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Book reviews: Santal Creation Stories

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We Come from Geese_coverEarth Rests On Tortoise_cover We come from the Geese: Santal Creation StoriesText by Ruby Hembrom

Illustrations by Boski Jain

Published by Adivaani, 2013

ISBN: 978-81-925541-1-2

32 pages; 90 INR.

 

Earth rests on a Tortoise: Santal Creation Stories

Text by Ruby Hembrom

Illustrations by Boski Jain

Published by Adivaani, 2013

ISBN: 978-81-925541-3-6

32 pages; 90 INR

 Review by Jayeeta Ghorai, University of Leeds

 Like children curious about, ‘Where do I come from?” nascent civilisations all over the world have been preoccupied with the question of human origin. All peoples have their own intrinsic theories about how the world as they know it and human life on earth came to be. With time, written traditions and organised religions have overshadowed the oral narratives prevalent among many indigenous groups. In India, various orally transmitted stories about creation are getting pushed to oblivion as the languages they are transferred through are spoken by lesser number of people with the passing days. Children of indigenous origin are being taught employability-enhancing linguistic skills, being indoctrinated into formally organised education systems and assimilated intomainstream faiths with larger following, in order to aid their future sustenance. The habit of storytelling is losing its relevance in social structures, through infrequent tribal gatherings, and is getting restricted within individual families, as a legacy passed down through the generations, at risk of being lost forever.

Adivaani has stepped in to address the void of these missing traditions by publishing a series on Santal creation stories, with two books printed and a third in the offing. In a tiny, easy-to-miss foreword, the publisher explains that each tale was ‘written to rescue one of the many oral stories of the Santal people. [Their] version is adapted from that of Rev. A Campbell’s “Santal Traditions”, published in Indian Evangelical Review in 1892, and described by Rev. Dr. Timotheas Hembrom in his book, The Santals, 1996.’

Erudite earlier works like the aforementioned A. Campbell anthology, Cecil Henry Bompass’ Folklore of Santal Parganas (now digitised by Project Gutenberg) Verrier Elwin’s Myths of Middle India, Folk Tales of Mahakoshal, The Fisher-Girl and the Crab, The Tribal Myths of Orissa, among other notable titles from similar scholastic canon, being out of print, their circulation is limited withinlibrary shelves and purely academic interest groups. The urgent need to document some of these stories for wider knowledge transmissionwas met in a welcome endeavour. The short accounts covering thirty-two pages each, written in easy English, filled with drawings and affordably priced, have children as their primary target readership.Children are the desired receptors to the carrying forward of all traditional knowledge, and the books fulfil that purpose amply. But the books would also prove insightful to anyone who is interested in learning about the Santal traditional thought on cosmology.

We come from Geese, the first book in the series, gives the Santal account of how the first humans originated. The second part, Earth rests on a Tortoise, describes the planet’s origin and how land was raised from the water.

But why in English? As the writer of the stories Ruby Hembrom, one of Adivaani’s small publishing team of three, and a Santal herself, explains her aim, English as a world language, and one of the main languages through which literacy is being disseminated among present day Santal offspring, ensures wider reach. Not only were these stories important to document in a written language, to save them from ultimate oblivion, that language had to be one accessible to both the modern generation of Santals as well as non-Santal populations within India and the world at large. The overarching need was to place this historiography of cosmology among other world traditions.

The English narrative is cleverly entwined with Santal words in transliteration, with aglossary at the end of each book. The names of the essentially Santal figures from the original stories were retained; so a reader gets acquainted with ?h?kur Jiv (the Supreme Being in Santal folk lore), Pilcu Haram (the first man), Pilcu Bu?hi (the first woman), Hãs (the gander), H?sil (the goose) and K?chim K??r (the tortoise prince). Simultaneously, the names of the natural elements that appear in the tales and play a role in larger Santal culture or are exclusive to their inhabited locales, were mentioned in original, with a further explanation of the cultural significance included in the glossary. In the stories one comes across Johar, the traditional Santal greeting, Bo?gas, Gidr?, Sirom grass, Karam Tree and Sole Hako. One gets instantly transported to an essentially Santal world, unadulterated by the passage of time, via the conduit of easily comprehensible English.

The books are pictorial, with full pages dedicated to visual representations, to appeal to early-age readers. The narrative is contained in short sentences, no more than one per page. The nearly graphic novel layout would fire a child’s imagination. Artist Boski Jain has risen to the challenge of making quintessentially ‘inexplicable and formless’ notions easy to grasp for young readers without losing authenticity among the original Santal ‘owners’ of the stories. She incorporates tribal symbols like the tortoise, fish, and flower and leaf patterns with large chunks of her creative acumen, to fill gaps where no original design existed. For instance, concepts like ?h?kur Jiv or Bo?gas had no reliable preceding representation in the otherwise rich artistic tradition of the Santal. The line drawings and black-and-white illustrations retain the wonderful charm of ethnic tribal artistic legacy.

One can hope these books would find coveted place as bed time stories of children across geographies. Not only is indigenous folk lore at a risk of getting lost today, but the ritual of storytelling and the excellent habit of reading, popular till a few decades ago, is seeing a sad decline in this age of easily accessible multimedia-driven childhood entertainment. Like J. K. Rowling brought a fresh surge with her modern mythmaking, it is time the age old tales from indigenous quarters found a stronger voice.

