North Bengal Anthropologist, Vol. 03

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://ir.nbu.ac.in/handle/123456789/5277

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Now showing 1 - 15 of 15

Open Access
Incidence of Colour Blindness among the Santals of East Singhbhum, Jharkhand
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Karmakar, Sarnendu; Biswas, Subir
Open Access
Forms and Applications of Folk media in West Bengal: Notes from Empirical Observations
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Bandyopadhyay, Sumahan
Folk media are a part of traditional media that do a great deal of communication in our society particular in the areas where the reach of conventional media is limited or discouraging. There are a number of folk media traditionally present in predominantly rural West Bengal. An attempt has made in this paper to classify these folk media and to know the current state of their applications. Here evolution of folk media vis-à-vis folk journalism has been discussed. The examples of various forms of folk media have been presented to show that it basically rooted in the particular socio-economic context. Thus one cannot deny the relevance of folk media even today.
Open Access
Issues of Child Rights: A Case Study
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Biswas, Samar Kumar; Gan, Biswanath
Children are the building blocks of a nation. If they are provided the appropriate kind of development, they contribute to the nation’s growth in a big way, when they grow old. However, today the violation of child rights is widely rampant and it is a crucial issues overall the world. They are child, therefore, they cannot protest against it. They are not able to demand, they have no capacity to form a union, and probably incapable of seeking, and therefore public opinion about the rights of the child is not supposed to be claimed by the child itself. It is necessary to be done by those who are responsible for taking care of the child. The children have no right to demand in the sense they have not the capacity to demand but the child has accepted rights as given in the convention. In this context, the present study has been done on the child workers in Balasan River Basin of Darjeeling district, West Bengal, India, where most of the people are engaged in stone based economy and earned very little, which is not sufficient for maintaining their daily livelihood. Most in cases, the parents of these children are unable to provide the necessary requirements to their children; and thus, from the very beginning, most of the children are bound to engage in this work to support their families. Due to this fact, most of the child workers are deprived of their basic rights like food, shelter, proper education, health; and leisure and recreation, intellectual development, growth, freedom and so on. There are so many factors responsible for it. In this concern, in the light of child rights violation- how the children are being exploited in the economic field; and how their education, health, and development as well are being affected have been discussed in this article.
Open Access
Anoxia Nervosa: A Brief Introduction
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Tigga, Pushpa Lata
Anoxia Nervosa Eating disorders are relatively rare among the general population. This review discusses the literature on the incidence, prevalence and mortality rates of eating disorders. Study searched online Medline/Pubmed, Embase and PsycINFO databases for articles published in English using several key terms relating to Anoxia Nervosa an eating disorders and epidemiology. Anorexia nervosa is relatively common among young women. While the overall incidence rate remained stable over the past decades, there has been an increase in the high risk-group of 15–19 year old girls. It is unclear whether this reflects earlier detection of anorexia nervosa cases or an earlier age at onset. All eating disorders have an elevated mortality risk; anorexia nervosa the most striking. Compared with the other eating disorders, binge eating disorder is more common among males and older individuals.
Open Access
The Jarawa (Ang) Territory: Historical Manifestations and Contextual Situations in Andaman Islands
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Ghosh, Amit Kumar; Biswas, Samar Kumar
This manuscript is an attempt to analyse different manifestations of Jarawa (Ang) territory in terms of historical context and present situations in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Jarawa (Ang) is one of the last remaining Negrito hunter-gatherer communities of Andaman and until recently they were living in complete isolation from so called civilized society. From different historical documents it is also evident that compared to the Great Andamanese tribe, the Jarawa (Ang) is the later immigrants at the Great Andaman Island and they were living in a continuous conflict and clash during pre- British colonization period also. Except few sporadic contact events, Jarawa (Ang) never came into a friendly relationship with the outsiders during about 150 years of British colonization and 50 years of post-independence period. Due to different historical specific and contextual specific reasons, the Jarawa (Ang) territory had never been a fixed geographical area. It was in continuous change and shift from coastal to the interior forest areas and from south to north direction. This change of Jarawa (Ang) territory is not merely the physical shifting of particular community from one place to another. It has many sociocultural and demographic implications and consequences. After independence a demarcated area has been declared as reserve forest for pursuing their livelihood. The present day Jarawa (Ang) territory (1028 sq. km) is surrounded by different dominant neighboring settler communities from three sides at South, East and North. The notionally and geographically demarcated boundary of Jarawa (Ang) territory is merely an administrative category; it does not make any sense for a nomadic hunter-gatherer community like Jarawa (Ang). A reciprocal relationship has already been established between Jarawa (Ang) and neighboring villager. Across the boundary this reciprocity is the prime source of many changes in Jarawa (Ang) society and culture.
