Papers by abhradip banerjee
The issue of ‘materiality’, moreover, the interaction between human beings and their material env... more The issue of ‘materiality’, moreover, the interaction between human beings and their material environment has long been a concern within anthropology. However, due to the diverseness of area and subject matters, the opinion regarding the materiality of cultural, religious and ritual practices of human beings have been countless, often intersecting and contrary to each other. The aim of this article is to review some of the core concepts within the field of material culture studies, the paradoxes of opinion and the major underpinnings which led to its further developments. This discourse will further illuminate how the development of more recent approaches of materiality can contribute understanding about the complex process of human/object interactions and the connection of material objects with our every day social life.
This article deals with the importance of critical research thinking that leads to success in aca... more This article deals with the importance of critical research thinking that leads to success in academic writing. As a topic of research, this article certainly deals with one of the most important issues that researchers often encounter in social science research. While the author, through this article, has quite diligently pointed towards the goal of research thinking and particularly the ways through which researchers can develop critical research thinking, the explanations in this article look a bit too narrow and shallow in terms of the standards expected in a social science research article. This article provides a general perspective; it would have been better if the author could provide a story of his/her ways through which he has developed critical research thinking, more specifically, how his lack of academic exposure to any particular research topic, institutional, theoretical, and methodological influences played a role in it. This would have provided this article a more contextual interpretation.
Kurshiburu: a rock art site of Eastern India A large number of cupule marks are found on a big tr... more Kurshiburu: a rock art site of Eastern India A large number of cupule marks are found on a big triangular shaped stone slab on top of a hillock known as Kursiburu. It is located near the village Patratuli, about 12 km east of Khunti township, Ranchi district in the state of Jharkhand in Eastern India at 83o24’EL and 23o5’NL. The site is on the eastern plateau area of Indian subcontinent. The entire region is undulating, intersected with numerous streams and rivers, forested, studded with low rocky hills (Monadnoks) and some isolated peaks of igneous origin. The cupule marked stone is associated with microliths and haematite nodules. The surface of the nodules showed marks of rubbing for colour. The assemblage is dated to late Pleistocene to early Holocene on the basis of geology. It appears that the cupules were connected with some fertility rites of the prehistoric times. The shape and size of the slab on which the cupules are engraved, nature of the cupules and above all location ...
First of all, I must admit, prior to receiving a request to review the present article, I was tot... more First of all, I must admit, prior to receiving a request to review the present article, I was totally unaware about Bernard Forscher's letter Chaos in the Brickyard published in 1963. Indeed the author has raised quite fitting questions about "Further Chaos" in the form of "flawed editorial screening policies", "partiality in peer-reviewing", "ethical conflict in
The qualitative report, Aug 1, 2022
Process of peer-reviewing plays a pivotal role in scientific development, especially in academic ... more Process of peer-reviewing plays a pivotal role in scientific development, especially in academic writing and publication. The process of peer-reviewing, however, is surrounded by issues like inconsistent, subjective, unprofessional comments from reviewers, abuse of peer-review leading to reviewers stealing original ideas, and most importantly huge gap between the actual time requirement and sheer time wasted for evaluation of manuscripts. This article provides an autoethnographic account of conceptualizing, writing, and publishing a research article of an early career researcher (ECR) in India, through which it aims to show how outcomes of the peer-review process make an impact upon the minds of budding researchers.
The qualitative report, Aug 22, 2017
Research on fieldwork experiences is not something new to the discipline of Anthropology. However... more Research on fieldwork experiences is not something new to the discipline of Anthropology. However, undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training programs in India as a research area still remained unexplored. The purpose of the study described in this paper was to explore the proceedings of undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training programs in India. This article uses the authors' own recollections regarding an undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training program carried out by a college affiliated with the University of Calcutta. All four authors along with their 21 fellow students have participated as trainees in this fieldwork training program. Through a qualitative analysis of these recapitulated events involving the acts of "preparation before the field trip," "doing fieldwork" right up to "writing of field reports," the study stresses one of the less emphasized and methodologically significant issues of education and the socialization process the trainee fieldworkers pass through while doing fieldwork. This article illuminates how the real-time field exposure guides naïve students to realize the utility of different research tools, techniques, methods, and some of the true requirements of an ethnographic fieldwork.
Asian Journal of Social Science, 2018
The Kora is a small tribal group who are mostly found in eastern part of India. Like many other e... more The Kora is a small tribal group who are mostly found in eastern part of India. Like many other ethnic groups, the Kora had their own distinct culture, customs, rituals and religion. However, in comparison to other major tribal groups in West Bengal, the Kora as a group to date have recevied relatively little research attention. In this article, we reappraise our experience and observation on the social-cultural life of the Kora people of Paschim Medinipur district, which we collected as part of anthropology undergraduate fieldwork in the year 2002. Through an ethnographic re-analysis method, we try to provide a fair glimpse regarding the process where the Kora, as group, is adopting certain Hindu traits. We also look to find the probable reasons that hold the key to understanding the source of continuity and change in Kora communities at large.
Archaeological Research in Asia, 2015
ABSTRACT The ability of making art or artistic objects is one of the most important features of h... more ABSTRACT The ability of making art or artistic objects is one of the most important features of human being. The earliest evidence of artistic objects can be dated back to the Acheulian tradition of lower Paleolithic culture. Ethnographic evidences on the present day communities suggest that hunting, magic or ritual practices are the major causes behind the production of prehistoric arts. The present work attempts to find out relations between ritual practices and rock art production in a recently discovered prehistoric rock art site of eastern India. The supportive ethnographic data for the analysis of this rock art assemblage were largely unavailable. Due to this reason this study solely concentrates upon the arrangement, composition and context of the archeological assemblages and rock art itself to find out interrelations in between rock art and ritual structure. Outcome of present work, with all its limitations, reveals that archeological assemblages and context of a rock art site can give necessary information regarding the motives behind production of rock arts.
The Qualitative Report
Process of peer-reviewing plays a pivotal role in scientific development, especially in academic ... more Process of peer-reviewing plays a pivotal role in scientific development, especially in academic writing and publication. The process of peer-reviewing, however, is surrounded by issues like inconsistent, subjective, unprofessional comments from reviewers, abuse of peer-review leading to reviewers stealing original ideas, and most importantly huge gap between the actual time requirement and sheer time wasted for evaluation of manuscripts. This article provides an autoethnographic account of conceptualizing, writing, and publishing a research article of an early career researcher (ECR) in India, through which it aims to show how outcomes of the peer-review process make an impact upon the minds of budding researchers.
Journal of South Asian Development, 2022
The article analyses the sociotechnical system of the silk weaving industry in the Bishnupur regi... more The article analyses the sociotechnical system of the silk weaving industry in the Bishnupur region of West Bengal through a detailed description of processes and interactions between important technical elements and the human agents within a richly structured environment of silk cloth production. It shows that the various processes of silk cloth production and marketing constitute an ensemble of economic inequalities, skill differentiation and differences in power and prestige. Different groups restructure the hierarchy by participating in the network of silk cloth production in which raw materials are converted into stable or viable products. The article thus provides an overview of how capitalist development is shaping the lives and livelihoods of silk weaving artisans in West Bengal.
A new beginning in medical anthropology: scope and relevance
Kurshiburu: a rock art site of Eastern India A large number of cupule marks are found on a big tr... more Kurshiburu: a rock art site of Eastern India A large number of cupule marks are found on a big triangular shaped stone slab on top of a hillock known as Kursiburu. It is located near the village Patratuli, about 12 km east of Khunti township, Ranchi district in the state of Jharkhand in Eastern India at 83o24’EL and 23o5’NL. The site is on the eastern plateau area of Indian subcontinent. The entire region is undulating, intersected with numerous streams and rivers, forested, studded with low rocky hills (Monadnoks) and some isolated peaks of igneous origin. The cupule marked stone is associated with microliths and haematite nodules. The surface of the nodules showed marks of rubbing for colour. The assemblage is dated to late Pleistocene to early Holocene on the basis of geology. It appears that the cupules were connected with some fertility rites of the prehistoric times. The shape and size of the slab on which the cupules are engraved, nature of the cupules and above all location ...
