発表要旨：
“There is only one culture in India, that is agriculture”, rightly remarked
Nishamani Kar. Same is the case of the tribal of Arunachal Pradesh; where
the culture of the people is completely pivoted round the shifting cultivation.
Their whole knowledge system regarding forest, animals, festivals and rituals,
marriage, arts and crafts, songs and dances, emotions and sentiments are
either directly or indirectly related to their agriculture. These all activities
are carried out with correspondence to different stages of agriculture.
The rituals they perform along with the every stage of cultivation lead
to transmission of tribal unwritten knowledge system regarding the evolution
of mankind and agriculture, the route of migration of their forefather,
techniques of hunting and fishing, other art and culture etc. are transmitted.
Thus, shifting cultivation is the central force that keeps tribal culture
intact.
But changes have started taking place due to sum total of external forces
or natural processes of human evolution. The conversion to other religion,
decline in number of people to replace the old parents, development other
form of occupation; altogether have led to gradual decline of age old tribal
culture of the people. For example, today in many families the preparation
of local beer has been stopped, feasts are not organized and the traditional
discourse around the fire after the long hard works have been replaced
by televisions, many of the cane and bamboo items are replaced by the steel
and plastic items.
This presentation is an attempt to focus the importance of shifting cultivation
as custodian of tribal culture of tribal of Arunachal Pradesh.
