Item Details

Guardian Spirits, Omens and Meat for the Clans: The Place of Animals among the Apatanis of Arunachal Pradesh

Issue: Vol 7 No. 1-3 (2013) Vol. 7, No. 1/No. 2 (Double) 2013

Journal: Religions of South Asia

Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies Islamic Studies

DOI: 10.1558/rosa.v7i1-3.126

Abstract:

Animals play significant roles in the construction of the cultural and religious life of the Tani indigenous communities (e.g. Adis, Nyishis, Galos, Apatanis and Tagins) of Arunachal Pradesh. Without the ritual sacrifice of mithuns (forest buffalo), hardly any agricultural festival takes place. Similarly, exchange of mithuns during marriage is mandatory among most of the Tani tribes. Ritual sacrifices of pigs are common when shamans and oracles must negotiate with the world of spirits. This article discusses animal sacrifice amongst the Apatanis, with particular emphasis on the myoko and murung festivals. On such occasions, animal sacrifice and rites involving hepatoscopy are performed to main a balance between the different worlds. Local shamans, the holder of territorial and ancestral knowledge, explain through oral narratives how the creation of the world (and thus the existence itself of the tribe) depends on specific non-human animals. Ritualized mythical narrations also provide a rationale behind such extensive sacrificial performances. This article is an attempt to report, preserve and reflect on a still unexplored aspect of South Asian culture, and to underscore the significance of non-human animals in the multifarious construction of cultural and religious life in the folklore tradition of Tani indigenous tribes ofArunachal Pradesh.

Author: Sarit K. Chaudhuri

View Original Web Page

References :

Barooah, J. 2007. Customary Laws of the Apatanis of Arunachal Pradesh with Special Reference to their Land Holding System. Guahati: Law Research Institute.
Fürer-Haimendorf, C. von. 1955. The Himalayan Barbary. London: Press of Glencoe.
— 1962. The Apatanis and their Neighbours. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
— 1980. A Himalayan Tribe: From Cattle to Cash. Ghaziabad: Vikash Publications.
— 1982. Hailanders of Arunachal Pradesh: Anthropological Research In North-East India. New Delhi: Vikas Publications.
Kani, T. 1996. Socio-religious Ceremonies of Arunachal Pradesh. Guwahati: Purbadesh Mudran.
Mills, J. P. 1947. ‘Tours in the Balipara Frontier Tract, Assam.’ Man in India 27: 4–35.
Mitchell, J. P. 2002. ‘Ritual.’ In A. Barnard, and J. Spencer (eds), Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology: 736–42. London: Routledge.
Nath, D. 1996. ‘Apatani Agriculture.’ Unpublished MPhil dissertation. Itanagar: Department of Tribal Studies, Arunachal University.
Simoons, F. J., and E. S. Simoons. 1968. A Ceremonial Ox of India: Mithan in Nature, Culture and History. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Yabyang, K. 2006. ‘A Study of the Murung Festival of Apatanis.’ Unpublished MPhil dissertation. Itanagar: Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies, Rajiv Gandhi University.
Yampi, R. 2009. ‘Religious Specialists of the Apatanis: Aspects of their Nature, Structure and Change.’ Unpublished PhD dissertation. Itanagar: Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies, Rajiv Gandhi University.