Problematising Tribality: A Critical Engagement with Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories

Tribality simply means the characteristic features of various tribal communities and the qualities of being tribal. In the 1940s leading anthropologists like Verrier Elwin and G.S.Ghurye tried to theorize and categorize tribal identities. However, they were often accused of representing either a ‘protective’ or ‘romantic’ notions of tribality. One cannot determine the tribality of a person based on their features, dialects, food habits or geographical location. Tribality is said to bind the pan-Indian Tribal literature which is again problematic considering language which is considered as the useful indicator of any identity. Tribal Literature is a distinct form of writing to represent people, things and ideas in their cultural authenticities. The tribals essentially have an oral culture and thus when a tribal writer like Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, a Government Doctor by profession, writes in the canonical English language, we will be tempted to probe if he seeks to ‘write in’ or ‘write back’ to the mainstream literary culture; or if his works can fit into the mould of minor literature, thereby making the seemingly personal an intensely political statement. This paper also aims to interrogate issues of tribal identity and their representation through a critical engagement with Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories (2017).

He mana taonga, he mana tangata: Māori taonga and the politics of Māori tribal identity and development

<p>In museum studies, museums have been examined in terms of their historical role in collecting and exhibiting the culture of colonized peoples, and their contemporary participation in identity politics, repatriation and relationships with source communities, but their role in indigenous tribal development has never been the focus of a major study. This thesis sets out to examine this phenomenon and thereby address a major gap in the literature. In New Zealand, Māori tribes are actively pursuing social, cultural and economic development initiatives as an expression of their mana motuhake or self-determination. The development ethos that is guiding many of these tribes has at its core the wellbeing of their people and the importance of their culture and tribal identity to social and economic development. The research into this extraordinary politics of Māori tribal identity and development seeks to understand the role Māori taonga play both historically and within contemporary Māori communities as part of tribal self-determination and the advancement of Māori development and identity. The questions framing the study include the following: What is the nature of Māori taonga and what is their relationship with the politics of Māori tribal identity and development? What value are museums, collections of taonga or other cultural heritage in the process of iwi development which is taking place during the Waitangi claims process and Post Settlement phase? Using a research methodology that incorporates a Kaupapa Māori paradigm, as well as methodologies used in museum studies and related fields, this research investigates the experiences of a number of Māori tribes with regard to their tribal taonga and cultural heritage projects including tribal exhibitions. Major case studies include Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Porou along with an examination of secondary sources such, as tribal websites, tribal visions and strategic plans, and other published materials. The research findings demonstrate that taonga are important and enduring symbols of Māori identity, which are often used in the assertion and promotion of tribal self-determination and development. Māori tribal values such as mana, whakapapa, manaakitanga, tikanga, kōrero, whanaungatanga and kaitiakitanga along with taonga related kupu (words) shape and influence many tribal development strategies. The literature and interviews from tribal members confirm the enduring significance of taonga to whānau, hapū and iwi. The research demonstrates the role taonga play in sustaining the inter-generational continuity of tribal culture and the ‘connectedness’ of taonga to the wider culture, including the pivotal role they play in informing and shaping tribal development futures.</p>

He mana taonga, he mana tangata: Māori taonga and the politics of Māori tribal identity and development

<p>In museum studies, museums have been examined in terms of their historical role in collecting and exhibiting the culture of colonized peoples, and their contemporary participation in identity politics, repatriation and relationships with source communities, but their role in indigenous tribal development has never been the focus of a major study. This thesis sets out to examine this phenomenon and thereby address a major gap in the literature. In New Zealand, Māori tribes are actively pursuing social, cultural and economic development initiatives as an expression of their mana motuhake or self-determination. The development ethos that is guiding many of these tribes has at its core the wellbeing of their people and the importance of their culture and tribal identity to social and economic development. The research into this extraordinary politics of Māori tribal identity and development seeks to understand the role Māori taonga play both historically and within contemporary Māori communities as part of tribal self-determination and the advancement of Māori development and identity. The questions framing the study include the following: What is the nature of Māori taonga and what is their relationship with the politics of Māori tribal identity and development? What value are museums, collections of taonga or other cultural heritage in the process of iwi development which is taking place during the Waitangi claims process and Post Settlement phase? Using a research methodology that incorporates a Kaupapa Māori paradigm, as well as methodologies used in museum studies and related fields, this research investigates the experiences of a number of Māori tribes with regard to their tribal taonga and cultural heritage projects including tribal exhibitions. Major case studies include Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Porou along with an examination of secondary sources such, as tribal websites, tribal visions and strategic plans, and other published materials. The research findings demonstrate that taonga are important and enduring symbols of Māori identity, which are often used in the assertion and promotion of tribal self-determination and development. Māori tribal values such as mana, whakapapa, manaakitanga, tikanga, kōrero, whanaungatanga and kaitiakitanga along with taonga related kupu (words) shape and influence many tribal development strategies. The literature and interviews from tribal members confirm the enduring significance of taonga to whānau, hapū and iwi. The research demonstrates the role taonga play in sustaining the inter-generational continuity of tribal culture and the ‘connectedness’ of taonga to the wider culture, including the pivotal role they play in informing and shaping tribal development futures.</p>

