The KamarS. C. Dube's classic work The Kamar, originally published in 1951, was written at a crucial juncture in Indian history -- the end of colonial rule and the arrival of Indian independence. It is an important ethnography of an exploited and marginalized tribe in transition and a formative text in the history of Indian anthropology.* This study is based on careful fieldwork and enlivened by ethnographic sensitivity related to the author's long familiarity with region and subject* It presents a pioneering portrait of the Kamar, an adivasi community of hunter-gatherers and shifting-cultivators of Chattisgarh and Orissa* Combining brevity of style, economy of expression, and simplicity of structure, in the book, Dube discusses key themes in anthropology and sociology: economic life, social organization, and customary law, myth, legend, and ritual religion, magic and witchcraft and questions of 'cultural contact' and 'tribal adjustment'.* Nandini Sundar's insightful introduct ion situates Dube and his work in the current preoccupations of the discipline. Leela Dube, in a prefact to the new edition talks about the writing of The Kamar. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
ECONOMIC LIFE | 17 |
THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE | 62 |
Copyright | |
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aboriginal areas Baiga bamboo Bamhni basket-making baskets Bhachi Bhagwan Bhainsa Bhainsatara Bhunjia Bindranawagarh Zamindari bride brothers Central Provinces ceremonies Chhattisgarh Chhura Chikhli clan cooked Court of Wards culture dahi dahi and beora daughter deities Dhamtari Dokri Dube Dukalu earthen pots economic elder exogamy father's feast field Fingeshwar Zamindari fishing Garbhantora Gariaband Gata-Dooma girl goat Gonds grains Hindu hom-kuhra hunting husband India Itwari jungle Kachna Dhurwa Kamar country Kamar settlements Kamar society Kamar women katha Khariar labour liquor living Madhya Pradesh madwa Mahadeo mahalia Mainpur maran Markam marriage married Mata menfolk mohua mother Nawagarh neighbouring Netam occasionally offence ostracized paithu Panchayat Parvati person primitive Raipur district regarded rice rupees Russell and Hiralal Samaru Satdhar shifting cultivation shikar sister social son's Sonsah Sori Spouse's tiger tract tree tribal Panchayat tribes and castes un.m village wife wild woman worship