[Adivaani books are available through online portal ofEarthcare Books. For further queries, write toinfo@adivaani.org or visit their website, http://adivaani.org]

Jayeeta Ghorai have an MA in English from University of Calcutta and am currently pursuing a Joint Honours in Chinese and Italian from University of Leeds with an aim to study a higher degree in Social Anthropology.

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Search for an Alternative Aesthetic in Bangla Dalit Poetry

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Indranil Acharya, Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, India

Savarna critics assert that Dalit literature should be critiqued strictly as literature. They assert that it is totally inappropriate to treat this literature from a reverential or sympathetic perspective simply because it has been created by Dalits. According to them, the literary evaluation of this literature should be based on literary criteria. They say that this may well be Dalit literature, but the reader will read it only as literature. Therefore, extra-literary considerations will have to be disregarded in its appraisal. But Dalit writers reject this point of view. It is their opinion that a middle-class criticism cannot properly evaluate this literature. (Limbale, 2004, 103)
I
This paper intends to focus on Bangla Dalit literature- a phenomenon that started in the last part of the 19th century and built its structural pattern on Dalit sensibility. In terms of experience and expression, this literature attempts to invade a new space outside and beyond the middle class Bengali sensibility- the Parnassus of Bengali mainstream literature. But the publication history of Dalit literature is one of upper-caste neglect. Leading Bangla publication houses- Ananda, Dey’s, Mitra & Ghosh etc. turned a deaf ear to promising Dalit poets. The situation was so hostile that the Dalit poets finally consolidated to establish their own publication house- Chaturtha Duniya. It was a very powerful statement on the politics of Savarna publishers. Moreover, it was a loud protest against the diseased Bengali psyche that refused to admit the existence of caste discrimination in West Bengal under the influence of Marxist ideologues and in the name of liberalism and progressive intellectualism.
I propose to concentrate my attention on a groundbreaking anthology of Dalit writing, the first of its kind in the language, Satabarsher Bangla Dalit Sahitya (Hundred Years of Bengali Dalit Literature), published in 2011 and edited by Manohar Mouli Biswas and Shyamal Kumar Pramanik. In this anthology we find specimens of what Limbale terms ‘alternative aesthetic’ in the explosive rejection and piercing revolt, occasioned by unrestrained anguish and finding release with aggressive character and insolent, rebellious attitude. I would also like to show, with necessary textual illustrations, the uncharacteristic rhetoric of restraint that completes the construction of an alternative aesthetic.
Dalits of India are farthest from power and hence belong to the lowest stratum of caste hierarchy. The marginalization is based both on the religious principle of pollution and purity and the cultural construction of power. Dalit literature reveals the collective consciousness of people whose voice had been suppressed through long ages of history. It is a protest against the establishment and a commitment to inculcate the new values for ushering in a new order. This revolutionary aim was rooted in anger and sorrow- the two crucial emotional stimuli of all Dalit writing.

Cursed with the stigma of untouchability, Dalits are “treated like animals, they lived apart from the village and had to accept leftovers from the higher caste people, in return for their endless toil” (Dangle, 2009, xxi). Dalit literature reveals the collective consciousness of this community whose voice had been suppressed through the long ages of history. It is seen in the main as a protest against the establishment, as a commitment to inculcate new values aiming at a new order. This revolutionary aim to create a new order is deeply rooted in anger and grief. In ‘Akkarmashi’ by Sharankumar Limbale one discovers ‘a lofty image of grief’- a major construct of the alternative Dalit aesthetic. He defines Dalit literature as something “which artistically portrays the sorrows, tribulations, slavery, degradation, ridicule endured by Dalits” (Limbale, 2004, 30). He sums up his idea with a beautiful expression, “This literature is but a lofty image of grief” (Limbale, 2004, 30). Arjun Dangle is of the opinion that, “Dalit literature portrays the hopes and aspirations of the exploited masses. Their fight for survival, their daily problems, the insults they have to put up with, their experiences and their outlook towards all these events are portrayed in Dalit literature” (Dangle, 2009, xlviii)….Access Full Text of the Article


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Towards a Poetics of Reconstruction: Reading and Enacting identity in Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih’s Poetry

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Subashish Bhattacharjee, University of North Bengal, India

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Saikat Guha, University of North Bengal, India

Abstract

Literature from the Northeast is usually rendered with a homogeneous proliferation of signifiers that dissolve its native capacities. The Northeast Literature is structured as a possible stance against majoritarian discourses. However, most commentators who view this particular regional literature in terms of an assortment for access often fail to locate the displaced qualifiers which are integrated into such socio-literary practices. While a segment of the literary output from the region is decidedly an attempt towards integration or absorption into “central” discourses, there also exists a substantial voicing of the resistance which is offered by means of extending the regional identity. The question of this micro-politic endorsement is arguably bestthe poetry of the Shillong-based poet, Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih. Nongkynrih assumes the role of a revisionist who recapitulates the identity-experience of the Northeast in the form of a politico-poetics that distinguishes him from the mainstream Indian English poets or even from the largesse of the Northeastern poets. An essential denominator for Nongkynrih is his sublative poetic existence which owes muche historical, contemporary and lived-experiences which illuminates the ethos of a Khasi identity. The following paper would attempt to evaluate Nongkynrih’s poetry in light of the political, socio-cultural and literary scenario of the Northeast, and the imbroglio which is encouraged further by his poetic engagement.

