Mal Paharia Culture At The Crossroad

The present treatise is the outcome of intensive field investigation among the Mal Paharia, who is settled within the boundary of Damin-i-koh of Santal Pargana, Jharkhand. The life and culture of the Mal Paharia are nourished under the lap of nature where their strong belief system plays a key role. The concept of globalization means connectivity and increasing interdependence of world society into a single whole. With the advent of new world economy which is supported by advanced technology, competitions, flow of capital / money etc. along with fast changing social values, the socio-cultural life as well as traditional knowledge bank of the Mal Paharia-a secluded tribal group are being affected and ultimately these hilly terrain tribal people will be in soup in the new emerging competitive social-cultural environment which is manifested in their materialistic life through consumerism and individualism.

Dr. Amitabha Sarkar (Born : 1952) is a M.Sc., Ph.D (Science) in Anthropology from the University of Calcutta and Specialised in advanced Social- Cultural Anthropology. His remarkable empirical contribution in anthropological research arena is on impact of industrialisation, tribal ethnography, culture ecology, ethno science, religious belief system being integrative process and culture change. He has published about eight books and more than eighty research papers in reputed journals. He possesses 33 years research experience and carried out empirical study among tribals and weaker section of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. He is the life member of INCAA, Indian Science Congress Association and Indian Anthropological Society. He is associated with Anthropological Survey of India since 1977.

Anthropological and more specifically, ethnographic research has been important in illuminating specific communities closeted in their natural setting to come to terms with rapid changes that have taken place in their land and that have assumed a global character. There is probably an element o predictability in this type of research in that it tries to stress upon the persistence of the local in the face of the "global". From anbother perspective, the very discourse of local vs. global is more unpredictable than one could possibly think it to be.

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