***Call for Papers*** 2014 Hutton Lectures | The Heritage (Old DC Bungalow) Kohima | 3rd & 4th December, 2014 Importance of Material Culture among Contemporary Naga Convenors: Dr Roland Platz (Ethnological Museum Berlin), Dr Vibha Joshi (University of Tuebingen and University of Oxford) Nearly 90% Naga are now Christian. Conversion to Christianity entailed changes in life style, discontinuation of ancestral religious practices and disregard for material cultural artefacts that directly reflected the ancestral belief systems, particularly in relation to prestige in war (headhunting), wealth and feasts of merit. In this context we are interested in what old artefacts mean to Naga at present time?What meaning does ‘ethnic dress’ have for contemporary Naga youth? How important are older collections of textiles and accessories to present day Naga; are older textiles valued as heritage items?We are interested in the questions: How do Naga like to be presented in western Museums and how does this affect current self-presentation in Nagaland? How important is material culture to the presentation of this identity - ethnic, political, religious, modern? We invite papers that reflect these concerns. Please send abstracts of approximately 250 words by 6th of October, 2014 to: [email protected], [email protected], and copy in, [email protected] (Kohima Institute). Roundtable Discussion After the panel on the importance of material culture, we shall have a roundtable discussion on the two topics, headhunting and Naga self-representation. Dr Roland Platz and Dr Vibha Joshi are organising an exhibition in 2015 under the aegis of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin on the concept of headhunting among the Naga. Naga objects in the Ethnological Museum Berlin date from the 19th Century and form an important part of the history of ethnographic collections and anthropology. The objects (cloth, jewellery and accessories) in the collection relate to status (both of warrior/head-hunter and wealth) and everyday living (agriculture, weaving, trade, dress). The collection was made at the behest of its first director, Dr Bastian, during the phase of liberal anthropological research in Imperial Germany. Dr Bastian also visited Molung in Naga Hills during this period and met Reverend EW Clark, the first missionary of the American Baptist Mission to the Naga. Christianity & Ethnotheology: Remaking Social Worlds in Northeast India Convenor: Dr Arkotong Longkumer (University of Edinburgh) This panel will discuss issues surrounding enlightenment ideals of human agency and their relationship with Christianity in Northeast India. It will investigate how these ideas have travelled, examining some of the challenges that the cross-cultural investigation of Christianity presents. Anthropology as a secular discipline has had a particularly fraught relationship with Christianity, associated with its implicit theological agenda and with Western Imperialism. But Christianitys concern for the human subject has refused to subside as it has deliberated more on notions of enlightenment, progress, individualism, and agency than any other modern movement. In todays world,Western values are entering into discourses and practices across the globe due to Christianitys reach into these regions (Keane 2006), raising vital questions about the cross-fertilisation of ideas. Zomia - highland communities in South and Southeast Asia - provides an opportunity to examine these ideas, with one of the largest concentration of Christians in Asia. Although 19th century Christian missions among the valley Hindu and Buddhist populations largely failed, the expansion of British economic interests at the empires mountainous periphery generated renewed interests to enlighten and civilise. As missionaries found these indigenous communities receptive to Christianity, it took on new forms, shaping new identities and vocabularies for human agency, particularly in the form of post-colonial nationalisms. We ask how Christianity unravelled these social worlds that brought about changes to (or ruptured) traditional livelihoods.What new ideas emerged from the interaction between Christianity, with its enlightenment influences, and these indigenous communities? How is Christianity shaping and refashioning these communities within existing nation-states? We invite contributions that address Christianity and questions of human agency with a particular focus on Zomia, while illuminating the value for broader theoretical comparison in the emerging field of the anthropology of Christianity. We invite papers that reflect these concerns. Please send abstracts of approximately 250 words by 6th of October, 2014 to: [email protected], and copy in [email protected] (Kohima Institute). Two additional ad-hoc panels will be organised around themes drawn from abstracts submitted by scholars currently engaged in sociological research in the region, though priority will be given to ethnographers (and indeed ontographers). Please submit abstracts no later than 6th of October, 2014 for the open panels to [email protected] The Hutton Lectures is open to all, however those planning to attend and/or present research are requested to indicate their interest via our Facebook event page: https://facebook/events/567980653307170/?ref=22 There will be a 500 Indian Rupees registration fee due at the door to cover printed materials, and meals. Regrettably this year we cannot offer funds toward travel and accommodation costs associated with attending and/or presenting at the lectures. Given the significant interest in the event, however, we are hopeful that such a provision will be available for subsequent lectures.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 16:38:34 +0000
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