies Vol. 21 (1986) pp. 226-244 [Research Communication] The genesis, growth and nature of a social movement is directly conditioned and [...]

This paper intends to address two interrelated yet complex issues. The first is regarding inter-generational variations in the formation of ethnic identities within the diaspora, and the second is about show-casing diaspora in the confines of a museum. The review of relevant literature reveals that bulk of the existing research on diasporic communities revolves round the first generation immigrants, and more so among the Indian diaspora in the USA. Studies on second and subsequent generations are relatively less due to the commonly perceived notion of 'structural assimilation' of their members with the host community. Further, most of the research on Indian diaspora in the USA is restricted to the Indian communities living in the metropolis or large urban conglomerations. Therefore, there are subtle gaps in diasporic research with regard to inter-generational as well as spatial variations, which this study intends to fill in. This study, therefore, attempts a comparison between ethnic identities of the first and second generations of Indian diaspora in the USA with an added emphasis on the second-generation young men and women of Indian origin in small towns and cities. Further, it suggests some measures to show-case diaspora in the museums, which have been historically playing the role of the preservers of cultural heritage for the posterity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper underlines not only the significance of traditional knowledge, variously termed as Indigenous Knowledge (IK), Traditional Environmental Knowledge (TEK). Traditional Technological Knowledge (TTK), etc., but also argues in favour of a judicious synthesis between the fast changing traditional knowledge and modern science for the general good of the rural and tribal communities in less developed countries (LDC). The argument ostensibly is, therefore, against a conventional artificial conceptual divide between traditional knowledge and Western science, where the former is commonly portrayed by the scientists as a barrier to development, while the latter is looked at with suspicion by the traditional communities. This has been evidenced by the reluctance of the rural and tribal communities to easily accepting modern health care, agricultural technology and forestry, irrigation and water management, and so on. This paper makes a modest attempt to demonstrate that this artificial divide is detrimental to development. Contrarily, it is argued that a judicious synthesis of traditional knowledge and Western scientific knowledge is bound to usher in better economic growth and development in rural and tribal societies. Some case studies of synthesis of knowledge in agriculture, medicine, and some best practices by the tribal and rural people are discussed here to bring home the point that mutual distrust between traditional knowledge and Western science is unwarranted. In fact, the need of the hour is to work towards a synthesis of knowledge for development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt has been made in this paper to analyze the pan-Indian Devadasi system and tile practice of Jogini in the state of Andhra Pradesh from a civilizational perspective. While the Devadasi system is conceived as an element of the Great Tradition, the Jogini system is considered as its adaptation to specific socio-economic and politico-religious contexts. Within the domain of civilizational analysis. Redfield, Marriot and Singer, among others have established the flow of cultural elements between the Great and Little Traditions. While endorsing the basic notion of cultural flow between the civilizational elements, this paper attempts to carry the argument further by trying to understand how these socio-cultural Interactions might be grounded in material conditions of tile local cultures under study. It is further contend that as material conditions of existence is closely Interwoven with the local power structure, it would be useful to follow a three-dimensional model In understanding the interactions between the great and little traditions - the flow of cultural elements. material conditions of existence, and the bearing of local power structure on social interactions. With this model in mind, the Jogini system in Andhra Pradesh is analyzed and placed as a devoluted model of the pan-Indian Devadasi system with its specific local variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropological discourses on the traditional Indian rural institution, the jajmani, usually suggest either a single system immutable model like that of Wiser or Dumont, or the multiple system models of Parry. Reheja, Lerche, and others. In this paper it is suggested that neither of these models satisfactorily explains the nature of inter-jati exchange relations in rural India. It is, therefore, imperative to simultaneously examine the basic ideology behind these relations, and the impacts of many socio-political and historical forces to devise a locally adaptive form of such relations without necessarily obliterating the basic ideology. Critically examining Lerche's views on coastal Orissa as an example, the paper explicates that as the jati dynamics in its locally adaptive form does not necessarily contradict the basic principles of jati organization, similarly the inter-jati exchange relations may take different forms for meeting the common goal or survival needs. It is only wrapped with ritual fervour to legitimize the occupational monopoly of different jatis and to ensure its sustainablity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]