The Qualitative Report, 2017
Research on fieldwork experiences is not something new to the discipline of Anthropology. However... more Research on fieldwork experiences is not something new to the discipline of Anthropology. However, undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training programs in India as a research area still remained unexplored. The purpose of the study described in this paper was to explore the proceedings of undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training programs in India. This article uses the authors' own recollections regarding an undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training program carried out by a college affiliated with the University of Calcutta. All four authors along with their 21 fellow students have participated as trainees in this fieldwork training program. Through a qualitative analysis of these recapitulated events involving the acts of "preparation before the field trip, " "doing fieldwork" right up to "writing of field reports," the study stresses one of the less emphasized and methodologically significant issues of education and th...
Over the years, medical anthropology like the discipline of anthropology as whole has gone throug... more Over the years, medical anthropology like the discipline of anthropology as whole has gone through a lots of changes. The present article discusses about one of these latest modifications, a paradigmatic shift which spared the anthropological lens to look into other more important and contemporary issues in complex and heterogeneous societies. It discusses the issue how pharmaceutical anthropology emerged as subfield. Moreover this article aims at providing some of the historical underpinnings which led to the development of pharmaceutical anthropology. Finally, by discussing about some of the contexts and scopes of pharmaceutical anthropology in India it shows how anthropologists can contribute to the better understanding of present day health care system.
Asian Journal of Social Science
The Kora is a small tribal group who are mostly found in eastern part of India. Like many other e... more The Kora is a small tribal group who are mostly found in eastern part of India. Like many other ethnic groups, the Kora had their own distinct culture, customs, rituals and religion. However, in comparison to other major tribal groups in West Bengal, the Kora as a group to date have recevied relatively little research attention. In this article, we reappraise our experience and observation on the social-cultural life of the Kora people of Paschim Medinipur district, which we collected as part of anthropology undergraduate fieldwork in the year 2002. Through an ethnographic re-analysis method, we try to provide a fair glimpse regarding the process where the Kora, as group, is adopting certain Hindu traits. We also look to find the probable reasons that hold the key to understanding the source of continuity and change in Kora communities at large.
The Oriental Anthropologist: A Bi-annual International Journal of the Science of Man
Over the years, increasing concerns among the scholars incline to see the adverse effects of glob... more Over the years, increasing concerns among the scholars incline to see the adverse effects of globalization. One of the major reasons for this ever-increasing concern is the gradual infiltration of market-driven production system and global capitalism among different groups of people who earn their living either as wage laborers or artisans. This effect has been most profoundly noted among those whose place is on the fringe of the national economy. Another main reason is that the states are increasingly losing their capacity to govern and to regulate in this increasingly borderless world, where resourceless artisans have become the worst sufferers both in the cultural and economic frontiers. This article attempts to examine the effect that the process of globalization has made among the silk weavers of Bishnupur region in West Bengal, India. It adopts a transformational approach and uses both contextual reading and ethnographic data collected through firsthand fieldwork among the afo...
Asian Journal of Social Science, 2016
This article aims at providing insight into one of the most important questions that still lurks ... more This article aims at providing insight into one of the most important questions that still lurks within the discourses of India’s industrialisation or de-industrialisation. By analysing the case of a particular cotton weaving tradition in India, this article tries to explore how the adoption of new technologies or inflow of capital has brought changes within the labour relationship, which has eventually led to the transition within many other Indian handloom weaving traditions. Other than mere descriptions of structural relationships between stakeholders belonging to different hierarchies of cloth production systems, this article, with its analytic ethnographical framework, focuses on the cultural nuances of the workplace and labour-capital relationships within this particular cotton-weaving tradition. It tries to illuminate how these people get involved, how they interact and engage in different sorts of contracts with one another. Therefore, this article may help in understanding ...
Uploads
Papers by abhradip banerjee