This article is an attempt to re-examine folk material related to the Khasis (A tribe from Meghalaya, India), and discussing them in a manner that will throw light on the larger question of identity. The important connection between identity and folklore can never be denied .Folklore is the most important source for the construction, articulation and perpetuation of identities in oral and semi-oral communities. The Khasi society is one such tribal community, that is gradually making a transition from folk society to a modernized one. Societal transition across cultures in every part of the globe has never been an easy one. Very often folklore of a people is used as an instrument in identity politics, as has happened with the Khasi society and …show more content…
Most important is the function that the presumed ancestry plays in maintaining the present for the group-its core myths and beliefs systems that serve to provide cohesion for the present. It may be emphasized that these myths and beliefs systems are not only important to ensure the continuity of the group, but also making the past a living and vital part of the present, where accuracy of the memories of the past are less important than the memories themselves. For example the Khasi Origin Myth of Ki Hynniew Trep (The Seven Huts) is constantly being referred too, in order to build and enhance identity consciousness. The Khasis refer to themselves as the people of the Hynniew Trep, believing and building upon the myth’s believability. These myths or what the Khasis refer to as Khanatang, are important part of what constitutes ‘oral literature’ among the Khasis-having been the building blocks upon which rituals, traditions and the Khasi identity have been constructed upon. To take this up further, I will translate, in part, the Origin Myth of the Khasis-a version narrated by Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, to better understand the role these myths play in establishing a culture, a religion and an identity that is uniquely
Within this paper, a glimpse into the Yupiaq society will hopefully be accomplished by answering a few questions. First question, what is the Yupiaq worldview? Next, what are the core values that are essential to the success of Yupiaq society? And finally, how are those values expressed in their approach to subsistence behaviors and knowledge of their environment?
For this study, researcher classified the cultural identity of the participants as traditional, assimilated, bicultural, or marginalized by how they identified with highly with Indian values, highly with white values, ewally with both, or with none.
Lahiri, a second-generation immigrant, endures the difficulty of living in the middle of her hyphenated label “Indian-American”, whereas she will never fully feel Indian nor fully American, her identity is the combination of her attributes, everything in between.
The novel “Indian Horse” by Richard Wagamese demonstrates the many conflicts that indigenous people encounter on a daily basis. This includes things such as, the dangers they face and how they feel the need to flee to nature, where they feel the most safe. Another major issue they face is being stripped of their culture, and forcibly made to believe their culture is wrong and they are less of a human for being brought up that way, it makes them feel unworthy. Finally, when one is being criticised for a hobby they enjoy due to their indigenous upbringing, they make himself lose interest and stop the hobby as it makes them different and provokes torment. People who are trying
Identity is 'how you view yourself and your life.'; (p. 12 Knots in a String.) Your identity helps you determine where you think you fit in, in your life. It is 'a rich complexity of images, ideas and associations.';(p. 12 Knots in a String.) It is given that as we go through our lives and encounter different experiences our identity of yourselves and where we belong may change. As this happens we may gain or relinquish new values and from this identity and image our influenced. 'A bad self-image and low self-esteem may form part of identity?but often the cause is not a loss of identity itself so much as a loss of belonging.'; Social psychologists suggest that identity is closely related to our culture. Native people today have been faced with this challenge against their identity as they are increasingly faced with a non-native society. I will prove that the play The Rez Sisters showed this loss of identity and loss of belonging. When a native person leaves the reservation to go and start a new life in a city they are forced to adapt to a lifestyle they are not accustomed to. They do not feel as though they fit in or belong to any particular culture. They are faced with extreme racism and stereotypes from other people in the nonreservational society.
The way of the Ju/‘hoansi life has changed dramatically in many ways throughout the years. However, it is still possible to reflect upon their original way of life and compare it with their present state of living. Most of the changes occurred due to environmental, economical, developmental, social and cultural changes. All of which play a vital role in determining a Ju’s way of life. Although the land of the Dobe and !Kangwa have developed and changed in recent years, there are still some remnants of how the environment used to be. A significant shift in social and cultural aspects of the Ju/‘hoansi life can be observed in the new environment. However, some important aspects of their culture and belief system are still reflected in their everyday lives.
Levi, J. (1998, Mar). The embodiment of a working identity: Power and process in Ramamuri ritual healing. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 23(3), 13-46.
Indian society was patriarchal, centered on villages and extended families dominated by males (Connections, Pg. 4). The villages, in which most people lived, were admini...