[Keywords: Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, poetry, indigenous, Northeast, culture]

Apart from the geographical disadvantages of the region, India’s Northeast’s condition of exclusion has been exacerbated by a step-motherly behaviour of the country’s mainstream politics. “Although the Northeast historically has served as the eastern gateway for the passage of people, commodities, and ideas between India and its neighbours,” cites Das, “the Northeast’s emergence as a separate region bounded nearly on all sides by other territorially defined nation-states brought such continuities and interrelations…to an abrupt end” (Das, 2008, p. 5-6). Surrounded by international boundaries, Northeast’s only route of communication with the mainland India is the narrow Siliguri Corridor. Such poor communication system, to a certain extent, hinders Northeast’s social, economic and cultural transactions with the mainland. As an obvious result of negligence of the Central Government and poor communication system the region is underdeveloped and underprivileged which result in poverty, dissatisfaction among people, and insurgent activities. Since the post-Independence era the intra-India hegemony, of which Northeast becomes a victim, renders the regional subject one step further down the hierarchy to the limit of an almost unspeakability. The Northeastern subject’s condition is aggravated by issues of underdevelopment, regional turmoil and fast disappearing ethnic heritage. In analogy to Spivak’s choicest “subaltern,” immolated Hindu widow or “sati,” who is a victim of two-fold oppression of colonialism and patriarchy (Loomba, 2005, p. 192-203), the Northeastern subject turns out to be a victim of a coercive Central apparatus and conflicts within the State which have a kind of complicity for mutual interest (Barua, 2008, p. 19- 24). What again deteriorates the condition of the Northeastern subject is identity crisis resulting from “the large-scale migration of population from outside the region during the past one hundred years” (Singh, 1987, p. 162). The clash between the myriad ethnic groups, some of which call themselves ‘native’ and label others as ‘immigrant’, mounts up to the palimpsest of multi-layered conflict. The rivalry between different ethnic groups each of which makes their own claim of negligence and oppression prolong the disorder. However, the cultural heritage of the Northeast is not completely lost as different ethnic groups of the region have begun to discover their cultural roots although much of their purity has been obliterated.

Usually considered backward and ineligible for ‘central’ contestations, the region has suddenly become the centre of social, political and literary activities, and the three elements often construct a combined survey of the ‘condition of Northeast’ question. The literary output of the region has been decidedly incisive in presenting the identity politics and other pressing concerns for the Northeast. This is particularly exhibited in the reconstructive poetics of Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, one of the Shillong Poets, who has broken away from “the mainstream tradition of city based cultures and urbanized images which marked poets from Mumbai, or Calcutta” (Guha, 2013). The poetic and politic significance of these poets, emerging from a neglected region, is immense, as Mark Bender illustrates:

The poems here tend to converge on themes and imagery (of the region): origins, migration, material culture, rituals, and features of the natural and human-manipulated environment. Though the cultural and linguistic links between these poets may be ancient and modern divisions complex, many of their poems resonate in ways that seem to dissolve borders and create poetic homes for their respective voices within the terrain of this upland region. (Bender, 2012, p. 107)

Nongkynrih is aware of Northeast’s various conflicts, both intra-regional, national and international, which provide him with fertile themes for his poetic projects. But the poet maintains an aesthetic distance from the chaotic ambience of the region, never producing an opprobrium against any agency or over-glorifying a scenario….Access Full Text of the Article


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Literature of North East India: Oral Narratives as Documents for the Study of Ritualization in the Darlong Community of Tripura

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Benjamina Darlong, Tripura University, Tripura, India

Abstract

The abstract attempt to read into rituals of the Darlong community of Tripura pitched on different phenomenal vines. The Darlong believed that there exists spirits, shadows and supernatural elements in every living and non-living body of nature. In the orature of the Darlong community, there are many such instances where the people response the natural happenings and old practices that are rooted in the oral narratives there by developing their rites and rituals. This article will investigate into the oral narratives and the evolution of certain rite and ritual that are either abandoned or carried out till today. However, it must be remembered that the Darlong, accepting the Christian creed in 1919, no longer preserved the belief today.

[Keywords: Darlong community, ritualization, oral narrative, Christianity]

  1. Introduction

Oral narratives are cultural materials and documents transmitted verbally from one generation to another in speeches or songs that later take up the form of folktales, folksongs, ballads, sayings or even chants. No doubt, the origin of this tradition may date back to some stone age when men knew not the art of writing yet watermark their every deed for their forth coming generations. It might also have originated in circumstances where a grandmother or a grandfather attempts to quench the thirst of their grandchildren about the outer world which according to them is a world full of adventures and strange happenings. In this way, it is possible for a society to transcend materials of the past across time. The Darlong oral tradition records the lives of the common people, their beliefs, simple joy and sorrow, customs and their encounter with strange forces of nature. It can be considered borrowing its accounts from an individual’s or group’s cultures functioning as a mediator to political decisions, validates conduct, release emotions and evaluate their social administration. The general themes of the tales are adventures, love, beauty hunting, hero tales, legendary tales, revenge and vengeance. The tales also manipulate the customs, rites and rituals of the people, beliefs faculty to form the plots and sub-plots or the wardrobe of it. On the other hand, they also records all the notable events of the past embedded with thought provoking stories revealing the historical, cultural, inhabitation, religious aspect and names of the kings, queens and chieftains of the community in the past. The folksongs also memorized almost all the drive made by the people. For instance, song for dead, song for harvesting, word play, song for encouragement, song celebrating success, song sang on their usual way of challenging the evil spirits, songs celebrating their hunting spirits and their way of courting their beloved etc.

