The Chik Baraiks of Chotanagpur (A Study on Culture, Bio-Demography and Health)

This book basically deals with the 'Ethnography of Health' of the Chik Baraik community in the state of Jharkhand, India. It is a study on their culture, bio-demography and health in relation to their ecological settings. Culture has been conceived in the context of mechanism of adaptation to the environment as well as strategies of survival in promoting health and well-being as ingrained in their existing cultural norms and practices. Besides, two essential demographic parameters like fertility and mortality have been taken into consideration as indicators of vital biological events of life in bio-demography.

Shyamal K. Nandy (b. 1958) obtained Ph.D in Anthropology from the University of Calcutta. Dr. Nandy joined Anthropological Survey of India in 1986 and presently holding the post of Research Associate in Cultural Anthropology. He rendered several years of research in Medical Anthropology under the guidance of Professor D.P. Mukherjee. Dr. Nandy also worked under the guidance of Professor B.K. Roy Burman on Economic Anthropology. Besides, Dr. Nandy is a life member of The Asiatic Society and was an invited member of The New York Academy of Sciences.

This book deals essentially with the elements of health in the way of life of the Chik Baraiks in the State of Jharkhand, India. This approach to the study of health follows the viewpoint of notions and practices of the Chik Baraiks from the inherent aspect of the culture, which changes as well as adapts according to a given ecological niche. In the light of modernization where communication facilities played an important role in the tribal habitat at Jharkhand but in spite of that the Chik Baraiks are much more dependent on the traditional health care system with a limited facilities of modern health care system. Under this backdrop the Chik Baraiks, whose traditional economic pursuit is weaving, has been selected for present discourse.

This study revealed the elements of health in the material as well as socio-religious aspects of culture specially in the spheres of environmental hygiene, personal hygiene, house type, food habits; and the rites and rituals associated with birth, marriage and death. This study also revealed their concept of health, disease pattern and the use of indigenous medicines.

**Contents and Sample Pages**