Paper short abstract:

The Napo Quichua group from northern part of Ecuador use education for imparting cultural identity on their young generation through the work of a small indigenous foundation that provides local people with ways to build strong cultural consciousness and exercise it in small local school.

Paper long abstract:

Education is a very strong tool for gaining cultural identity. The knowledge about cultural heritage might change the course of history for small scale communities. In many cases it is the young generation that loses its identity as the old knowledge is forgotten or considered unworthy. Drawing on the fieldwork done in Ecuador between 2007 and 2012 among Quichua people in Ecuador this paper focuses on the project of small indigenous foundation that works towards strengthening children cultural identity through education. The children in local Quichua primary school learn from Spanish books that promote Western cultural patterns. The main aim of the project is to create an elementary book for the school children that would promote Quichua cultural values and traditions. Quichua Indians had their first contact with Western culture more than 400 years ago. Their culture is largely assimilated, but there are some remnants of traditions even if they are not practiced on a day to day basis. Today children learn from Spanish, Ecuadorian handbooks and very often are not interested in the traditional knowledge. Creation of the elementary book based on Quichua myths and traditions will let the younger generation appreciate the traditional knowledge. The elementary book for first and second grade of the primary school will be a great help in developing strong cultural identity in the young Quichua generation. The paper will discuss the project, its influence on the local people's cultural identity and the drawbacks that the project is facing.

Paper short abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to locate indigenous issues and knowledge areas of social and cultural anthropology, sociology, folklore, archaeology, and cultural studies. Paper covers the indigenous situation around the state of Jharkhand.

Paper long abstract:

In India, 461 ethnic groups are recognized as Scheduled Tribes, and these are considered to be India's indigenous peoples. In mainland India, the Scheduled Tribes are usually referred to as Adivasis, which literally means indigenous peoples. With an estimated population of 84.3 million, they comprise 8.2% of the total population. There are, however, many more ethnic groups that would qualify for Scheduled Tribe status but which are not officially recognized. Estimates of the total number of tribal groups are as high as 635. The largest concentrations of indigenous peoples are found in the seven states of north-east India, and the so-called "central tribal belt" stretching from Rajasthan to West Bengal. India has several laws and constitutional provisions, such as the Fifth Schedule for mainland India and the Sixth Schedule for certain areas of north-east India, which recognize indigenous peoples' rights to land and self-governance.

The laws aimed at protecting indigenous peoples have numerous shortcomings and their implementation is far from satisfactory. India has a long history of indigenous peoples' movements aimed at asserting their rights.

Paper covers the indigenous situation around the state of Jharkhand.. Social, economic, political, ecological and environmental issues are taken into consideration to grasp insight of indigenous life, livelihood, and contemporary situation.

Paper short abstract:

This paper is an attempt to identify almost all the documents on Dhimals, which has a historical importance in the field of anthropological research, and also to conclude the status of Dhimals as per previous writings.

Paper long abstract:

The Dhimal of North Bengal had categorized as non-Aryan tribe by eminent scholars of pre-Independent India. However, several years after Independence, they have been going through a non-recognition period simply by wiped out from Govt records. Recently they have been classified as Other Backward Classes (OBC) of West Bengal. Even in terms of education, occupation or Social-Cultural context they are very similar to tribal communities of West Bengal even primitive one. Therefore, they (Dhimals) demand for Scheduled tribe status instead of OBCs.

The present paper is an attempt to identify almost all the documents on Dhimals, which has a historical importance in the field of Anthropological research, and also to conclude the status of Dhimals.

Paper short abstract:

The indigenous people of the CHT in Bangladesh have been struggling for identity recognition. Moreover, the Bengali resettlement project in the region has continued to affect their traditional culture. This paper examines socio-cultural impacts of resettlement on the indigenous people of the CHT.

Paper long abstract:

The CHT is home to indigenous people who are religiously different from dominant Muslim Bengali in Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh saw the CHT as a major opportunity to resettle landless Bengalis from plain lands. Consequently, about 400,000 Bengalis moved into the region between 1977 and 1987. As a result, the percentage of Bengalis in the CHT rose from 26 percent in 1974 to 48 percent in 1991. Settlers were received lands and cash incentives for resettlements which encouraged them infusing Bengali cultural influences in the region. It has several sociocultural consequences on indigenous people: destruction of agricultural system, change in the names of indigenous localities, attack of religious institutions, and above all their forceful eviction from lands. Resettlement has been associated with increased conflict between Bengalis and indigenous people. Whilst Bengali resettlement project relocated landless Bengalis in the CHT, this paper argues that the project severely obstructed the everyday lives of indigenous people. The implications of Bengali resettlement project on ethnic minorities have not been investigated. This paper concludes with a discussion of potentials in research on anthropological theory on population resettlement, particularly in issues of sociocultural changes. The paper suggests that a unified approach integrating perceptual and negotiating variables with social structure is warranted for a holistic understanding of resettlement. Such a perspective requires analyzing the local people responses in a broad historical, social and cultural context, given the fact that options for resettlement are largely the products of existing social structures.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper I am trying to highlight the history of the many indigenous communities living in different ecological zones in India and the high magnitude of sickle cell gene distribution in different parts of India.