The Darlong community does not have any written document. Hence, the community preserved their traditions and cultures through oral tradition and artifacts, which too is in a dwindling state. Every materials with which the community define its identity, existence and world where he is living in, taking from the anthropological myth to fairy tales are transmitted from generation to generation through oral tradition. Nevertheless, there are some writings maintained by early educated person on different subjects and those documents which the Village Council maintained in regard to their respective villages called ‘Khuahniangsia’, which of course is a product of later age. To begin with, the Darlong literature had its genesis of documentation with ‘Parkam’ (a collection of nine folktales) and followed by ‘Tian Thephung Bu’ (collection of folktales) by Pu. Siamkunga Darlong, Darchawi. Beyond these, there are monthly or weekly bulletins such as ‘Darlong Eng’, ‘Varna Sirbi, ‘Saibual Rawl’, ‘Vanglai’ etc. which records sermons, tales, songs, poetry, jokes, sayings, fictional stories and articles giving an explanation on varieties of topics like the ‘Tharlak Kut’ and other fest of the community. In addition, there are some referential writings of Holy Bible’s testaments in Darlong language like ‘Johana Hrilfiahna’ (reference on the Gospel of John) by Rev. Tlanglawma Darlong of Darchawi and ‘The Darlong of Tripura’ by Letthuama Darlong through Directorate of Tribal Research Institute, Govt. of Tripura. Recently, a successful effort on audio recording was made from Mr. Muana Darlong and as a result, the community could document their folksongs in ‘Ngaibang’. In the latest Tharlak Kut held on 11th– 12th Jan. 2013, Venue; Lamkhuang Khuahlui, effort has been made to revive the oral tradition of the community….Access Full Text of the Article


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The Fruitful and the Fulfilled: Looking at Adi Rasa and Shringar Rasa in the Folk Aesthetics of Bihu

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Prerana Choudhury, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Abstract
This paper seeks to explore the folk aesthetics of the springtime Bihu festival of Assam. The concept of Rasa, a significant part of the classical aesthetics found in Bharatmuni’s Natyashastra, has been outlined and illustrated through the Bihu songs- the dancing, the gestures as well as the overall ethos of the festival. A major aspect of the paper is the dialectics that form between the folk and the classical canon; an effort has been made to understand the juxtaposition of the two as well as the formation of the classical from the folk. Bihu as a celebration of eros, romance and fertility forms the core of the argument; adi-rasa and shringar-rasa form the primary essence of this celebration and this paper. This folk festival is undergoing rapid modernisation which has brought the dance form onto the urban stage that has led to the metamorphosis of the otherwise agricultural nomenclature of Bihu into a more ‘sanitised’ version of the same.

[Keywords: aesthetics, folk, rasa, adi-rasa, shringar-rasa, modernity, eros, romance, Natyashastra, gamusa, Huchori.]

I. Introduction
Rasa, the essence of a work of art, literally translates to ‘taste’ or ‘savour’. Theorised by the ancient sage Bharatmuni (between 200 BC and 200 AD), rasa refers to the specialised emotion inspired by the performers in an audience, which enables the viewers to relish the performance and engage with it in a manner that is deeper and more involved than in the actions of everyday living. It is what demarcates a performance, a work of art- or even a celebration- from the mundaneness of daily existence and thereby aestheticises the emotions provoked in the viewers by the ‘spectacle’ created to inspire good thought which in turn will inspire good living. The moral injunction within a classical framework such as that of the rasa theory is undeniable- it would be largely reminiscent of the question about art’s moral responsibility in place throughout history- specially in the context that the Natyashastra itself arrived at a time when society faced decadence, and it was left to the realm of the arts to elevate man from moral downtroddenness. (It is said that the four Vedas Brahma created- Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda- were not allowed to be studied by the lower castes and the women of society; so Brahma created the Natyaveda to be studied and practised by all.) Is the experience of rasa subjective or objective? Different philosophers and scholars thoughout history have provided their own perspective on it based on their philosophical stances. Although the navarasas per se are objective categories in terms of codification of the aesthetic experience through particular words themselves, Bharata stated how rasa and emotionneed to be felt in experience while words exist as the suggestions of the same. This democratic rendering of rasa stresses on the ‘experiential or subjective side of poetic meaning’ which ‘seems rather pointless, for ultimately everything is an experience, such as a colour, taste, or emotion, and can be known as it is in itself only through direct acquaintance.’

II. “The Springtime Bihu of Assam”- a Celebration of Eros
One of the seven northeastern states of India, Assam encompasses numerous ethnic communities, each with its own distinct cultural flavour, thereby negating the notion of a homogenous ‘Assamese’ identity. The contours of such a representation would be multifaceted, then; not simply as a result of diverse tribal identities but also as a consequence of the interaction between the ‘greater’ mainland Hindu influence that has seeped into the region and interacted with ‘indigenous’ tribal faiths, ensuing a process of assimilation. This can be said to have been possible because “(t)he religion described as Hinduism is a body of beliefs and customs traceable to various sources- Aryan and non-Aryan, Indian and non-Indian, modern and old. It is absorptive in character and has an attitude which has found itself expedient in dealing with people of various grades of development- from believing in a super soul to worshippers of stones and trees… Indian folklore is as much the Hindu’s as it is the tribal’s.” A melting pot, hence, Assam fuses communities that trace their origin to the Aryavarta, the Tibeto-Burmans and the Ahoms who are descendants of the Shun community from China’s Unan province, alongwith traces of Dravidian and Austric people as well….Access Full Text of the Article

