Tribal Studies -- Emerging Frontiers of Knowledge

Contents: Preface. Professor Annada Charan Bhagabati--a brief profile. Arunachal Institute of tribal studies. 1. Introduction. Culture and identity: 2. Cultural pluralism, identity and state--the Indian experience/Ajit K. Danda. 3. Nationalist discourse and cultural hegemony in the North-East--Arunachal Pradesh (NEFA) and the Indian mainstream since 1950s/Jadish Lal Dawar. 4. Bezbaroa\'s folktale collections and nationality discourse in Assam/Kishore Bhattacharjee. Expanding frontiers in Tribal Studies: 5. Influence of Islam on some tribal societies in North East India/A.N.M. Irshad Ali. 6. Reassessing researches into history of North East India/Amrendra Kr. Thakur. 7. Border negotiations/N. Nagaraju. Development perspectives: 8. Development, health and the tribals vis-a-vis traditional knowledge--some ramblings/R.K. Kar. 9. Textile tradition among some tribal communities of Assam--an overview/Labanya Mazumdar. 10. Prospects of cultural tourism in Arunachal Pradesh/Amitava Mitra. 11. Arunachal languages with special reference to Tani languages/P.T. Abraham. Social process: 12. Tribal society and issues of women\'s empowerment--some observations/Mini Bhattacharyya. 13. Indigenous people of the North East and constitutional provisions/Jeuti Barooah. 14. The Lamgang (Lamkang) social system/R.K. Ranjit Singh. Index.

"The interest to study the \'tribes\' has greatly contributed to the origin and growth of the discipline of Anthropology. However, over the years, the discipline has got diversified encompassing themes and communities pertaining to both the tribe and non-tribe categories. Civilizational studies, village studies, ecological studies, study of urban and industrial societies, etc. are a few examples. Nevertheless, the significance of the study of tribes has not been reduced with the diversification of the discipline of anthropology. Rather, growing inter-disciplinary interests in their study have been contributing, strengthening and evolving what we see as \'tribal studies\' in recent years. Not only academics, but NGOs and GOs also do take interest in tribal studies mainly in development perspectives. Conversely, concepts and approaches evolved from the study of the tribes are being applied to the understanding of current issues like identity, development, etc. in multi-disciplinary perspectives. The present volume with four thematic divisions, namely, culture and identity, expanding frontiers in tribal studies, development perspectives and social process and thirteen papers under these divisions broadly initiates a comprehensive exploration of the dynamics of tribal studies. Obviously, the strength of the volume emanates from the growing significance and emerging attention to the distinct analytical issues and empirical findings in the realm of tribal studies. No doubt, the volume will come handy among the NGO activists, planners, bureaucrats and social scientists in general and the students of tribal studies in particular not only in understanding the expanding frontiers of knowledge in the realm, but also in contextualizing the dynamics of perspectives and methodological issues." (jacket)