Open Access
Growth of Megacities and Decline of Small Towns in India: Why it Demands Attention from Planners and Policy Makers
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Chaudhuri, Sumita
The slow growth of small towns and stagnation, decay and declassification of several such towns in a period of rapid urbanization in India is a phenomenon which have not received much attention from demographers or economic planners. The slow growth, stagnation or decay of a large number of small towns is a phenomenon which must be studied historically. The stagnation of small towns in the era of planned industrialization and urbanization deserves serious attention from planners and policy makers in India.
Open Access
Rhymes and Riddles in the Texts and Contexts of Folk-Games in West Bengal: An Ethnographic Study
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Das, Abhijit
Folk-games are one of the important indigenous elements of expressive folkculture of West Bengal till the advancement of culture under globalization. These games, being orally transmitted tradition, are part and parcel of the pastime recreation of the rural children. The variegated patterns of folk-games can be broadly categorized as chasing, rhyming, chance, jumping, counting and so on. Some game texts, consisting of rhymes, riddle, couplets, etc often express certain cognitive as well as historical aspects of age old Bengali culture of West Bengal. These may also be considered as the vital elements of folk-literature, too. Now-a-days due to the impact of urbanization, industrialization mass media influence as well as modernization, the folk as well as indigenous elements in the game texts are changing rapidly. A very time has come to let them survive and revive from their probable extinction in near future from the wider gamut of folk culture of the Bengali core. Folklorists, anthropologists and historians should have the responsibility to study those vital elements of folk culture of West Bengal in the era of globalization.
Open Access
Socio-Economic and Environmental Dimensions on Health: A Study on the Santals of West Midnapore and Bankura
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Roy, Samik
The most interesting feature of the tribal economy is that the majority of the tribals depend on agriculture, but they do not depend on it exclusively. Their economy is also based on forest collection and daily labour work; it is considered as a significant occupation among the tribals. Collection of forest products is a very common practice among the Santal tribes residing mostly in the eastern part of India. They not only collect different food items from the forest, but also earn through it when the surplus items are sold at the local markets. The tribal health is also connected directly or indirectly to their economic and socio-cultural conditions and environmental situation, particularly the forest ecology. This paper attempts to explore the implications of socio-economic factors and forest on health on the Santals of West Midnapore and Bankura Districts of West Bengal.
Open Access
Awareness of Education and Scheduled Caste: A Case Study
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Chowdhury, Madhurima
A trend has emerged of not defining education as a "human right" anymore, but of rather calling it a "human need". The Scheduled Castes are historically disadvantaged people who are given express recognition in the Constitution of India. During the period of British rule in the Indian sub-continent they were known as the Depressed Class. The caste system has created and sustained an unequal opportunity structure, which is anathema to the egalitarian principles which are the basis of a modern democratic society. What is worse, it intensifies and perpetuates the sufferings and servitude of disadvantaged caste class groups by reducing their access to development benefits vis-a-vis the higher caste class groups. The right to education originates from the apparent motion that it is obligatory for the state to provide education to its citizens. The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2010 describes the modalities having the provision for free and compulsory education for children between 6 to 14 years under Article 21A of the Indian constitution. This Act makes education as fundamental right of every child enforceable by law. Education is empowerment for socio-economic mobility, an instrument for reducing socio-economic inequalities, and equipment to trigger growth and development. In India, the total literacy rate is 74.04%. The male literacy rate is 82.14% and the female literacy rate is 65.46%. The literacy rate of Scheduled Caste males is 73.0% and that of the female is 52.1%. The study was conducted at Ramchandrapur village of Bangaon Sub-Division of North 24 Parganas covering both the sexes of the Scheduled Castes to understand the gender disparity, if any, in the studied villages. The objective of the study is to understand Right to Education and Right to Equality of Scheduled Caste, to study the nature and level of education of Scheduled Caste, particularly examining the disparity of education, if any, and to study educational rights and awareness about the rights among the Scheduled Caste.