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Hybrid and Hyphenated Arab Women’s English Narratives as a New Coming-of Age Literature

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Dalal Sarnou, Mostaganem University, Algeria

Abstract
Anglophony rose in most Middle Eastern countries from the long years of British colonization as it is the case with other South Asian and South African countries. After Bhabha, this has favored the emergence of hybrid identities, hybrid writings and hybrid cultures. Compared with the literature in French produced by North African (Algerian, Tunisian or Moroccan) or even Lebanese writers, the list of writings produced by Arabs (from Middle East mainly) in English was one on the whole unimpressive. This statement was challenged by an impressive increasing of English productions by Arab writers, mainly and interestingly women like Ahdaf Soueif, Leila Abulela, Soraya Antonius, Fadia Faqir, and others who either live in Britain, in the U.S or between the U.S/Britain and the Arab world. In reality, although scores of books have looked at Anglophone literature around the globe, they tend to make scant reference to the contribution of Arab writers, and specially women. Knowing that names such as Chinua Achebe, Bharati Mukherjee, Salman Rushdie and Anita Desai among others now are forming what can be identified as ‘parallel canon’, a similar recognition must be dedicated to significant Anglophone Arab writers –most of which are women as Ahdaf Soueif, Fadia Faqir, Diana Abu Djaber and others. This paper raises issues of hybridity, hyphenation and the literary specificity of Arab Anglophone women writings by looking at various bestselling English works produced by Arab British and Arab American women authors.

[Keywords: Arab English literature, Arab Anglophone women narratives, Arab British, Arab American, Diaspora, home, minor literature.]

Introduction
The recent impressive boosting of narratives produced in English by women authors who are Arab British/American immigrants or daughters of early Arab British/American immigrants has encouraged many critics and academics to categorize this coming of age literature within specific frameworks.These narratives are now widely recognized by Western critics and are interested in by many academics and researchers . Indeed, the last few decades have been marked by an important increase of literary works produced in English by Arab male and female writers who are described either as Anglophone or hybrid , needless to mention that Anglophone Arab female writers outnumber male writers. These women writers , in particular, are of Arabic decent: either academics and/or intellectuals who migrated to Britain or USA and decided to write in English or British / American writers who are daughters of early twentieth century first Arab immigrants settling mainly in the US and whose mother tongue is English. Interestingly, literary works written by Arab Anglophone women writers –mainly novels and short stories –brought more recognition and visibility to the Arab Woman and defy the orientalist representation that was promoted since the nineteenth century in Western literature, media and art as is the case with European paintings and photographs and also in images from the World’s Fair in the U.S. in the 19th and early 20th centuries; these paintings depicted the Arab World as an exotic and mysterious place of sand, harems and belly dancers, reflecting a long history of Orientalist fantasies. Examples of these paintings are Delacroix, Death of Sardanapalus (1827), Delacroix, Women of Algiers in their apartment and others.
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Nawazish Azim, Aliah University (Kolkata)

Introduction

In Sandra Cisneros’ 1984 novel The House on Mango Street, the image of the Chicana woman, who is sequestered within the confines of patriarchy in the form of normative significations of home, family and gender, is challenged. The need to create a new identity for Chicana women is emphasized, in not only society and culture, but also in fictive narratives. Continually through the novel, most of the women stare out of windows listlessly, waiting for their husbands to return or for something to happen, occasionally coaxing one of the children playing in the street to fetch a soda for them from the neighbourhood store. They have no say in their choice of spouses, being considered objects for men to control and manipulate. Oppressed, humiliated and devoid of purpose in their lives, they symbolise the unfortunate condition of women in the Latin-American community. The heroine of the novel, however, named Esperanza, is different from the major stereotype thus described. She is a strong, opinionated woman who desires a house and understands the need for a female space, whether physical or narratorial: “Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own” (Cisneros, 1984, p.108) It is this deep desire for a house which signifies that women in Chicano literature in the 1970s onwards, whether female characters or female authors, had begun to articulate their “need for a space to call their own” (Martinez, 2002, p.131), which would help in the creation of their new socio-political identity independent of men. In fact, it is this articulation of feminist liberation, which becomes representative of a discourse of resistance to patriarchal traditions, and is symptomatic of the emergence of feminist indigeneity in Chicano culture and literature.

  1. Tracing Roots: Neo-Indigenism and the Rise of Feminist Chicana Literature

While Indigeneity or Indigenism, as it is more popularly called, has had wide-ranging and long-lasting effects in Mexico and Latin America for over a century now, feminist Indigenism is a new theoretical paradigm that has defined Chicana literature in recent years. The first impetus for Indigenism was provided by late 18th and early 19th century by archaeological excavations which hinted at a pre-Columbian past of Latin America. Later, the publication in the 1880s of Aves sin nido (Birds without a Nest) by Clorinda Matto de Turner brought forth the truly Indigenist work in Latin America. It was a new perspective, full of empathy for men and women belonging to the Latin American community. From this point onwards, in the last century, indigenist art and thought have generated more and more works that have “transformed the Europeanized cosmovision securely in place among the power elite and the educated circles of Latin America in the 19th Century.” (Ramirez, 1995, p.71). The result was a recognition of the influence of Indigenist thought in many realms of contemporary life, including political rhetoric and revolutionary ideology, and attempts to return to an Indigenist past that encompasses for example, land reform, collectivism in working the land, and an almost mystical attachment to the land. Yet, beyond this pro-land agenda, there are several essences which have become the ideological and philosophical pillars of the movement. At a more practical level, the Indigenist movement began in Mexico in 1904, several years before the Mexican Revolution, when Dr Atl (or Gerardo Trulillo as he was born) became a pioneer of Indgenist philosophy and ideology. After the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1920, various aspects of Indigenism moved from the realm of idealism to practical implementation. Jose Vasconcelos, author of Indology (1925) and The Cosmic Race (1927) and Diego Rivera, an artist (sometimes better known as Frida Kahlo’s husband), became the pioneers and fore-runners of the movement, transforming aesthetic thought and intellectual life in Mexico.

