Anthrobuds

  Anthrobud Volume 2(2) September 2024 Click here for the entire issue in PDF

  Have the Shamans of the Yore only Changed their Uniform? Agnimitro Ghosh, Sem VI 2024 Figure  : A Mongolian Shaman Source : https://mongolianstore.com/the-black-shamans/ Although we live in times where scientific knowledge is most available, are we still able to quit magical thinking? Aren't we still desirous of the magical touch of the ‘Shaman’? Throughout history, every culture, from the most ancient to the most modern, has had its own version of a shaman or medicine man. These individuals, often seen as the spiritual leaders or wise ones, played a crucial role in their communities. They were the keepers of knowledge, the healers, and the ones who could communicate with the forces of nature.  Whether they were called shamans, medicine men, or wizards, these figures held a unique position in society, providing tribesmen with psychological safety through magic in trying times. Figure 2. A group of Mongolian Shamans. Source : https://mongolianstore.com/the-black-shamans/ Shamans w

Rape, rapists and the society Priyambda Samanta Roy, Sem II, 2024 We have unleashed another level of savagery. Rape has become as common as breathing today so how are wesupposed to prioritize it? It is being prioritized on the basis of intensity of savagery done on the women. 12 years ago, on 16 th of December 2012, we had Nirbhaya fighting for her life for 11 day and on 29 th December 2012 in hospital she took her last breath. Those people who had raped her till her intestine were bulged out of stomach and her body on verge of dying, threw her out naked in bitter artic night.   And now after 12 year another doctor has been brutally raped and killed at her own workplace and that also on-duty.There wasno part of her body that hasn’t had any injury, multiple bite marks and her pelvic girdle was broken leaving both her legs at a 90-degree angle. Brutally killed by throttling. Still, they haven't found the culprit of this incident after this another student coming from candle mar

A Planet to Change Isanee Sengupta Last night, a girl from another state called me over the phone, asking in Hindi, "Madam, sirf doctor honge toh hi saza milti hai, agar koi khet me kaam karne wali ho toh!" ("Madam, only in the case of a doctor will the offender get punishment; what about those who work in agricultural fields!") She worked with me as a semi-skilled labourer in my archaeological fieldwork. She used to talk about all her doubts, life struggles, the outside world, and definitely how to cope with those. But I could not ask her anything this time. I thought that it would only nurture her pain more, as I already felt that she must be talking about some known person, maybe a friend, a sister, or a relative. Let's not focus on the addition to the list. Here, the issue is not about any religion, caste, profession, gender, or any other specific background; it is not about any specific modus operandi. It is now a way for offenders to make others see th

  Tarak Chandra Das: The worst sufferer of academic amnesia in Indian Anthropology by Prof. Abhijit Guha Amnesia The celebrated sociologist and social anthropologist André Béteille in one of his articles published in the Sociological Bulletin in 1997 wrote: In India, each generation of sociologists seems eager to start its work on a clean slate, with little or no attention to the work done before. This amnesia about the work of their predecessors is no less distinctive of Indian sociologists than their failure to innovate (Béteille 1997:98).   Béteille’s observation on Indian sociologists however, was not novel. About twenty five years before his pronouncement a doyen of Indian anthropology, Surajit Sinha in his insightful article published in the Journal of the Indian anthropological Society (hereafter JIAS ) observed that despite considerable growth in research publications and professional manpower in social and cultural anthropology during the last 100 years the Indian