2019
Volume 15, Number 2
La plante alan et le culte des ancêtres chez les Fang du Gabon
By: GIORGIO SAMORINI – The alan plant and the ancestor cult among the Fangs of Gabon” – During the past centuries, the Fang, a Bantu-speaking ethnic group of the Western Equatorial Africa, used the hallucinogenic plant alan (Alchornea floribunda) in their Byeri initiatory ceremonies. Byeri was a cult of ancestors that involved the conservation and worship of…
L’arte rupestre camuna tra Cervi, Caccia Selvaggia, Aquane e Nani minatori
anguane, anima, animism, animismo, arte rupestre, ash, Camuni, Cernunnos, cervo, cielo di pietra, copper, corvi, crows, deer, dwarfs, ferro, frassino, geese, iron, mines, miniere, nani, ninfe, nymphs, oche, petroglifi, rame, rock art, sciamanesimo, serpenti, Shamanism, sky of stone, snakes, soul, Valcamonica, ZeusBy: SANDRA BUSATTA – In this paper I’ trying to show that there is a relationship between rock art, a site where rock art is placed and the wider landscape, articulated according to the Camunian “mindscape” in Valcamonica, Italy. In particular, I believe rock art may be regarded, making Lødøen’s felicitous phrase my own, as…
Formazione e idealizzazione di tesi assiomatiche in ambito scientifico. Il caso di Licini Forum
Cato, Catone, epistemologia, epistemology, Licini Forum, Orobi, palaeography, paleografia, Plinio, PliniusBy: FABIO CARMINATI, ANDREA MARIANI – The study examines the attempts to identify the settlement of the Orobi tribe, called Licini Forum in a passage of Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, based on a lost text by Cato. The opinions of the scholars, since Sixteenth century up to contemporary age, are summarized. Finally, a new interpretation is…
L’accusa di stregoneria nel sistema giudiziario in Repubblica Centrafricana
accusations, accuse, African studies, Codice Penale, Colonialism, colonialismo. Central African Republic, Criminal Code, Gender, genere, processi, Repubblica Centrafricana, stregoneria, trials, WitchcraftBy: CHIARA MUSU – This article is an effort to understand today’s re-significations of the phenomenon of witchcraft, and how it is intertwined in the meshes of the social fabric of contemporary Africa, penetrating every aspect, up to the point of being used as a means of prosecution during judicial trials. Together with this, the…
Etnografia di un’esperienza in carcere
By: CLAUDIO RIGA – This article analyzes the experience of one of the author’s acquaintances, who served almost a month in jail and compares the mechanisms within a current Italian prison with those described in the classics of ethnography and sociology of prisons and in particular in Goffman’s writings, finding intriguing and disturbing similarities in…
Evaluating Factors Affecting Resilience of Natural Resource Dependent Community: A Case of the Tai Khamtis of Arunachal Pradesh, India
By: HEEROCK JYOTI BARUAH – Following forest regulations and conservation interventions, many forest-dependent communities across India has experienced a gradual transition from their traditional livelihood based on natural resources to a more diversified economy. To better understand the differences in the ability to adapt to change, this paper focuses on the concept of community resilience…
A Study on Dermatoglyphic Patterns Among The Healthy and Hypertensive Bengali Population of Kolkata, West Bengal, India
By: TITAS GHOSH, MONALI GOSWAMI – Dermatoglyphics is the analysis of fingerprints as a genetic marker used in disease prognosis and diagnosis. The present study is an endeavor to apprehend the relationship between palmar dermatoglyphics and the incidence of hypertension. The dermatoglyphic analysis was carried out among (81 hypertensives and 82 normal controls) of both…
Unity and Social Solidarity in a Tribal Village of Dooars
By: ABHISHEK KUMAR, SUSMITA MUKHOPADHYAY – Following Rudra Datt Singh’a work at Senapur (U.P.), this paper studies the Kodal Basti village on the basis of Prof. Sing’s methodology. Kodal Basti is a tribal village in the Dooars region where the 100% ethnic population is tribal. Here live only the Oraon and Rabha communities, which belong…
Troubled Mind and Healing Rituals: Re-Thinking Mental Health
By: MADHUR MRINAL – This paper presents nine cases of troubled mind and healing rituals during a short field work in different healing sites in Delhi. Following the WHO’s promotion of the integration of traditional medicines, AYUSH and allopathic medicine, India has integrated traditional medicines as an integral part of our cultural heritage, to support…
Prevalence of hypertension and its concomitants: An exploratory study among a group of bus drivers in Kolkata, West Bengal
By: MONOJIT DAS, AKASH MALLICK, SUBIR BISWAS – The present study was carried out in Kolkata to find out the prevalence of hypertension among bus drivers and if any concomitant factor(s) is/are responsible for it. Bus drivers, a vulnerable occupational group, are exposed to adverse workplace environmental conditions which play major role in developing hypertension…
The Determinants of the Fertility Differentials among the Bishnupriyas of Manipur, North East India
Binary logistic regression, Bishnupriyas, Fertility, India, Reproductive age, Total children ever born (TCEB)By: NAOREM RANJITA – Fertility is one of the most important determinants of population dynamics that has the highest significant contribution towards population size and structure in the world. The study of human fertility is of the utmost importance in population studies. For the purpose of the study, a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted through…
Medical choices of a disaster-prone Bangladeshi village: An ethnographic study
By: NASIR UDDIN, MUSFIKUR RAHMAN, MAKSUDA KHATUN – A highly advanced contemporary health system exists in Bangladesh and provides health services to all tiers of Bengali society. However, because of the insufficiency of medical infrastructures and shortage of manpower, the benefits of modern health care did not exist in the study area (November 2010 to…
Socio Economic Analysis of Sillekyatha Community in Mysore City, Karnataka
By: M.R. GANGADHAR, B.R. MANJUNATHA – The study was conducted to assess the Socio-economic status of the Sillekyatha community of Ekalavyanagara, Mysore city of Karnataka. More than half of the respondents belonged to middle age group and were illiterates. Their traditional occupation was the leather puppet show (Togalu Gombe Aata). Most of them live in…
The Anthropology of Food: Core and Fringe in the Angami Naga Diet
By: VILHOUSIENUO NELI – Anthropologists have studied food cultures long before food studies gained interest among scholars; yet this issue was studied merely as a means to understand other aspects of a culture rather than a central idea, until recently. Today the anthropological study of food has matured enough to serve as a medium to…
An Ethnolinguistic Profile of Bangru: The Lesser-Known Language Community of Arunachal Pradesh, India
By: TAME RAMYA – This paper attempts to present an ethnolinguistic profile of Bangru, the lesser-known language spoken mainly in 15 Bangru villages of the Sarli circle of the Kurung Kumey district in Arunachal Pradesh. Bangru language may be included in the Tibeto-Burman language family, though no evidence is available on its language affiliation. It…
Gone but not Forgotten: Death Rituals among the Meiteis of Manipur
By: NAOREM NAOKHOMBA SINGH – The present study attempts to describe and analyse the death rituals of the Meitei people, a major ethnic group of Manipur, one of the north-eastern states of India. Observation and interview methods were employed for data collection during fieldwork from January to December 2016. There are five distinct stages in…