{"title":"Thinking Minds, Virtual Bodies","authors":"Monali NandyMazumdar","doi":"10.48154/irsr.2021.0026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.48154/irsr.2021.0026","url":null,"abstract":"With the emergence of the pandemic, the world adapted virtually; dance education and performance were no exception. Particularly, Indian classical dance (ICD) education and practice garnered mixed reactions due to the deviations from the intimate personified practices which are inherent in the traditional ICD system. Therefore, certain changes in the system became mandatory. With reference to the ideal tenets of arts pedagogy as mentioned in the ancient performing arts treatise Natyashastra, this paper provides specific significant methodologies which can benefit the knowledge exchange process in ICD especially in the online environment. Derived from the training in the sciences, this paper is an attempt to inform the virtual ICD scenario regarding complementation of and improvements in the traditional ways of knowledge acquisition and dissemination. These ways will appreciably enrich the desired purposes of the “felt” and “embodied” which may have been lost with the shift to the virtual scenario.","PeriodicalId":37251,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46452270","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Abhinaya as Practice-as-Research","authors":"Kaustavi Sarkar, M. Yothi, Rohini Dandavate","doi":"10.48154/irsr.2021.0023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.48154/irsr.2021.0023","url":null,"abstract":"What does a collaborative process of an artistic creation entail? How does the individual components of text, music, and dance weave in a solo choreography? This article brings together the voices of the dancer (Sarkar), the choreographer (Dandavate), and the music composer (Mirle) who has also sung and is the curator of the project called Nachi Meera. This project has commissioned multiple artists working in different dance techniques to present Abhinaya-esque (meaning expressive dance works) expositions on songs by the renowned historical saint-poet Mirabai. Sarkar, Dandavate, and Mirle reflect upon their collaborative journeys in this reflective essay where the process of creating an Abhinaya is theorized as research. The dance piece itself stands by itself as a scholarly product with historical, performative, and artistic research methodologies informing the process. This article documents the collaborative process borrowing from scholar Robin Nelson’s Practice-as-Research (PaR) methodology and argues how the artistic product weaves verbal, kinesthetic, and aural communication in an iterative process of ‘doing-reflecting-reading-articulating-doing” (Nelson 32). Movement layers the intricacies of South Asian aesthetics or the Rasa theory that governs the mood of execution by the dancer. Improvisation through choreography supplements Mirabai’s lyrics and Mirle’s musical composition.","PeriodicalId":37251,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46598586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What’s in a dance? Dalkhai: from a religious community ritual, to a pro-scenium performance","authors":"Angelica Marinescu","doi":"10.48154/irsr.2021.0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.48154/irsr.2021.0028","url":null,"abstract":"An educational international project, initiated by a Romanian organisation, comprising folk dances from around the world, has challenged me to go deeper into understanding one of the most popular dance forms of Western Odisha, Dalkhai. Traditionally a religion-based folk dance connected to the agrarian culture of local Adivasi communities, it has been gradually developed into a cultural pattern of Odisha, Eastern India. Considering folklore as intangible cultural heritage of humanity, according to UNESCO definition, I explore the expression of this ritual-dance, in connection to the Adivasi culture, as Dalkhai is considered the goddess of fertility, initially worshipped by the tribal people/Adivasi like Mirdha, Kondha, Kuda, Gond, Binjhal, etc., but also in its recent metamorphosis into a proscenium representation. The Dalkhai dance is becoming visible and recognised at state, national and even international form of dance, while in the Adivasis communities it is noted that the ritual becomes less and less performed. Consulting the UNESCO definitions and documents on Intangible Cultural Heritage is useful for understanding how to approach a choric ritual, involving a tradition, music and dance, enhancing the importance of safeguarding cultural diversity while confronting cultural globalization. Its approach, in accordance with ‘universal cultural rights’, emancipatory politics concerning world culture and multiculturalism, opposes the disappearances and destruction of local traditions, indigenous practices. Heritage concerns the whole community, conferring an identity feeling, and supporting the transmission to the next generations, sustainable development, often involving economic stakes, becoming essential for developing the territories (Chevalier, 2000).","PeriodicalId":37251,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49199460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Reflection on The Inter-Semiotic Transformation of Select Vacanas of Akka Mahadevi into a Music-Dance Production","authors":"M. Jyothi","doi":"10.48154/irsr.2021.0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.48154/irsr.2021.0024","url":null,"abstract":"This project was set out to curate dance videos of select vacanas, meaning, religious free verses in Kannada, of Akka Mahadevi, a twelfth century poet from Karnataka, India. Vacanas are religious lyrics in free verse which mean ‘a saying’ or ‘a thing said’. By translating Akka’s vacanas to music and dance the project aimed to transport the essence of her poetry to the viewer. The symbols, images and metaphors used by the poet from discursive fields such as Bhakthi movement (a spiritual reform movement in India), Vedas, Upanishads, Yoga and feminism were re-interpreted through traditional music and dance styles recognized as classical arts by the national government, by a process of, what I theorize, as inter-semiotic transformation. Inter-semiotic transformation is the reinterpretation of symbols from one semiotic system, say, literature into others like music, dance, film or theatre. This paper analyses strategies of bringing poetry into the realm of aesthetic experience of viewers through the performing arts.","PeriodicalId":37251,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49002991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding Totemism of Oraon in the light of environmental conservation","authors":"R. H. Sahoo, Anil . Kumar","doi":"10.48154/IRSR.2019.0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.48154/IRSR.2019.0018","url":null,"abstract":"The present paper explores how traditional knowledge of totemism of the Oraon tribe of Achanakmar-Amarkantak Biosphere supports the conservation of biosphere. Naming of the clan totems after plants, animals, and other objects of their daily needs or ecosystem reveals their special necessity to the bio-diversity inevitable for their survival and the need for their conservation. Each clan group has its own faith, taboos and other practices which protect these species expressed in the form of clan totem which supports conservation of bio-diversity and natural resources. Genealogical study also reveals the inextricable role and functions of clan totems in the social system of the Oraon community.","PeriodicalId":37251,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social Research","volume":"9 1","pages":"187-199"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43145502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"State in Development: De-codify the Cultural Politics of Will to Develop the Adivasi of Jharkhand","authors":"Dhiraj Kumar","doi":"10.48154/IRSR.2019.