Feeding, Sharing and Devouring ─ Ritual and Society in Highland Odisha, India

Citing complexity and a lack of synchronicity in Gadaban culture, Berger describes processes of change occurring at different speeds in different areas of social life and in different ways at different times. He notes a “mainstreaming” impact on younger Gadabans after electricity reached the village and a burgeoning interest in fashion with the advent of television sets. He cites a new form of wage labor that has young, unmarried Gadabans working in Mumbai for seven months at a time, returning with considerable financial resources, which they then invested in style-related things. Other factors reinforcing mainstreaming are government schools and popular films. He suggests that the processes he observed are complex and need to be studied systematically and thoroughly taking into account implicit and explicit strategies, different forms of agency in dealing with innovations, the complexity of the process, and its lack of synchronicity. There are six chapters divided into two parts: the social order; rituals and festivals. Annotation c2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Peter Berger, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.