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Rediscovering the Significance of Totems Among the Karbis of Assam

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Rediscovering the Significance of Totems Among the Karbis of Assam Rediscovering the Significance of Totems among the Karbis of Assam A Dissertation Submitted To Sikkim University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Philosophy By Racheal D Sangma Department of Sociology School of Social Sciences February, 2020 ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am extremely grateful to my supervisor Dr. Khangembam Indira for her unparalleled support, guidance and profound belief in my research work, right from the conceptualization. She provided me with constructive suggestions and a stress-free environment, encouraged me to be expressive and analytical and to work hard. I’d also like to extend my deepest gratitude to Dr. Sandhya Thapa, Dr. Swati Akshay Sachdeva, Mr. Binod Bhattarai, Mr. Shankar Narayan Bagh, Ms. Sona Rai of Department of Sociology for their guidance, valuable insights and suggestions. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the following experts from the Karbi community with whom I had the honour to interact and learn many aspects of Karbi society which are pertinent to my research project. I’m indebted to Mr. Lunse Timung, President of Hemphu Mukrang Adorbar for sharing with me his extensive knowledge about the origin of the Karbi clans and deities, Mr. Dilip Kathar, Principal of Karbi Traditional Music Culture and Research Institute, provided me with a comprehensive outlook on totems and myths and Mr. Chanrdrasing Kro, President of Karbi Cultural Society (KCS) for his immense knowledge on marriage rituals of the Karbis and the history behind Terang clans and its totems. I sincerely thank Mr. Dhoromsing Teron and Mr. Dhaneshwar Engti for their invaluable contribution in understanding the myths associated with the clans of Teron and Engti. I am also thankful to Kasang Beypi, Karon Hansepi, Bina Rongpipi and other members of Rasinja Asong for providing me with immense information about death rituals and Kacherhe Tradition. I would like to acknowledge Priest Babu Bey and Priestess Ambika Tokbipi for taking their time out to speak with me regarding the complexities of rites and rituals. I also thank village headmen Rajesh Terang and Tamsing Ronghang for their ingenious suggestions. In addition, I’d like to recognize the help and assistance of my friends Urmi Rongpipi, Meely Rongpipi, Jumi Engtipi, Monika Entipi and Rahul Engti for their patience and support. Last but not the least, I’d like to thank my Parents and Sister for their endless love, encouragement and believe in me. Racheal D. Sangma CONTENTS Page No. Acknowledgement List of Tables List of Figures Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1. Introduction 1 1.2. Statement of the Problem 9 1.3. Literature Review 10 1.4. Rationale of the Study 18 1.5. Research Objectives 19 1.6. Research Questions 19 1.7. Methodology 20 1.8. Sample Selection and Study Area 21 1.9. Chapters 22 Chapter 2 Karbis and their Religious Life 2.1. A Brief Historical Background of the Karbi 24 2.2. Migration and Settlement of the Karbis in Karbi Anglong 25 2.3. Main Gods of Karbis 27 2.3.1. Two Classes of Deities 28 2.4. The Karbi Religious Belief 31 2.4.1. Understanding their Folksongs and the Presence of Totemic Elements 32 i. Karbi Cosmogony, the Masira Kohir 33 ii. Pirthe Kikim Alun 34 iii. Hemphu Alun 35 iv. Kang Kengam Kangkin 36 v. Kecharhe Alun 38 vi. Bong Keplang 40 2.5. Major Religious Worship and Festivals of the Karbis 42 i. Rongker 42 ii. Chojun 44 iii. RitAnglong Arnam Karkli 45 2.6. Life-Cycle Rituals 45 i. Konglo Athekar (Birth Ritual) 46 ii. Adam Asar (Marriage Ritual) 46 iii. Chomangkan (The Death Ritual) 47 2.7. Overview of Karbi Religious Faith 51 2.8. Socio-Demographic Profile of the Respondents 52 Chapter 3 Interpreting Karbi Totems and Taboos- Myths, Meanings and Significance 3.1. Outline of the Karbi Totems 61 3.2. Totems: Defining and Identifying the Totems 61 3.3. Clans of the Karbi and the Sub-clans 64 3.4. Myths Related to Clan Origin 68 3.4.1. Totem Tales: Reminiscing the Tales of the Past 69 3.4.2. Origin of the Five Clans and their Totems 69 3.4.3. Totemic Myths of Sub-clans 72 3.5. Totemic Characteristics and Inheritance 79 3.6. Community Totem and its Historicity 86 3.7. Beliefs and Rituals associated with Totems 93 Chapter 4 Gender in Ritual Performance 4.1. Religion and Gender 103 4.2. Role of the Priest 104 4.3. Borwa- The Assistant of the Priest 105 4.4. Role of the Female Shamans 107 4.5. Spatial Segregation of Gender in Ritual 110 4.6. Importance of Wine (Horlang) in Ritual 115 4.7. Importance of Animal Sacrifice in Rituals 116 Chapter 5 Socialisation in Socio-Religious Settings and Totemic Perceptions 5.1. Religious Socialisation: Preserving