FOLKLORE FOUNDATION ,LOKARATNA ,VOLUME IV 2011 VOLUME IV 2011 Lokaratna Volume IV tradition of Odisha for a wider readership. Any scholar across the globe interested to contribute on any Lokaratna is the e-journal of the aspect of folklore is welcome. This Folklore Foundation, Orissa, and volume represents the articles on Bhubaneswar. The purpose of the performing arts, gender, culture and journal is to explore the rich cultural education, religious studies. Folklore Foundation President: Sri Sukant Mishra Managing Trustee and Director: Dr M K Mishra Trustee: Sri Sapan K Prusty Trustee: Sri Durga Prasanna Layak Lokaratna is the official journal of the Folklore Foundation, located in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. Lokaratna is a peer-reviewed academic journal in Oriya and English. The objectives of the journal are: To invite writers and scholars to contribute their valuable research papers on any aspect of Odishan Folklore either in English or in Oriya. They should be based on the theory and methodology of folklore research and on empirical studies with substantial field work. To publish seminal articles written by senior scholars on Odia Folklore, making them available from the original sources. To present lives of folklorists, outlining their substantial contribution to Folklore To publish book reviews, field work reports, descriptions of research projects and announcements for seminars and workshops. To present interviews with eminent folklorists in India and abroad. Any new idea that would enrich this folklore research journal is Welcome. Book Review is made by Folklore Foundation. So new books may be sent to the following address: Dr Mahendra K Mishra A-7 Lord Gunjan Palace (First Floor) Rasulgarh Bhubaneswar 751010 Odisha Request for online/manuscript submissions should be addressed to Mahendra Kumar Mishra, Editor in Chief, Lokaratna, Folklore Foundation, Bhubaneswar, Odisha- 751010 Lokaratna Vol- IV, 2011 Dr.Kailash Patnaik, Viswa Bharati University, Shantiniketan, An e - journal of Folklore Foundation, ([email protected]) Odisha, Bhubaneswar Editor in Chief: Dr Mahendra K Mishra Editorial Board Dr. Chitrasen Pasayat, Sociologist, Bhubaneswar, Odisha ([email protected]) 2 Folklore Foundation , Lokaratna ,Volume IV 2011 Lokaratna Volume IV 2011 From The Desk of the Editor In Chief The dead cat and the tradition A marriage ceremony was instituted in a rural family of a village. During that ceremony, the mother of the bride put a cat inside a bamboo box and locked it. Being asked , why the cat was put in a box and locked , she answered that this is the custom and tradition that is followed by her family. Being asked why the cat is put in a bamboo box and why not a another animal in an another wooden box- she could not answer it. Finally it was asked to the oldest woman of the family she remembered it and said, that when she came as the bride to this home used to listen the story of putting a cat in the bamboo box . This means that the tradition must have followed at least four to five generations. Being asked, the old woman said, the reason was nothing, but the cat was using he mouth in the sacred food to be offered to the Gods and Goddesses. So to get rid of the cat, the house owner fixed the cat inside a box, and he forgot to release the cat from the box. Mean while the cat died in the box out of suffocation. When the house owner remembered the cat he opened the box and found the cat to be dead. He took off the cat and buried in the earth. The newly wedded bride was watching this whole event was assumed that this family has the tradition of killing a cat during marriage ceremony. Needless to say this was introduced by the bride in the subsequent marriages since the senior persons were no more alive and the bearer of the tradition had nothing to question about the authenticity of the event. May be this story true or false, or folklore! The purpose and meaning of such a tradition should be logical with reason to the future generation. They should know why and how the tradition is helpful to the current situation and fit in to the current context. The story is not one alone, there are many traditions and customs in our society which is not questioned by the tradition bearers, rather they feel proud of practicing it. Rather in order to validate and justify the custom, a new folklore is 1 Folklore Foundation , Lokaratna ,Volume IV 2011 created and thus the make belief becomes belief and belief becomes truth and truth become philosophy. Then our tradition bearers feel proud of it. Not only this, our researchers of tradition also love to document that dead cat and display the cultural image of our ‗great tradition.‘ During these last four years of working on folklore both in academic domain and public sphere , I have got diverse experience on its use , non - and misuse. Many people use folklore as their cultural system .They celebrate their life with natural and creative expression, which is context sensitive but not analytical as the folklore scholars do. Many folklore items in the communities are used in their everyday life, but the meaning of such customs and practices are not questioned by the tradition bearers of folklore. They follow the tradition and customs just for the cause that their ancestors were following it and they also need to follow it. The meaning of folklore is, therefore, subject to cognition and comprehension with purpose and meaning in a given context, or it may lose its social coherence. Folklorist, on the other hand try to decipher the meaning using the many glasses of theories and examine the item of folklore in her operation theatre to diagnose the why and how of the item. Both the practice and attempt need reexamination in view of its connectivity between the community of folklore and scholar community. I observed after traveling across the country for last two years , attending many seminars and workshops, and also travelling the tribal world , in spite of an invisible danger of terrorists, I found that , the many locals are now more keen to explore their social histories. The professors of Universities have started rethinking their disciplines from people‘s point of view. In two universities I found that the semi-literate tribal language speakers attended two days conference on revitalizing their languages and culture in the department of English , Vidyasagar University, Midnapur of West Bengal. Another conference was in Central University of Rajasthan , Kishangarh, in same English Department, many semi literates attended the programme to work in people‘s linguistic survey of India initiated by Prof Ganesh Nath Devy, the founder of Adivasi Academy Tezgarh, Badodara. Gujarat. The fate of linguistics, culture and folklore in global academic scenario, more or less has been affected by the global economic order. Ideologies, and theories have failed to establish their 2 Folklore Foundation , Lokaratna ,Volume IV 2011 strength , rather the most powerful countries have also been victimized by the most powerless groups of people. This is the creation of a situation where the most powerless can also challenge the most powerful one. The social unrest , changing climate, inequalities of human development indicators, and tension of cross border issues , all have combined together against humanity. Our modern science and technology has not been able to win the heart of the people who created unrest and in human acuities. We are helpless in displaying our strength and vacuumed within the veil of theories and methods and our scholarship does not help the same folk from those we have been enriched. Now our main focus will be to perhaps understand the social and creative dynamics and see the whole knowledge from people‘s point of view and to reexamine the meaning of tradition and to connect it with the current life situation. Another issue is to examine the tradition logically with reason if the item of culture has really a meaning or it is a bad faith only. People’s Linguistic Survey of India Fortunately, Prof Ganeshnath Devy, the founder of Bhasha Research and Publication center in Badodara, Gujarat and Adivasi Academy, Tezgarh Gujarat, has initiated people‘s Linguistic Survey of India. This is a massive project initiated by the communities of Indian whose languages are either died or likely to die. Death of a language is compared to commit genocide by the major languages to the minor languages. According to the Census of India while there are 623 scheduled tribes, there are about 184 languages left with the Indian communities. In fact there are thousands of languages which have not been documented. Dr Devy‘s vision to document the living languages of India has led to document many languages by the communities concerned and now about more than 500 languages have been documented by the language communities alone. 3 Folklore Foundation , Lokaratna ,Volume IV 2011 II This volume is unique in its collection and representation of culture across the globe. While the first article is about a man turning in to a tiger found among the cultural practices of the Kondhs of Odisha , it is well researched by Dr.Francesco Bighenti, an Italian scholar on Odisha studies. His argument transcends the physical realities and takes us to a realm of an unseen world of metaphysics. Dr. Anand Mahanand speaks of the cultural geography where the nature becomes the foundation of culture. This article not only reminds of our association with the nature of the past, but also the mental text that is found among the singers. Dr.Harvinder Singh explores the rich oral tradition of Punjab through narrating the specimen of singing tradition as well as its narrative patterns in different social occasion.