Mary Louisa Cappelli
MFA, JD, PhD, Nevada State College. Orchid: 0000-0002-0419-9411. Email: Mary.Cappelli@nsc.edu
Volume 11, Number 2, July-September, 2019 I Full Text PDF
DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n2.03
First published July 12, 2019
Abstract:
The Barabaig peoples are vulnerable economic and ecological refugees pushed to the furthest corner of the Bosutu Plains of Eastern Tanzania to eke out a subsistence existence amidst encroaching capital and globalizing forces. In many ways, the Barabaig face struggles similar to those encountered by the tribals in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha.” In this essay, I offer my own ethnographic research to survey the anguish of the Barabaig peoples who try to hold onto their cultural traditions and ways of life in a world geared towards globalized progress. In so doing, I demonstrate how the construction of tribal songs and mythohistories challenge global dynamics and renegotiate gendered positions within dominantly indigenous patriarchal contested spaces. These powerful stories and songs reflect how indigenous mothers imagine and control their own gendered history and preserve their cultural identity and traditional livelihood.
Keywords: Mahasweta Devi, ‘Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, Pirtha,’ Mythohistories; indigenous peoples; tribals, Mahasweta Devi; Tanzania; Barabaig; indigenous resistance; environmental sustainability; indigenous story telling, indigenous songs, animism, Gayatri Spivak