A generation later, in the 1960s, Chicanos referred to this earlier period of Indigenism and used it as a political and cultural tool. Jack Forbes and his book Aztecas del Norte influenced Chicano thought and life, and the concept of Aztlan, the homeland of the Aztecs to the north of the Aztec Empire as it was established in the Valley of Mexico in 1325 was revived among the Chicanos. Stories of the grandeur and dignity of the old Aztec Empire were told. Cultural nationalists such as Rodolfo ‘Corky’ Gonzales and Alurista spoke of this past and developed an indigenous perspective in art and life. In this way, Chicanos “felt empowered in the very real force of Indigenism and its continuing present day permutations and vitality” (Ramirez, 1995, p.72). It began to represent a deep-seated desire in many Chicano artists, historians and intellectuals to believe in the ideals of the origins of the indigenous past. Their faith in it could, they hoped, revive respect and self-esteem for the Chicano community, while revealing the historic past. This two-pronged tool to lift the morale of the Chicano individual as well as to supply an answer to the present condition of the Chicano community, was located in the revival of the indigenous past. And yet, in spite of this, Indigenism also carried with it several complications, such as the accusation that it involved reference to a ‘past paradise’ which never existed, as well as that it was an ‘escape route’ for those who could not face present harsh reality. The belief turned to cynicism, and Indigenism began to fade away slowly. Existing only in fragmented relative importance, it did not partake of the same vitality with which it had started, and what existed was just a shadow of the intensity of its original theoretical underpinnings. However, in recent Chicana literature, Indigenism has reappeared with a new vigour and intensity. Its original theoretical strains and philosophical ideals have re-emerged in recent years as an essential part of Chicana Renaissance, which has added to the development of Chicano Renaissance of the 1960s and its original adoption of Indigenism as a vital force in art, literature and intellectual life. Significant works such as Alurista’s Floricanto en Aztlan or Nationchild Plumaroja which had lost their relevance in time, now gained momentum again and were taken up by feminist authors who wanted to locate a sense of empowerment in Indigenism. By the mid-1970s therefore, feminist authors were taking forward the theme of Indigenism to a new space, where it was appropriated for entirely new purposes. Chicana feminism became ‘the best thing about Chicano literature’ in the words of Nicolas Kanellos, and Chicanas were re-inventing Indigenism to serve feminist ends. Authors such as Estela Portillo-Trambley, Sandra Cisneros, Denise Chavez and Lorna Dee Cervantes demonstrated subtle references to neo-Indigenism, coupled with feminist ideology. Indigenism arose again in a new and transformed way as part of resurgence in feminism, and these Chicana authors became highly significant in this process…Access Full Text of the Article


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Quechuan Modernity and the Literature of Kilku Warak’a

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Katarzyna Górska, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Abstract
In Peru Kilku Warak’a is often regarded as one of the greatest Quechuan poets. He represents the indigenous movement in the Peruvian literature of 20th century. Bearing in mind the specifics of Quechua language the following article analyzes how traditional Quechuan folklore changed with coming into modern age and transformed into literature based tradition. There are several differences between Quechuan oral culture that was practiced for centuries by anonymous authors and written literature tradition that was codified in form of scripture that was unfamiliar and atypical for both Quechua language and culture.

[Keywords: Peruvian literature, Quechuan poetry, indigenismo, modernity, KilkuWarak’a]

Ch’iqtawaqchusunquykita
sunquytat’aqarparispa
Segaríastucorazón
Despedazando el mío?
Would you cut your heart
Tearing mine?

Qonqawankimanchu ¿Me olvidarías? Would you forget me?
KilkuWarak’a

In the Andean region of South America, Quechua or quichua is a language family spoken by the tribes of people referred to with the same name. It is a common knowledge that Quechua is the primary indigenous language of Peru and the language that was expanded and used predominantly during the Inca Empire in Pre-Columbian era. In fact the origins of this Andean language can be traced back to centuries before the Inca Empire was settled. The proto-quechua, as linguists call this former idiom, formed a root that later developed into several regional dialects. The history of this language as vernacular in the area that today constitutes the Peruvian territory is relatively short. It was diffused for nearly 100 years with the conquest under the rule of Inca Pachacútec, HuaynaCápac and TúpacYupanqui . Then, its own development was suddenly disturbed with the arrival of the Spaniards to the continent during the 16th century. And only recently in the 20th century Quechua has begun to decline with the compulsory education in Spanish on the

territory of its traditional exclusiveness and domination – Peruvian highlands countryside. There are many different, more or less linguistically discerned, divisions of Quechua, though today we identify four major Quechua branches in Peru. They vary in many aspects, speakers of different variants can comprehend them. Therefore, we distinguish runasimi (region of Cuzco), chanka/wanka (region of Ayacucho), huayla (region of Huancayo) and ancash (as can be supposed – region of Ancash).