the Existing Social Order 122 5.2. Informal Institutions of Socialisation 122 5.3. Formal Institutions: Role of the Organisations 125 5.3.1. Rasinja Asong (Kacharhe Training Centre) 125 5.3.2. Barithe Asong (Karbi Kurpho Hemtun) 136 i. Reviving Tradition and Expanding Totemic Knowledge 138 ii. Barithe as the Indigenous Religion of the Karbi 140 5.4. The Old Indigenous Religion and the Sanskritised Religions 142 5.4.1. Aronban: The Indigenous Religion and Totemic Belief 143 5.4.2. Lokhimon- The Sanskritised Religion 144 5.4.3. Bhoktitom Dhorom- The Sanskritised Religion with Totemic Symbol 153 i. The Presence of Hindu Tradition 156 ii. Religious Rules of Conduct 158 5.5. Perceptions of People on Totems 160 Chapter 6 Conclusion 172 Bibliography 181 Appendix I LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Studied household of the two village 53 Table 2.2: Gender-wise distribution of respondents 54 Table 2.3: Respondents by age 55 Table 2.4: Religion wise distribution of respondents 55 Table 2.5: Distribution of respondents by educational qualification 57 Table 2.6: Occupational distribution of respondents 58 Table 2.7: Clan-wise distribution of respondents 59 Table 3.1: Plant-based totems of five clans 72 Table 3.2: List of Totems and associated beliefs 81 Table 3.3: Table showing usage of Bongkrok among the families of Rajen Terang village 96 Table 5.1: Example of different terms used in Kacharhe Tradition 130 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: The five clans of Karbi 65 Figure 5.1: Pie diagram representing awareness of clan totems among 115 respondents 161 Figure 5.2: Bar diagram representing the responses about plant totems 164 Figure 5.3: Diagrams representing the names of the birds and number of respondents who claim it as their totem 166 Figure 5.4: Diagram depicting other totems and responses 166 Figure 5.5: Diagram depicting the awareness of community totem among the respondents 167 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction Religion has always accompanied mankind since time unknown and it has guided action and has been a major source of meanings, thoughts, inspirations and also controversy in human society. Religion as an institution is found in every society, be in primitive or modern society and it has always been an important element of influence on social life. Religion embodies various beliefs and ideologies which reflects the culture of the society as religion is an aspect of culture that conforms to the conditions of culture of a particular society and it uncovers the socio-cultural aspects of a society (Hunt, 2005). To Malinowski, religion is the permanent source of moral control which is believed to maintain the social order in society and that it helps one to endure ‘situations of emotional stress’ by opening up escapes from such situations by way of doing rituals (Malinowski, 1925). For Geertz, religion helps people to interpret phenomena which are beyond their understanding which otherwise would create chaos in their world (Geertz, 1973). According to Durkheim, “A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them” (Durkheim, 1976, p. 47). Scholars have offered different interpretations for the term "religion" but there is little consensus on what it really means. Nonetheless, religion can be defined as belief in God and super natural power by means of which people attempt to cope with the eventualities of life. The study of religion has always sparked interest from the very beginning of human enquiry and sociological focus on religion flourished in the late 19th and early 20th 2 century with pioneering work of sociological theorist such as Durkheim, Weber (Haralambos, 1980/2012). However, sociological interest in the study of religion faded during mid-twentieth century. There was a change of interest and it was the time when the focus went on to the study of secularisation and attention were shifted to features such as the process of rationalisation, pluralism and also the decline of solidarity of the community (Hunt, 2005). These processes claimed to have undermined the religiosity of the mass at many levels- be it from an institutional point of view or from the point of everyday experience of an individual. However, in the beginning of 21st Century, the faded interest on religion was revived and the study of social dynamic of religion resurfaced with a renewed interest in religious life (ibid.). Religiosity of individual in changing times was analysed from different levels and Charles Glock distinguished five distinct dimensions of religiosity which also helped in understanding the surged renewed interest on the study of religion (Macionis & Plumer, 2014). Hunt opined that the resurgence is visible in conservative and collectivist area like the fundamentalist and the ethnic expressions of religiosity (Hunt, 2005).
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