In the present day world of globalization, with convergence of heterogeneous cultures and hybridization of identities, and ever growing transnational migration, geographical boundaries are becoming redundant. The definitions and ideas of ‘home’, ‘identity’ and ‘culture’ have undergone changes with spatial politics and its displacement, intimacy, inclusion and exclusion. This paper makes an attempt to understand the conflicts of identity and culture before the Indian diaspora with reference to The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.
Bhabha, Homi K. Interview by J. Rutherford. Identity, Community, Culture, Difference. 1990. J. Rutherford. London, Lawrence and Wishart: 207-221
Many will ask what role does identity and culture play in the society? As a matter of fact, culture is that one factor that speaks to us about our origin. According to Lahiri “For my parent, home was not our house at Rhode Island, but Calcutta, where they were raised. I was aware that the things they lived for, the Nazrul songs they listened to on the real to real, the family they missed, the cloths my mother wore that were not available in any store in any mall” (pg 612). On this quote, Lahiri tries to explain the way of living her parents left behind before moving to America in search for better lives, her parents found themselves in a strange new environment that necessarily doesn’t collaborate with their past cultural values, but they coped with it and the sense of origin from which they were raised still follows
The Study of Ethnomusicology - Thirty-one Issues and Concepts [Book] / auth. Nettl Bruno. - Champaign : University of Illinois Press, 2005.
In this book writer has also used the perspective of psychoanalysis to examine lahiri’s fiction and it has also used different ideas of Sigmund fraud, Andre Greene and Julia kristeva. The book comprises of four chapters and the first chapter of the book Diaspora Hereafters pertains the gap between first generation and second generation. First generation In Unaccustomed Earth is Indian American Immigrants with their American born children living in a community of diaspora, maintaining their American identity and also resisting their parent’s love for past life, migration experience and their memories of their mother country (1). Jhumpa lahiri’s interviews always gives an indication that after her parent’s death she felt she had lost her identity (2). The second chapter is Revenant Melancholy which deals with Kaushik crime and exile. The third chapter is Dead Mothers and Haunting which describes intentions of Hema. The fourth chapter is Future of Diaspora which explains the loss of immigrants’ identity and loss of mother land. Still this books lacks in describing immigrants predicaments due to shift in their identities. Though researcher has defined the problems of immigrants but lahiri’s play of continuous shifting identities is not even touched by
Indigenous Knowledge (IK) can be broadly defined as the knowledge and skills that an indigenous (local) community accumulates over generations of living in a particular environment. IK is unique to given cultures, localities and societies and is acquired through daily experience. It is embedded in community practices, institutions, relationships and rituals. Because IK is based on, and is deeply embedded in local experience and historic reality, it is therefore unique to that specific culture; it also plays an important role in defining the identity of the community. Similarly, since IK has developed over the centuries of experimentation on how to adapt to local conditions. That is Indigenous ways of knowing informs their ways of being. Accordingly IK is integrated and driven from multiple sources; traditional teachings, empirical observations and revelations handed down generations. Under IK, language, gestures and cultural codes are in harmony. Similarly, language, symbols and family structure are interrelated. For example, First Nation had a
Sikhism suits the needs of modern life since it is open to everyone who is willing to embrace its practices and doctrines. Sikhism, one of the most scientific and modern religions in the world, is the fifth largest religion. One distinctive characteristic of the Sikh religious practice in comparison to other faiths is the vibrant Sikh identity, which is culturally, spiritually, and visually, able to be noticeable within the crowd. Sikhism has become principally and identifiably a way of appearance, which is the decisive threshold between being a “Sikh” or not, between being someone and being anyone. A Sikh’s identity is known as the “Khalsa”, which means the “community of the pure” (Takhar, 2005). The Khalsa is an example of a transnational religious community, which its sole purpose was to institute a military charge of “saint soldiers.” The Khalsa refers to the baptized Sikhs, who have taken “amrit paul” (Nesbitt, 2002). The Khalsa was responsible for both protection and administration of the community. According to Sikhism, a Sikh should be a scholar, saint, and soldier for God, who must live by an example as the Guru Granth Sahib outlines. Sikhs have their own real identity, which is vividly growing substantially since it possesses its separate religion, institutions, martial traditions, history, and territory. The Khalsa Sikhs could be recognized by the given five articles of Sikhism, the Five Ks (McLeod, 2008). However, how is it possible that a turbaned and bearded portrait of a Sikh comes to embody a religion whose antipathy to the worship of a sacred idol image is the character of its difference from Hinduism? This research paper, argues that the theoretical accounts of the role of the outer appearance relative to the rel...