Paper long abstract:

Sickle hemoglobin is a structural variant of normal adult haemoglobin results from a single amino acid of beta globin molecule (β 6Glu→Val). Sickle cell is most common pathological haemoglobin variant in the world. The data includes from castes and communities, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes covering western, southern, central, northern and eastern India. In India study on sickle cell anaemia mostly confined on tribal groups and very few on other populations. In India, HbS gene ranges from 0 to 40.00 percent among different Indian populations that includes castes, communities and tribes. Among Mahar HbS ranges from 0 to 24.00 percent while that of sickle cell disease ranges from 0 to 6.00 percent. In other caste groups it ranges from 0 to 9.00 percent while among Brahmin and Muslim populations it ranges from 0 to 4.50 percent and 0 to 3.00 percent respectively. Sickle cell present in high frequency among the scheduled tribes as compared to other ethnic groups- castes, scheduled castes and communities. The high magnitude of sickle cell gene has been located from South India followed by Central, Western with sporadic cases from Eastern India.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will focus on the aspect of culture survival of the local/indigenous/folk/marginalized peoples in this era of global market economy.

Paper long abstract:

Common people are often considered as pre-state primitive groups believing only in self-reliance, autonomy, transnationality, migration and ancient trade routes. They seldom form their ancient urbanism, own civilization and Great Traditions. Or they may remain stable on their simple life with fulfillment of psychobiological needs. They are often considered as serious threat to the state instead and ignored by the mainstream. They also believe on identities, race and ethnicity, aboriginality, city state, nation state, microstate and republican confederacies. They could bear both hidden and open perspectives. They say that they are the aboriginals. States were in compromise with big trade houses to counter these outsiders, isolate them, condemn them, assimilate them and integrate them. Bringing them from pre-state to pro-state is actually a huge task and you have do deal with their production system, social system and mental construct as well. And till then these people love their ethnic identities and are in favour of their cultural survival that provide them a virtual safeguard and never allow them to forget about nature-human-supernature relationship: in one phrase the way of living.

Here this whole thing is to be discussed in terms of the Sub-Himalayan Folk People of North Bengal including the Rajbanshis.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper tries to explore the major aspects of how traditional and indigenous medicinal knowledge is surviving among the Soliga tribe in Karanataka.

Paper long abstract:

Over the last decades, awareness has increased about the phenomenon of medical knowledge and its importance of integrating biomedicine and other forms of health care. The broad variety of healing cultures existing alongside biomedicine is called complementary or alternative medicine in industrialized countries and traditional medicine in developing countries. Indigenous communities throughout the world have medical systems which are heavily based on surrounding nature, supernatural beings and belief systems. With globalization and economic liberalization these medical systems are exposed to other medical systems, including modern bio-medicine is a complex one in the sense that it encompasses a variety of practices that employ magic, religion, physical pressure, plant and animal products and even the allopathic medicine representing medical pluralism. During the course of history Indigenous people have evolved various mechanisms to overcome ill health and disease based on traditional and Indigenous knowledge. According to the ethno-medical systems of Indigenous peoples various diseases and health disorders are vaguely categorized into infections, nutritional deficiencies, malfunctions of bodily organs and accidental attacks. Though all these diseases are believed to have been caused due to various mystical reasons, the diagnosing practices clearly indicate they are still in search of ascertaining the actual cause of diseases.

Paper short abstract:

The main objective of the paper is to understand the traditional medicinal knowledge and practice among Hakkipikki tribal community in Karnataka under the modernization world.

Paper long abstract:

The department of Health and Family Welfare in India has been provided the health care service facilities to every citizen. Indeed, under the globalization era there is a major change in health care services not only in urban areas but also in rural area. However, some population like tribal community still believe and practice of medicinal methods of their own to cure the health problems. In India, the Hakkipikki tribes are basically semi nomadic have four clan divisions namely the Gujaratia, Kaliwala, Mewars and Panwara. The origin of these Hakkipikki tribal communities also has got a rich history behind it. However, the main objective of the paper was to understand the traditional medicinal knowledge and practice among Hakkipikki tribal community in Karnataka under the modernization world. In order to investigate the task a case studies was conducted in Subbarayana Palya village in Bangalore. Around 200 families were interviewed for this purpose and based on the information provided by the respondents the discussion and conclusion was drawn for the study.The main objective of the paper is to understand the traditional medicinal knowledge and practice among Hakki-Pikki tribal community in Karnataka under the modernization world.

Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses how contemporary forces such as globalization, privatization etc have deeply affected the ways of life, livelihood and identity of the indigenous communities in South India which are based on crafts for their survival.

Paper long abstract:

Contemporary forces sch as globalization, privatization and liberalization has deeply affected the life, livelihood and identity of the communities worldwide. Quite a few studies have been made on the impact on agriculture, fishing,forestry etc., in relation to those communities involved in those pursuits. However not many studies have been carried out to assess the impact of these forces on the traditional crafts and artisan communities. This paper tries to explore the major cosequences of the recent forces on some of the artisan communities in Tamil Nadu, outh India namely, the Thatchar, the Velar, the Saurashtra, the Shanar, the Asari, the Korawar, the Todas, and the Kotas on their crafts. This paper discusses the changes in the socio-economic systems of indigenous peoples that have resulted from the transition to a market economy.It also analyses their folklore,division of labour and associated life styles in relation to their crafts with special reference to the gender among them.

Paper short abstract:

The indigenous people are confronted with the basic issue of maintaining their identity which is closely linked to the environment they live in but the mainstream society in any country seems to consider those natural resources as ready raw materials for the production of consumer goods.

Paper long abstract:

The tribal population of India constitutes nearly 8.2 percent of the total population. The indigenous or tribal people of India and elsewhere in the world is confronted with the basic issue of maintaining their identity which is closely linked to the natural resources and the environment they live in. The tribes of India today seem to have been living a life of uncertainty because their life-world is in a phase of transition in the face of the challenges posed by the forces of modernization and globalization. These areas, once largely inaccessible, have been put within man's reach with the help of modern technologies. As a result, the state planners and policy makers, in the name of development often falters to take into account the need of the tribal population and their age-old economic and cultural rights. The tribal areas are the repositories of 80.00 to 85.00 percent of the India's total mineral resources, thus resulting in large scale land alienation, mass displacement, deforestation and migration of tribes to the cities and towns. Being landless and poverty stricken, the tribes migrate in considerable numbers to the cities and towns in search of a livelihood. Gradually they settle down in the city slums where the conditions of living are almost precarious. They lose their identity and are forced to cope up with a lifestyle which is unknown to them.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper I am trying to highlight about the health and hygienic profile of urban communities.

Paper long abstract:

By tracing its way through people's earlier understanding and perception about health, disease and its determinants the present talk evolves to the level of sharing of glaring vital statistics affecting health of individuals inhabiting developing countries, including India. The role of socio-cultural, behavioural, ethnic, and environmental factors in the context of people's health have been highlighted. The concern regarding substantially higher rates of mortality and morbidity encountered amongst individuals. In this paper I am trying to bring the health and hygienic profile of Muslims and other populations in urban and rural areas in Kolkata metropolitan city in terms hemoglobin count and blood pressure and other diseases. Urban populations have invariably high incidence of hypertension in both populations. Interestingly hypertension is more common in Muslim females than males in both urban and rural areas, but it is other way in case of Muslims invariably have high haemoglobin count in both sexes and locales. The findings have been discussed in relation to their family income, family size, education, migration etc.

Paper short abstract:

The cotton fabric made out of Ikkat work is popularly woven by the Bhuliya Community of the western part of Odisha. They are forgetting their occupational identity and members are into occupational mobility. The study investigates perception of the members involved at different levels of weaving.

Paper long abstract:

One of the reasons Odisha (state in India) is famous worldwide is due to its richness in textile. This textile is weaved in the western part of Odisha and named after its place of origin Sambalpur as; 'The Sambalpuri Textile'. Bhulias are skilled weavers and produce superior quality of cotton fabrics. Even the coarsest cloths are woven with dainty border. The particular about this caste is that, they are migrated, having a distinct culture, life style and methodology of weaving. They differ from other weaving castes of Odisha because of their unique methodology and designs. The paper explores the contribution of Bhulia caste and their endeavour to keep their identity in a multicultural setting. The study also tries to analyze the story behind their origin, their migration to Odisha, and their culture which is as much as beautiful and interesting as the textile they weave. Gradually in the era of globalization, Bhulias are forgetting their occupational identity and the new generation is mobilizing to different occupations. The paper tries to find out the present situation of this caste group and the dilemma regarding their identity. Due to such occupational mobility this unique way of weaving slowly but surely has forced to it extinction putting the cultural identity in danger. The paper also makes a humble attempt to understand the different perception of the member of this Indigenous weaving group involved at different levels of weaving.