Study conducted at Santhal Parganas Division of Jharkhand State, India.

The Book Arises Out Of A Seminar On Santhal World View Held In 1997. The Essays Presented In The Book Address The Themes Of-Nature And Culture Sound And Language And Life Style And Worldview. 16 Papers-Index. The Participates From Various Disciplines In India But For Our Musicologist From Germany. Without Dustjacket.

This book explores the ‘folk’ performance genre of Kobigaan, a dialogic song-theatre form in which performers verse-duel, in contemporary West Bengal in India and Bangladesh. Thought to be a nearly extinct form, the book shows how the genre is still prevalent in the region. The author shows how like many other ‘folk’ practices in South and South-East Asia, the content and format of this genre has undergone vital changes thus raising questions of authenticity, patronage and cultural politics. She captures live performances of Kobigaan through ethnographies spread across borders — from village rituals to urban festivals, and from Bengali cinema to television and new media. While understanding Kobigaan from the practitioners’ points-of-view, this book also explores the crucial issues of gender, marginalization and representation that is true of any performance genre. Drawing on case studies, it underlines the issues of artistic agency, empowerment, cultural labour and heritage, ritual, authenticity, creative industries, media, gender, and identity politics. Part of the ‘South Asian History and Culture’ series, this book is a major intervention in South Asian folklore and performance studies. It also expands into the larger disciplines of literature, social and cultural movements in South Asia, ethnomusicology and the politics of performance.

Adivasis have principally been studied in the context of rebellion, environmental history and the politics of identity. However, preoccupations with definitions and notions of identity, while important in themselves, tend to shift attention away from the inner lives of these communities. This book deals with different aspects of the histories of adivasi communities -- from Rajasthan in the west to Bengal and Orissa in the east. The essays in this book discuss a range of issues affecting the socio-economic and cultural life of adivasis and explore the long term continuities and discontinuities between different political regimes. They also reflect some of the new concerns that have come up relating to methodology and sources, historiography and colonial concerns, the impact of missionaries, gender issues, the agrarian situation, famines and migration. Some of the issues addressed in this volume are the genesis and development of 'tribal' studies in India during the colonial period; the peasantization of adivasi groups and their assimilation within the Hindu caste fold as reflected in Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas; the work of the Protestant missions among the Santals of Chotanagpur; the social and ritual relations between the Bhils and the Rajput ruling dynasties of Dungarpur in southern Rajasthan; the aspect of agrarian change among the Hos of Singhbhum; the factors behind the migration from Chotanagpur, its nature and organization and its impact upon the adivasi village community; the question of women's agency in colonial Chotanagpur; and an exploration of land rights, witchcraft, employment patterns and how women challenged patriarchy in their everyday lives; and the impact of globalisation and liberalization upon adivasis in contemporary India. The book will be of use to students and scholars of history, anthropology and sociology and also to policy-planners.

For a full list of entries and contributors, sample entries, and more, visit the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women website. Featuring comprehensive global coverage of women's issues and concerns, from violence and sexuality to feminist theory, the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women brings the field into the new millennium. In over 900 signed A-Z entries from US and Europe, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and the Middle East, the women who pioneered the field from its inception collaborate with the new scholars who are shaping the future of women's studies to create the new standard work for anyone who needs information on women-related subjects.

Witch hunts are the result of gendered, cultural and socioeconomic struggles over acute structural, economic and social transformations in both the formation of gendered class societies and that of patriarchal capitalism. This book combines political economy with gender and cultural analysis to explain the articulation of cultural beliefs about women as causing harm, and struggles over patriarchy in periods of structural economic transformation. It brings in field data from India and South-East Asia and incorporates a large body of works on witch hunts across geographies and histories. Witch Hunts is a scholarly analysis of the human rights violation of women and its correction through changes in beliefs, knowledge practices and adaptation in structural transformation.