The idiom of Quechua is characterized by various features of traditional and indigenous languages. What is special in the native language is the absence of written tradition. Quechua was restricted only to oral tradition in the time of its development and diffusion and apart of a very simple recording technique known as quipu, it did not have any scripting system. Unlike other major indigenous language families of Latin America as Mayan or Náhuatl that unfolded a specific codification, Quechua was spoken only. The initial condition and the forthcoming cultural and linguistic progress of Spanish left severe marks on the modern Quechua language. In this article I want to show that modern Quechua illustrates varied view of human beings and the world than its traditional Pre-Colombian predecessor. A fact of representing only verbal tradition and becoming a codified language with script and formalized grammar, only after the conquest and colonization prosecuted under different language, left strict marks on language and therefore on Andean folklore. Analyzing contemporary works of Quechuan writer Kilku Warak’a, I aim to prove that modernity affected Quechua culture and language with so far unknown components and characteristics. The literary works of an outstanding Quechua writer prove the alteration of idiom itself and therefore the linguistic model of the world…Access Full Text of the Article


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Is there a Place that is Non-Gendered in this World?: A Critique of Oyewumi’s Non Gendered Yorùbá Family

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Olúkáyò?dé R. ADÉS?UYÌ, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The paper is an appraisal of Oyeronke Oyewumi’s argument that Yorùbá is non-gendered. It examines her arguments in support of this. It finds out that Oyewumi’s claim is not evident in Yorùbá setting. At best, it can be considered to be pseudo argument. The paper concludes, using the methods of conceptual analysis and philosophical argumentation, that since the discourse about gender is a universal phenomenon, and since it cannot be done away given its inherent function, there exists no nation, race group of people without gender. Therefore, Yorùbá cannot be an exception, that is, by implication, Yorùbá is gendered.

[Keywords: gender, non-gendered, feminism, agbo-ilé, ?m?-ìyá]

Introduction

It is not uncommon to hear people talking about gender and sex. In which case, both concepts are parts of human languages. They are very common in the feminist context such that no feminist theory can be discussed without mentioning either of these concepts. However, these concepts have different meanings and interpretations, and their meanings and interpretations depend on the use. For instance, Idowu (2002: 39) has differentiated between sex and gender. For him, the difference is that while sex refers to the genetic and physical characteristics of persons that define their identities to be either male or female, gender refers “to the culturally accepted behaviours and ways of relating to others expected of the two sexes.” In this case, gender is socially constructed (Idowu, 2002: 39). It may imply that gender discussion is neither relative nor contextual.

Oyewumi (2002) has, however, argued that gender discourse is not universal but contextual. This further implies that feminist theory and, of course any discussion are not universal. To argue for this, Oyewumi (2002) uses Africa (Yorùbá) as point of reference to prove that Africans and Africa are non-gendered; rather what is evident is seniority orientation.

This paper examines Oyewumi’s claims and analysis used to deny Africans as non-gendered. Method similar to hers will be adopted, that is, conceptual clarification. This is informed given by her use of method of conceptual clarification. It shall conclude that her claims are not tenable.

An Overview of Oyewumi’s Notion of Gender

Oyewumi (2002) has taken a bold step to look into the issue of gender and conclude that Africans are non-gendered. To prove this, she looks at the issue from one of the African nations, Yorùbá. What she intends to do is to prove that if actually there is a nation or tribe in Africa that is non-gendered, then, it will be easy to establish the fact that Africans are non-gendered. In which case, the argument will be structured thus:

Yorùbá are non-gendered.

Yorùbá are Africans.

Therefore, Africans are non-gendered.

Apparently, the structure of the argument is valid; it is so in the sense that the information in the conclusion, which is Oyewumi’s thesis, is already contained in the premises. While the argument is deductive, it is, however, not sound. The argument, although deductive, is neither plausible nor tenable, bearing in mind that not all deductive arguments are sound; and for there to be a sound argument, the premises and the conclusion must be true and valid (Copi and Cohen, 2002: 42-43 ; Oke and Amodu, 2006: 81).

Before examining the main thesis, a look at her view about gender construct, origin and nature of feminism is necessary. According to Oyewumi (2002), there was a period named the age of modernity which was magnet-like age. It came with a lot of things like “the development of capitalism and industrialization, as well as the establishment of nation states and the growth of regional disparities to the world system” (Oyewumi, 2002). Furthermore, due to modernity, some other things not only surfaced but came to stay. These things, perhaps, still exist up till today; which are gender and racial categories (Oyewumi, 2002). The consequence of this modernity is the expansion of Europe and establishment of Euro/American cultural hegemony throughout the world.

This expansion would not have been felt if nothing had come with it. But it did not come alone; it came with what is today regarded as the best thing to have happened to the ‘uncivilized people’, which is education. This has led to the production of knowledge about human behaviour, history, societies and culture (Oyewumi, 2002). This means that the Europeans have since been in possession and production of knowledge (Salami, 2008: 195-213; Salami, 2009: 131-141). This has affected the history, religion, ethics, philosophy etc of other parts of the world, Africans inclusive, thereby leading to eurocentrism, the view that a particular group is intentionally and deliberately put at the centre and the group at the centre is propagated as being emulated (Summer, 1906; Berry and Kalin, 1995: 329; Toth and Vijder 2002: 252; Bailey and Harindranath, 2006: 304). The effect of this is both positive and negative, but since the focus of this paper is not on this, then, it needs not be discussed further.