Kia Maia ki te Kanga o Ta Koutou Ahi: Keeping the Home Fires Burning

<p>This thesis articulates physical activities of tangata whenua occupation and use as being central to the operations of ahi ka and fundamental to the demonstration of mana whenua and mana moana. The focus on use and occupation of land expresses ahi ka as a practical tool, but more importantly, as a catalyst of Maori tribal identity and cultural permanency. The customary framework of Nga Tatai Ahi Ka is applied to demonstrate intricacies, flexibility and fragility of ahi ka as a holistic tool, symbolic of identity, permanency and well-being. A richer understanding of ahi ka shows that its practical functions exceeds mere occupation and use by contributing to the socio-political, cultural, spiritual and intellectual landscape of Maori tribal peoples. The visioning of ahi ka casts the indigenous net wider by examining the local context of Mer Islands located in the Torres Strait Archipelago. Meriam customs and practices reveal the Malo ra Gelar framework as a holistic law of organisation, akin to ahi ka . Together, the Nga Ta tai Ahi Ka and Malo ra Gelar frameworks illustrate two complex and pragmatic knowledge systems as an assertion of two indigenous peoples' holistic relationships to their surrounding landscape. The usefulness of this research serves to open up new spaces of inquiry into ahi ka and Malo ra Gelar as holistic applications of self-determination, self-identification, and sovereignty of our future landscape, destinies and realities. Furthermore, its application could extend towards other indigenous nations to continuously challenge their colonial landscapes by privileging their holistic approaches as assertions of autonomy over people and place.</p>

Kia Maia ki te Kanga o Ta Koutou Ahi: Keeping the Home Fires Burning

<p>This thesis articulates physical activities of tangata whenua occupation and use as being central to the operations of ahi ka and fundamental to the demonstration of mana whenua and mana moana. The focus on use and occupation of land expresses ahi ka as a practical tool, but more importantly, as a catalyst of Maori tribal identity and cultural permanency. The customary framework of Nga Tatai Ahi Ka is applied to demonstrate intricacies, flexibility and fragility of ahi ka as a holistic tool, symbolic of identity, permanency and well-being. A richer understanding of ahi ka shows that its practical functions exceeds mere occupation and use by contributing to the socio-political, cultural, spiritual and intellectual landscape of Maori tribal peoples. The visioning of ahi ka casts the indigenous net wider by examining the local context of Mer Islands located in the Torres Strait Archipelago. Meriam customs and practices reveal the Malo ra Gelar framework as a holistic law of organisation, akin to ahi ka . Together, the Nga Ta tai Ahi Ka and Malo ra Gelar frameworks illustrate two complex and pragmatic knowledge systems as an assertion of two indigenous peoples' holistic relationships to their surrounding landscape. The usefulness of this research serves to open up new spaces of inquiry into ahi ka and Malo ra Gelar as holistic applications of self-determination, self-identification, and sovereignty of our future landscape, destinies and realities. Furthermore, its application could extend towards other indigenous nations to continuously challenge their colonial landscapes by privileging their holistic approaches as assertions of autonomy over people and place.</p>

Tribes at the Margin of Tribal Space: Urban Socio-Spatial Exclusion

Unlike the cities of the global North, where poor indigenous communities are primarily immigrants attracted to cities to secure better livelihoods, the tribals of Jharkhand in urban spaces are mostly ‘original inhabitants’. In Ranchi, their original state has been increasingly dwindled or marginalised and led to a dialectical process of socio-spatial poverty traps. This study attempts to understand the socio-spatial integration of the tribal community within Ranchi city through the identification of tribal toponymy and the patterns of clustering and concentration vis-à-vis the process of land association and dissociation. Further, it brings together the attributes of such a produced spatiality. Location Quotient, based on secondary data, and Key Informant Interviews with field observations are applied to measure the tribal concentration and the processes of spatiality, respectively. The findings present a dismal picture, where the tribals mostly find themselves at the margins of the city space, especially in the core-inner city and the microperipheral localities. The continuous inflow of outsiders, the issue of land rights and land alienation, the pattern of socio-spatial clustering and disadvantages, and the dynamics of tribal identity associations are all integrally connected in perpetuating tribals’ urban spatial exclusion and thereby their socio-spatial segregation.