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.48154/IRSR.2019.0015","url":null,"abstract":"Thinking of State in development illustrates that social life of an individual, community, society or territory becomes the subject of multiple interventions. The theology of development assumes that intervention is needed to reform the social life of an individual, community or society. State intervention in the name of development has a social and ecological cost for the indigenous community. State in Development is a series of events and actions as well as a particular discourse and ideological construct that demands examination to understand how state constructs the aesthetic deception which strengthened the State capacity to govern the unruly region of Indigenous population. It functions as a hegemonic order to order, control and represent the regions or populations where indigenous community are predominating in nature. This paper is about the issues and questions regarding the development intervention mediated and facilitated by State and the changes it has brought to local ecology of Jharkhand. By using the literature of political ecology this paper shows that development facilitated ecological degradation at local level while also induced State building and State formation among the local community.","PeriodicalId":37251,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social Research","volume":"9 1","pages":"147-164"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46434551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conservation Induced Marginalisation: The Case of Two Tribal Communities of Assam, India","authors":"Shapna Medhi","doi":"10.48154/IRSR.2019.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.48154/IRSR.2019.0019","url":null,"abstract":"In India, the indigenous people designated as the scheduled tribes (STs) by the Indian constitution have been dependent on forests for their survival. However, with the declaration of protected areas, the conservation plans have mostly overlooked the dependence of these tribes on nature. This paper looks into the adverse impact of conservation on two tribes, the Karbi and Mising, residing on the areas adjacent to the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) of Assam, India. It points out that the case of KNP shows a marked deviation regarding support for conservation by the marginalised communities inspite of hardships. It shows how conservation efforts have further aggravated their conditions. The study was conducted through in-depth interviews with respondents of two villages – a Karbi village and Mising village located on the fringes of the KNP. This paper also takes a cursory glance on the community related initiatives undertaken on the fringes of the KNP for the betterment of the socio-economic conditions.","PeriodicalId":37251,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social Research","volume":"9 1","pages":"200-212"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43284995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Territorialisation of Ethnic Space: Politics of Identity among the Bodo Tribes of Assam","authors":"Himani Ramchiary","doi":"10.48154/IRSR.2019.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.48154/IRSR.2019.0013","url":null,"abstract":"The relation between region and nation are understood as emerging simultaneously. An understanding of the articulacy of the Bodoland movement which demands a separate homeland in terms of a separate state carved out of Assam in India, demonstrates that, although the Bodoland movement challenges the distribution of autonomy over territory, it reflects in it the Bodo question of identity. This is reflected in the imagined boundaries which endow the problem of land alienation and render it in terms of ethnic space. At the same time, these boundaries present the viable part of being a home to many other communities other than the Bodos. In doing so, the Bodos trace their belongings and affiliations to a tribe. This study is a reflection upon how the Bodoland movement of the twentieth century takes up the issue of tribal land alienation in the proposed Bodo homeland. The paper intends to brings out the relation between land alienation and the government policies of land allotment which are being used for various development purposes.","PeriodicalId":37251,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social Research","volume":"9 1","pages":"122-135"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49016034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adivasis, Integration and the State in India: Experiences of Incompatibilities","authors":"Jagannath Ambagudia, S. Mohanty","doi":"10.48154/IRSR.2019.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.48154/IRSR.2019.0012","url":null,"abstract":"Anthropologists, administrators and policy makers debated the adivasis question in the post-independent India from the perspectives of isolation, assimilation and integration. Amidst discourses, integration approach was followed to address the adivasi issues in the post-colonial period. Following the integration approach, the Indian state made series of promises to the adivasis in terms of granting equal citizenship rights in social, economic, political and cultural spheres; providing equal opportunities and committed to preserve and protect adivasi culture and identity. Despite such promises, adivasis continue to live at the margin of the post-colonial state, and thereby experiencing different forms of marginalization, dispossession and deprivation. They have developed cynicism towards the integration policy and experiencing declining sense of involvement in the (mainstream) society. The integration approach of the Indian state has become a means of exclusion for the adivasis in India. Within this backdrop, the paper critically examines the contemporary dynamics of integration of adivasis in the Indian state.","PeriodicalId":37251,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social Research","volume":"9 1","pages":"108-121"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46628772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}