Open Access
Advent of Vaishnavism in an Animistic Environ: The case of the Deoris of Assam
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Medhi, Birinchi K.; Bhuyan, Monimugdha
Animism is one of the oldest form of religion, which is professed by almost all the tribes of the world. Most of the tribes of North East India, both in the hills and plains, professed animism from time immemorial. The Deoris of Assam, a scheduled tribe principally concentrated in the Brahmaputra valley, are traditionally animist. The Deoris are a patriarchal tribe divided in to four sections. Agriculture is their mainstay and their material culture has been developed centring paddy cultivation. Traditionally they were the worshippers of natural objects. Data for this paper have been collected from Majar Chapari Village of Lakhimpur District, Assam. The village is surrounded by the Assamese Hindu villages and the inhabitants of those villages practised Vaishnavism – a form of Hinduism. Gradually good number of traits of this religious system percolated to the society and culture of the Deoris of Majar Chapari village. In this paper a modest attempt has been made to examine the Vaishnavism practised by the Deori inhabitants of Majar Chapari Village.
Open Access
Decision Making in Family Planning: A Human Rights Issue
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Biswas, Homprabha; Ray, Subha
A woman has the right to control over her own body and take decision regarding reproductive health free from any form of coercion, discrimination and violence. She further has the right to be informed and have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning. The present study was conducted on a group of married Muslim women of West Bengal with the objective to understand the role of these women in taking decision in adopting family planning practice and choosing contraceptive types. Data on socio-economic details, family planning practices and decision making ability were collected on 100 women, who were in wedlock and with at least one child. Results of the study reveal that 69 per cent of the study population was adopters of family planning, and in all the cases the husbands of these women took decision in choosing contraceptive types.
Open Access
HIV/AIDS Awareness among the Tribals of West Bengal and Consequent Challenges
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Chaudhuri, Buddhadeb
Open Access
Extremist Violence and Life of the Indigenous People inside Red Corridor in India
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Midya, Dipak K
India’s mineral-rich districts in and along the so-called Red Corridor are the abode of the country’s poorest of the poor indigenous people. It is no surprising that these people are mostly illiterates and have been suffering from severe malnutrition. For the last four decades or more, the region has been extremely affected by the extremist violence led by the Maoists vis-à-vis the counter-insurgency programme of the state. The people, mostly tribals, living in the midst of the two embattling forces operating across the region are now bewildered. They are losing many of their socio-cultural distinctiveness. The paradoxes between the Maoist ideology and acts made the indigenous groups worry of about the contradictions between the projected aspiration and apparent result of the extremist violence. In the course of time, they are found to distancing themselves from the movement and adopt a survival strategy based upon the revival of their ethnic consolidation. With a case study of Junglemahal in Southern Bengal, the present study observes that stronger the elements of ethnic consolidation, lesser the possibility of engaging with the extremist violence.
Open Access
Role of Satras in the Spread of Art and Culture with Special Reference to Barpeta Satra
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Goswami, Mridusmita
The most notable characteristic of the neo-Vaisnavite movement in Assam is the Satra institution through which the faith was propagated and established. It may be monastic as well as semi-monastic in form. The importance of this institution lies in the fact that it is intimately connected with the Assamese society and it has become a part and parcel of Assamese life. The history of Vaisnavism in Assam cannot be treated without reference to the Satra institution. For the Vaisnavite movement in Assam the Satra institution plays an important role in the spread of Assamese culture and acts as an aid in making the Assamese society united. The Satra has been working as a center of various art forms, such as Literature, Drama, Song and Dance, Craft and Painting etc. The objective that has been formulated for the study was to know about the role of Satra institution in Assam. The study also tried to study the role of Barpeta Satra in the spread of art and culture. The study was based on both primary and secondary sources of informations.
Open Access
Deforestation: Issues and Impacts on Agriculture- an Ethnographic Study in the village Chirudih, Purulia, West Bengal
(University of North Bengal, 2015) Ray, Bedprakash