Blaan T’logan: The Marker of Tribal Identity

Aims: To determine the identity and practices of the Blaan tribe of Kiblawan, Davao del Sur, Southern Philippines. Study Design: This study used the historical approach. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Kiblawan, Davao del Sur, Southern Philippines for 6 months. Methodology: Historical approach was used through the tribe’s oral tradition and elders’ revelations, triangulated by the tangible and immovable cultural property. Results: Just like the other tribes in the Davao region, the Blaan tribe has also their own unique beliefs and culture. The stories they believed in where obtained from their ancestors. Believing to these stories had become part of their daily living. To preserve their customary practices, the Blaan elders constructed the T’logan which the tribe considered a sacred community house, where several significant socio-cultural and political activities were held. The T’logan became a marker their identity and symbolizes community prestige, honor, pride and strong social cohesion. It was greatly valued by the tribe members since it embraced spiritual, social, and political significance. It was a place where disputes were settled, alliances were forged, marriages were officiated and other community rituals. Conclusion: Cultural preservation during this technologically advanced era and liberalized time is not easy. However, the unity of the Blaan elders and members is the key to reviving and promoting their beliefs and cultural practices not only for the tribe members but for the outside communities. Moreover, studying and dissimination of the Blaan tribe’s customary beliefs and cultures is a contribution which the educational institutions can do best.

Politico-cultural appropriation of Native American in American Indian poetry and drama: Unflinchingly documents the halfway existence

During the Twentieth century Native American literature evolved from anonymity into prominence by assuming a commitment to reflect the particular challenges that faced Native American people during last two centuries. Native American Literature illuminates about Native American lives, culture and how Indian values have changed from traditional tribal to mainstream ones that threatened tribal existence. The paper seeks to substantiate that this literature documents the horrible impact of brutal federal government on Indian’s lives through policies and programs designed to subject them to degrading and confining existence both on physical and mental levels. The paper also seeks to prove that the Indians in order to adapt themselves to the mainstream Euro-American ways lost their old ones along the way but could not adopt mainstream American lifestyle. At the turn of the Twenty First century, because of the coercive strategies for assimilation, American Indians residing on reservations could not become a part of mainstream America but the way back to traditionalism was also farther away and irreversible. The paper also strives to substantiate that Native American literature documents and provokes Indians to assert their tribal identity by retaining many of the tribal ways and values.

Legal pluralism and stigma: a case-study of customary resurgence in the Chakma communities of Bangladesh and India

This paper explores the complex iteration of ethnic identity and legal culture amongst the Chakma peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and the hill territories of Tripura, India. Its hypothesis is that the stigma of tribal identity is more likely to be sustained in situations of ‘weak’ pluralism – that is, where the customary system is formally annexed to the state. However, such stigma is more likely to be dispelled where numerous, competing legal jurisdictions collide in a ‘strong’ pluralism expressed as a relatively autonomous legal domain, overlapping legal jurisdictions and in the presence of a productive and potentially creative ‘interlegality’. Conversely, strong state recognition of identities, such as can be found in India, appears to be linked to weak local pluralism, creating an insular and inward-looking community that embraces stigma and the preservation and use of customary practices. In conclusion, this paper asserts that formal state recognition in a situation of legal pluralism tends to freeze identities in a facsimile of the colonial trope of tribe, whilst conflict between the communities and the state generates new and resistant identities and new iterations of customary law.

TRIBAL PERCEPTION IN MODERN WORLD BY TRANSFORMED SOCIAL PERCEPTION INDEX: A CASE STUDY OF PURULIA DISTRICT, WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Tribal identity has always been under tremendous challenges since the introduction of the different facets of materialistic development. The outrage of this development affects the habits and habitats of the tribal communities. The tribes have lost their soil and presently live in a multi-ethnic society. This cultural assimilation with controls of Hinduism in the rural society brings forth the transition in the life and living of these indigenous people. The paper highlights first the socio-ecological characteristics of three tribal communities of Purulia district, namely, Santhal, Kharia Sabar, and Birhor. It further investigates possible transition and transformation in the social perception among the selected tribal communities by introducing the Transformed Social Perception Index (TSPI). For statistical validation, the index has been computed based on extensive field observation and a purposive sample survey of 600 tribal households of the Purulia district. The result exhibits that despite the processes of different agents of transformation, the tribal communities restore their age-old inherent social perception. The paper in fine prescribes some measures for holistic tribal development in the district.