Nevertheless, it must be said that the effect of eurocentrism is the racialization of knowledge, as noted by Oyewumi (2002). Of course, one needs not begin to question that due to the fact that most of this formal education training is in line with the European set up. That is the basis of her assertion that “Europe is represented as the source of knowledge and Europeans as knowers” (Oyewumi, 2002)….Access Full Text of the Article

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What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

“And What Are You Dreaming About?”: An Analysis of Tomson Highway’s Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing

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Lindsay Diehl, University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus

Abstract

This paper argues that it is necessary to approach Tomson Highway’s play, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, from a culturally appropriate perspective that draws on Cree understandings of the Spirit World, for such a perspective can create enriched possibilities for understanding the play, as well as greater awareness of Indigenous struggles and experiences in Canada. More specifically, this paper draws on the traditional meaning of dreams in Cree epistemology,in order to demonstrate that the play’s framing as a dream can be seen as having a dual purpose: first, to envision and prepare for possible trials and difficulties, and second, to find creative and peaceful solutions to pervasive problems (Ferrara, 2004; Nabigon 2006). This paper considers, furthermore that since the dreamer in Dry Lips is a male character, theplay’s dream-framing addresses what Sam McKegney (2012) has identified as a common crisis of identity for Indigenous men, mainly their colonially-imposed alienation “from tribal-specific roles and responsibilities” (p. 241).Importantly, it is within this colonial context that the male characters in Dry Lips interact with, and express a lack of understanding and appreciation for, women. By paying attention to the colonial context and by using the Cree notion of ‘dream’ to analyze Indigenous masculinities, then, this paper provides an illustration of how the play gestures to Indigenous ‘ways of knowing’ as a means toward healing and decolonizing ends.

[Key words: Canada, Indigenous Criticism, Cree epistemology, colonialism, gender, masculinity]

 1. Introduction

Near the end of Tomson Highway’s controversial play Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (1989), the lead character, Zachary Jeremiah Keechigeesik, awakens from a protracted nightmare. He has been sleeping, naked and snoring on the couch in his living room. He is startled when his wife, Hera Keechigeesik, enters the room with their newborn baby girl—he jumps up and falls off the couch, inciting Hera to ask him, “And what are you dreaming about?” (Highway, 1989, p. 128). Yet Zachary is too distraught to answer. Only when Hera sits down beside him and passes him the baby does he seem to calm down. He bounces the baby on his knee, and then holds her lovingly up in the air. As the stage instructions indicate, this is how the play concludes—with this image of “a beautiful naked Indian man lifting this naked baby Indian girl in the air, his wife sitting beside them, watching and laughing” (p. 130). This scene, which is remarkable for its sense of domestic happiness, peace, and balance, contrasts sharply with the alcohol abuse, violence, and dysfunction that characterize the majority of the play. Significantly, however, these darker aspects occur solely within Zachary’s dream—a framing that, this paper argues is crucial to carefully consider in ongoing critical discussions of the play. Indeed, this papers aims to show that this dream-framing intends to exaggerate, and thus meaningfully illuminate, the underlying and colonially-derived struggles, which shape the background of the fictional Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve.

2. Responding to Dry Lips’ Contentious Reception History

Although Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasinghas generated an archive of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholarly engagements, the majority of these engagements characterize the play as forwarding problematic and colonially informed misconceptions of Indigenous peoples. The play premiered at Theatre PasseMuraille in Toronto on April 21, 1989 and soon garnered critical attention and awards. In particular, it won the Ontario Art Council’s Chalmers Award and was short-listed for the Governor General’s Award the year that it premiered. In 1991, however, subsequent performances of the play at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa drew a great deal of negative criticism, most notably from Indigenous women. Two of the most disapproving responses were those of Anishnaabe writer Marie Annharte Baker and Metis poet Anita Tuharsky, both of whom expressed concern that the play does not adequately assign responsibility to non-Indigenous people and institutions for the damages that they have caused to Indigenous communities. As Baker (1991) explains, “I worry about the unintended…A yuppie would go home [from the play] feeling relieved that Indians live on the rez [the Indian reservation] and in other parts of the city” (p. 89). Likewise, Tuharsky (1991) contends that Dry Lips perpetuates damaging perceptions of Indigenous peoples. She posits that the play even accedes “to create pleasures for the [wider Canadian] public which enjoys [negative] stereotypes and images,” especially of women (p. 5). Following these responses, non-Indigenous critics also added to the condemnation of the play. Alan Filewod (1992), for example, asserts that Dry Lips “lets the Anglo audience off the hook,” by not obliging non-Indigenous peoples to confront their own culpability in a history of colonial oppression (p. 21). The commonality between these criticisms is that they see the play as supporting, instead of questioning, colonial misunderstandings about Indigenous peoples. This paper refers to this reception history, because in turning to its own analysis—which utilizes the Cree notion of ‘dream’ to interpret Dry Lips—it aims to follow the lead of Anishinaabe scholar Armand Garnett Ruffo (2009), who contends that Indigenous concepts and ‘ways of knowing’ can provide an alternative method of interpreting this play,a method which may begin to productively address some of the complex and difficult issues raised by such criticisms…Access Full Text of the Article

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