Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Shamanism, Magic, and Indigenous Ontologies: Eco-Critical Perspectives on Environmental Changes in India

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Dealing with Disasters

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Disaster Anthropology ((PSDA))

  • 360 Accesses

Abstract

This article proposes a discussion on the profound crisis of indigenous communities (ādivāsīs) in India, dealing today with a vast campaign of exploitation of environmental resources and with the mining activities that the government intends to install in their ancestral territories. Environmental disasters such as pollution, deforestation, and climatic variations frame a human drama involving land alienation, displacement, exploitation of cheap labor among ethnic minorities. Starting from some general theories of the “ontological turn” in anthropology and ecocriticism in India, the paper proposes a case study on Odisha’s Kondhs. I will stress how up to now the Kondhs have employed adaptation and survival strategies and how they interpret the imminent cultural disaster due to their gradual estrangement from a changing territory.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Bibliography

  • Atal, Yogesh. 2015. Indian Tribes in Transition: The Need for Reorientation. New Delhi, London, and New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bandopadhyay, Arun. 2010. “The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in India.” Social Scientist 38 (1–2): 53–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beggiora, Stefano. 2010. Sacrifici Umani e Guerriglia nell’India Britannica: Dal Genocidio in Nome della Civiltà alla Civiltà come Genocidio. Bassano and Vicenza: Itinera Progetti.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beggiora, Stefano. 2013. “Tigers, Tiger Spirits and Were-tigers in Tribal Orissa.” Religions of South Asia 7: 93–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beggiora, Stefano. 2015a. “Journey to the Center of the World: Indigenous Cosmogony of Kuttia Kondh in Odisha.” Internationales Asienforum 46 (1–2): 59–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beggiora, Stefano. 2015b. “The End of Time in Ādivāsī Traditions or the Time of the End for Ādivāsī Traditions?” Anglistica AION: An Interdisciplinary Journal 19: 163–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biardeau, Madeleine. 1981. “L’Arbre Śamī e le Buffle Sacrificiel.” In Autour de la Deesse Hindoue, edited by M. Biardeau, 215–244. Puruṣārtha 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borde, Radhika. 2019. “Rallying Around Sacred Natural Sites: Ādivāsī Mobilisations in East-Central India.” In Shifting Perspectives in Tribal Studies: From an Anthropological Approach to Interdisciplinarity and Consilience, edited by Maguni C. Behera, 167–181. Singapore: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, John. 1864. Personal Narrative of Thirteen Years Service Among the Wild Tribes of Khondistan for the Suppression of Human Sacrifices. London: Hurst and Blackett.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrin, Marine. 2016. Le Parler des Dieux. Le Discours Rituel Santal entre l’Oral et l’Écrit. Nanterre: Publications de la Société d’Ethnologie.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrin, Marine, and Guzy Lidia. 2012. “Introduction.” In Voices from the Periphery: Subalternity and Empowerment in India, edited by M. Carrin and L. Guzy, 1–18. London and New Delhi: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandra, Rajshree. 2019. “Forest Rights Act of India: Putting Indigeneity in Place.” Indian Law Review 3 (2): 159–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Das, P. Sarada. 2018. “Livelihood and Environmental Conflicts: An Analysis of Development and Protest in Odisha, India.” In Armed Conflict and Environment: From World War II to Contemporary Asymmetric Warfare, edited by Detlef Briesen, 271–284. Baden-Baden: Nomos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Das, R. Rashmi, and Padmalaya Mahapatra. 2017. “Indigenous People’s Right to Land in Odisha: A Study.” Journal of People’s Study 2 (1–4): 64–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Das, Sarita, S. K. Dash, and S. N. Pathy. 2003. “Ethno-Medicinal Informations from Orissa State, India, A Review.” Journal of Human Ecology 3: 165–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dattaray, Debashree, and Sarita Sharma, eds. 2018. Ecocriticism and Environment: Rethinking Literature and Culture. Delhi: Primus Book.

    Google Scholar 

  • Descola, Philippe. 2005. Par-delà de la Nature et Culture. Paris: Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dinesh, Pratap. 2010. “Community Participation and Forest Policies in India: An Overview.” Social Change 40 (3): 235–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrari, Fabrizio. 2016. Religion, Devotion and Medicine in North India. London and New York: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frazer, James G. 1941. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. London: Macmillan [abridged version; I ed. 1890].

