Performing arts

“Culture nourishes itself from nature / Without nature, culture cannot exist / without culture, a society cannot” – Vayali Folklore Group’s motto on its journey: “learning the traditional/local Knowledge systems practiced in and around the banks of River Nila (Bharatha Puzha) and share/impart the same to the young generation” through folk art dance performance.
https://www.vayali.org
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=1972

Use of the body to communicate, sing and tell stories: Challenges to the imposition of an allegedly modern culture on formerly or currently colonised regions

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In many formerly or currently colonised regions like South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the American South and Native America, there has always existed a rich, vibrant tradition of oral storytelling, one that was marginalised, often violently, through an imposition of an allegedly modern, white Western language and culture. […] Having grown up within the largely … Read more

eJournal | Special issue dedicated to the study of tribal culture in India (open access) – Asian Ethnology

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Kondagaon Dance Competition 2004 from Asian Ethnology on Vimeo. Editors’ Note Frank J. Korom (Boston University) & Benjamin Dorman (Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture), 28 September 2014, Nagoya, Japan This year we bring you a special double issue dedicated to the study of tribal culture in India. Some of our readers might wonder why we … Read more

A living martial art-based dance form: The practice of Firkal in a remote Bhumij tribal village of Chotanagpur – Jharkhand

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Firkal is an unusual name for a dance form. Many scholars of Indian dance as well as social anthropologists have not heard of it, far less seen it being performed. […] Older than Kalaripayattu, and even those martial art forms that trace its origins to China and Japan, Firkal is still very much a living … Read more

Future in the making – Kanavu Kerala Culture Club

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‘Kanavu’ means ‘dream‘. It is exactly a dream, an initiative of the alternative educational vision of K. J. Baby and his like-minded friends. The inception of the idea can be traced back to Maveli Manatram (1991), Baby‘s novel that was honoured on many stages including the Kerala Sahithya Academi Award of 1994. ‘Mantram’ is ‘tribe‘; … Read more

Video | “Please sister, pluck me a flower”: Santal puppetry and dhodro banam exponent Damon Murmu documented by Daricha Foundation – West Bengal

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Daman Murmu is a Santal puppeteer and Banam artist from North Dinajpur in West Bengal. He performs the rare Chadar Badani form of puppetry which is practically extinct among the Santals themselves. 69 year old artist, Damon Murmu of Mahanandapur village in Dakshin Dinajpur became properly acquainted with the unique puppetry form of Chadar Badani … Read more