Dimensions of indigeneity in highland Odisha, India

Lecture by dr. Peter Berger

The talk describes and analyses forms indigeneity with reference to a highland community in Odisha called Gadaba. Three types of indigeneity are distinguished: indigenous indigeneity, ascribed indigeneity and claimed indigeneity. The first modus revolves around local sacrificial practices in the process of which indigeneity is constructed. Significantly, this type of indigeneity is local, symmetric, relational and the Gadaba are themselves the creator of this representation. Different forms of ascribed indigeneity, by contrast, assign indigeneity to the Gadaba unilaterally and the relationship between those who ascribe and the Gadaba is asymmetrical and monolithic. The third type of indigeneity, the one that is claimed, is as yet in a nascent state as only a few Gadaba voice an indigenous identity in the larger political field of the state and no cultural performances are referred to nor political organizations exist to support such a claim.

Peter Berger teaches Anthropology and Indian Religions at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen, and is a member of the Faculty’s Centre for the Study of Religion in Culture in Asia. His ethnographic research in highland Odisha (Orissa) focuses on religion, food, ritual, social structure and cultural change. He is the author of Feeding, Sharing, and Devouring: Ritual and Society in Highland Odisha, India (forthcoming, de Gruyter) and co-edited Fieldwork: Social Realities in Anthropological Perspective (2009, Weißensee), The Anthropology of Values: Essays in Honour of Georg Pfeffer (2010, Pearson), The Modern Anthropology of India: Ethnography, Themes and Theory (2013, Routledge) and Ultimate Ambiguities: Investigating Death and Liminality (forthcoming, Berghahn).

For more information see: Center for the Study of Religion and Culture in Asia  and Peter Berger.