    Google Scholar 

  • Gadgil, Madhav, and Ramachandra Guha. 1993. This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guha, Ramachandra. 2000. The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hazarika, Utsa. 2018. “‘The Earth Cannot Let Go of Us’: Analysing Ontological Conflicts.” Ethnos 83 (1): 136–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiltebeitel, Alf. 1988. The Cult of Draupadi Volume 1: Mythologies: From Gingee to Kuruksetra. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins, Janet. 1993. “Violence, Sacrifice, and Divination: Giving and Taking Life in Eastern Indonesia.” American Ethnologist 20 (1): 159–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jena, K. Mihir, et al. 2006. Forest Tribes of Orissa, Vol. 2: The Kuttia Kondh. New Delhi: DK Printworld.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, Jonathan. 2015. “The Socioeconomic Determinants of Natural Resource Conflict: Minerals and Maoist Insurgency in India (Society and Natural Resources).” (Routledge) Society and Natural Resources International Journal 28 (2): 149–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, Sanjay. 2001. “Indigenous Communities’ Knowledge of Local Ecological Services.” Economic and Political Weekly 36 (30): 2859–2869.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, Kandan. 2014. “The Sacred Mountain: Confronting Global Capital at Niyamgiri.” Geoforum 54: 196–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macpherson, William. 1865. Memorials of Service in India, from the Correspondence of the Late Major Samuel Charters Macpherson, C.B., Political Agent at Gwalior during the Mutiny, and Formerly Employed in the Suppression of Human Sacrifices in Orissa. Edited by his Brother William Macpherson. London: John Murray.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marszal, Andrew. 2016. “Indian Tribe in New Court Fight to Save Sacred Mountain.” The Telegraph [online], March 26. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/26/indian-tribe-in-new-court-fight-to-save-sacred-mountain/.

  • Maskarinec, Gregory G. 2004. “Overview: South Asia, the Himalayas, and Tibet.” In Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture, edited by Namba M. Walter and Eva J. Neumann Fridman, 741–743. Santa Barbara, Denver, and Oxford: ABC-CLIO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Tribal Affairs. 2013. Statistical Profile of Scheduled Castes in India. New Delhi: Government of India (Statistic Division).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Tribal Affairs/United Nations Development Programme. 2014. Forest Rights Act, 2006. Act, Rules and Guidelines. New Delhi: Government of India.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munshi, Indra, ed. 2015. The Ādivāsī Question: Issues of Land Forest and Livelihood. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Padel, Felix. 2011. Sacrificing People: Invasions of a Tribal Landscape. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Padel, Felix. 2000. The Sacrifice of Human Being: British Rule and the Konds of Orissa. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Padel, Felix, and Das Samarendra. 2010. Out of This Earth: East India Ādivāsīs and the Aluminum Cartel. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pandey, D. Annapurna. 2018. “Kondhs’ Resistance Movement to Save Sacred Niyamgiri, Odisha.” In Indigenous Perspectives on Sacred Natural Sites: Culture, Governance and Conservation, edited by J. Liljeblad and B. Verschuuren, 61–88. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patnaik, R. Nihar. 1992. History and Culture of Khond Tribes. New Delhi: Commonwealth Publisher.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patnaik, Karunakar. 2009. “Land Alienation and Other Land Related Issue in Tribal Area: An Overview.” In Critical Issues in Tribal Development, edited by Ota B. Akhil, 187–204. Bhubaneswar: Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ravindranath, H., and Sudha Parvathi Nijavalli. 2004. Joint Forest Management in India: Spread, Performance and Impact. Hyderabad: Universities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, N. Awadesh, Rajesh K. Gautam, and Ajay K. Gharami. 2006. Indigenous Health Care and Ethno-Medicine. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snodgrass, Jeffrey G., et al. 2008. “Of Leopards and Other Lovely Frightful Things: The Environmental Ethics of Indigenous Rajasthani Shamans.” Journal for the Study of Religion Nature and Culture: 30–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sprenger, Guido. 2005. “The Way of the Buffaloes: Trade and Sacrifice in Northern Laos.” Ethnology 44 (4): 291–312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taussig, Michael. 1987. Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man: A Study in Terror and Healing. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Taussig, Michael. 2017. Il Diavolo e il Feticismo della Merce. Antropologia dell’Alienazione nel “Patto col Diavolo.” Roma: DeriveApprodi [I ed. 1980. The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press].

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, Jason. 2013. “Real ‘Avatar’ Tribe Deals Fatal Blow to Vedanta Mine.” Survival International, August 19. https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/9478.

  • van den Bosch, P. Lourens. 2007. “Human Sacrifice Among the Kondhs.” In The Strange World of Human Sacrifice, edited by J. N. Bremmer, 195–227. Leuven: Peeters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo. 1998. “Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 4 (3): 469–488.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo. 2005. “Perspectivism and Multinaturalism in Indigenous America.” In The Land Within: Indigenous Territory and the Perception of Environment, edited by Alexandre Surallés and Pedro García Hierro, 36–74. Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Keren. 2020. Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism. New York: Routledge (forthcoming).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy

    Stefano Beggiora

Authors
  1. Stefano Beggiora
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefano Beggiora .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Anthropology, Panteion University, Athens, Greece

    Diana Riboli

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Pamela J. Stewart

  3. Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Andrew J. Strathern

  4. Department SARAS (Storia Antropologia Religioni Arte e Spettacolo), Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Davide Torri

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Beggiora, S. (2021). Shamanism, Magic, and Indigenous Ontologies: Eco-Critical Perspectives on Environmental Changes in India. In: Riboli, D., Stewart, P.J., Strathern, A.J., Torri, D. (eds) Dealing with Disasters. Palgrave Studies in Disaster Anthropology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56104-8_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56104-8_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-56103-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-56104-8

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation