2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
An anthropological study of religious and political practices with reference to place in Kerala : a case of Kuravas
| Project/Area Number |
16401026
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 海外学術 |
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| Research Field |
Cultural anthropology/Folklore
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| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
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Principal Investigator |
UCHIYAMADA Yasushi University of Tsukuba, Graduate School of Humanties and Social Sciences, Professor (50344841)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2007
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| Keywords | India / Kerala / Kurava / land settlement / funerary rite / seance / untouchables / modernity |
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| Research Abstract |
In the course of four years of research. Which looked into the religious and political practices of the semi-tribal group with reference to place in Kerala, South India, between 2003 and 2007 among the semi-tribal Kuravas, I met a plaati, or a necromancer and diviner, during the second year by sheer luck. I had been told that Kuravas had stopped practicing seance. My non-Kurava informants, too, had never seen seance before. Edgar Thurson reproduced short late nineteenth century account of Kurava religious practice in his Cast & Tribes in South India (1909), according to which Kuravas practice seance. Yet, there was no first-hand account of how, the dead were summoned and why they were summoned. Kuravas summoned the dead to enquire directly two important issues: (1) the cause and circumstance of death, and (2) the debt incurred by the dead. The second was particularly important for the well-being of the survivors, for the debt of the dead was a major cause of misfortunes suffered by the latter. Today, however, many educated Kuravas settle disputes in court, rather than by summoning the dead. Yet, seance has not totally gone. When legal institutions fail to function properly, Kuravas still consult a plaati to resolve their problems by summoning the dead.
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