Nasir Uddin
(Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies [ASAFAS], Kyoto University)
The purpose of this dissertation is mainly to compose an ethnography of the Khumi, a peripheral ethnic minority group of the CHT, covering an ethnographic investigation and comprehensive understanding to reveal the state of social and cultural changes among the ethnic minorities of the CHT in Bangladesh.
The result of the present fieldwork can be explored in many ways. In fact, I intended to verify the existing epistemology regarding Khumi life and livings as well as their social and cultural entity. However, my principal objective was to observe social and cultural changes among the ethnic minorities of the CHT, specifically among the Khumi. During my fieldwork, I noticed that remarkable changes have been taking place in terms of social and cultural organizations among the Khumi, due mainly to the invention of a new religion, Krama, the establishment of connections with the marketplace and the dissemination of education. Engagement in the new religious movement has led the Khumi to change their rituals that have been maintained for centuries from generation to generations. This sort of change has strongly influenced their social and cultural organizations. In addition, jhum cultivation and gardening, their only means of livelihood, is no longer a subsistence economy as people have already become involved in the market economy. They are increasingly gaining profits and putting their products on the market as commodities. They are earning cash and buying some essentials and comfortable household goods, enabling them to change their way of life in the natural setting. Besides, through contacts with towns, and with Bengali, the Khumi have gradually changed their costumes, methods of trade and social manners. Another important factor that is meaningful in this changing trend is the expansion of education. The Khumi are becoming more educated, and they are getting involved in NGOs and educational program of UNICEF. They are bringing modern devices such as TVs into Khumi villages in remote areas. The intervention of modern equipment is bringing the Khumi and their life to a new stage. It is strongly influencing people's worldviews, level of interpretation of social events and the meaning of their existence in the regular course of their lives. The present fieldwork has made these kinds of very significant findings about social and cultural changes among the Khumi, and they are indicative of the changing pattern and tendency among ethnic minorities of the CHT in Bangladesh.
(The report was published in ASAFAS website in 2005) URL:http://areainfo.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/english/activities/fsta/17_uddin/root.html
(Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies [ASAFAS], Kyoto University)
The purpose of this dissertation is mainly to compose an ethnography of the Khumi, a peripheral ethnic minority group of the CHT, covering an ethnographic investigation and comprehensive understanding to reveal the state of social and cultural changes among the ethnic minorities of the CHT in Bangladesh.
The result of the present fieldwork can be explored in many ways. In fact, I intended to verify the existing epistemology regarding Khumi life and livings as well as their social and cultural entity. However, my principal objective was to observe social and cultural changes among the ethnic minorities of the CHT, specifically among the Khumi. During my fieldwork, I noticed that remarkable changes have been taking place in terms of social and cultural organizations among the Khumi, due mainly to the invention of a new religion, Krama, the establishment of connections with the marketplace and the dissemination of education. Engagement in the new religious movement has led the Khumi to change their rituals that have been maintained for centuries from generation to generations. This sort of change has strongly influenced their social and cultural organizations. In addition, jhum cultivation and gardening, their only means of livelihood, is no longer a subsistence economy as people have already become involved in the market economy. They are increasingly gaining profits and putting their products on the market as commodities. They are earning cash and buying some essentials and comfortable household goods, enabling them to change their way of life in the natural setting. Besides, through contacts with towns, and with Bengali, the Khumi have gradually changed their costumes, methods of trade and social manners. Another important factor that is meaningful in this changing trend is the expansion of education. The Khumi are becoming more educated, and they are getting involved in NGOs and educational program of UNICEF. They are bringing modern devices such as TVs into Khumi villages in remote areas. The intervention of modern equipment is bringing the Khumi and their life to a new stage. It is strongly influencing people's worldviews, level of interpretation of social events and the meaning of their existence in the regular course of their lives. The present fieldwork has made these kinds of very significant findings about social and cultural changes among the Khumi, and they are indicative of the changing pattern and tendency among ethnic minorities of the CHT in Bangladesh.
(The report was published in ASAFAS website in 2005) URL:http://areainfo.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/english/activities/fsta/17_uddin/root.html
