Materiality and Visuality in North East India: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Description

This edited book set in the context of North East India explores issues concerning symbols, meanings, representations, and social implications of materiality and visuality, as well as the dynamics of power, social reproduction, ideological dominance and knowledge production from an interdisciplinary perspective. It seeks to answer the question of why some things matter more than others or what happens when certain things are made more visible than others. The book provides valuable insights into the process of identity construction through the use of cultural sources, both material and visual. Following on the debates/discussions on material and visual culture in the 1970s and 1980s, the book argues that instead of viewing objects as mere representation(s), one should see them as active agents in creating perceptions, bodily practices, discourses and perceptions of our social world. Each chapter in the book unravels and engages with these pertinent issues in order to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of the status quo. The book is of interest to scholars of ethnicity, identity construction, politics and state, cultural studies, media studies, visual, social and cultural anthropology and sociology, as well as lay readers who want to learn more about the region. Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Contents Editors and Contributors Abbreviations List of Figures Part I Objects, Images and Meanings: Methodological Interventions 1 Negotiating the Visibility of ‘Habitus’ of ‘the Nagas’ and their Photographers Introduction Pierre Bourdieu, ‘Habitus’ and ‘Hexis’ The Nagas and Their Photographers Visual Sources of the Nineteenth Century Imagery After the Turn of the Century Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf Hans-Eberhard Kauffmann Photography After World War II and in the New Millenium Conclusion References 2 ‘We Were the Others’: Visuality in Colonial Writings Anecdote from the ‘Others’ Construction of the ‘Other’ Colonial Writings and the Nagas Photo Analysis and Photo-Elicitation The ‘Other’ Needs to Be Objectified in Order to Construct the ‘Self’ Interpretations and Contextualisation When the ‘Others’ Spoke Up Final Word: Reflexivity References 3 Conversation Pieces: How Digital Technologies might Reinvigorate and reveal the Social Lives of Objects Introduction Source Communities Who Owns Naga Heritage? Combined/Collaborative Methodologies Exhibition How Did We Get Here? The Body and Agent of Human Experience Conclusion References Part II Material and Visual as Vehicles of Power and Hegemony: Adaptations and Negotiations 4 Mai-Baaps and Minis: Spatiality, Visuality and Materiality in Assam’s Tea Gardens Introduction Constructing the ‘Garden’ Understanding the Gendered Plantation Plantation: Time, Work and Representation Beyond the Plantations: Representation of Minis in Advertisements Conclusion References 5 Mapping Power and Domination: Studying State Making in Arunachal Pradesh through Old Official Photographs Introduction The Coming of the State Performing the State People and State: Re-Reading the Official Photographs Conclusion References 6 Hau Laa and Hymn: Musicking Dynamics of the Hau-Tangkhuls Introduction Contextualising the Introduction of Hymn Conceptualising Hau Laa Orality and Hau Laa Hymn: A New Way of Imagining and Musicking (Re) Purposing of Music Conclusion References 7 Sartorial Matters: A Brief History of Attire in Mizoram Sainghinga and Attire A Brief History of Attire and Photographic Representation of the Mizos Debates on Attire Conclusion References 8 Representing Tea, Creating Consumers: Tea Advertising in Late Colonial India Tea Advertising in the Early Decades of the Twentieth Century Peddling Tea in Wartime Tea, the Guarantor of Welfare and Productivity Conclusion References Part III Imagination, Imagery and Identity: Representations and Subversions 9 Food is Not Just ‘Food’: Analysing Gender in the Assamese Foodscape Introduction Thinking ‘Assameseness’ The Gendered Foodscape The ‘Others’ in the Foodscape Fractured Concluding Remarks References 10 Tilted Views and C Sailo: A Study of Satire in Contemporary Indie Comics Introduction Critical Art Style Reconsidered References 11 Reimagining the Pastoral: Metaphors and Meanings of the Everyday in Assam and India’s Northeast Introduction Collective Representations and Popular Imaginations: Bihu as Cultural Motif Historical Construction of North East’s Discursive Reality: Marginality to Subalterneity Crossing Bridges: New Imageries and Meanings References 12 Weaving Resistance and Identity: Politics of Contemporary Textile Practice of the Tangkhuls Introduction Tangkhul Textile Practice and the Church The Role of Women Organisations in Naga Textile Practices The Tangkhul Shanao Long and the Politics of Contemporary Kashan Conclusion References Glossary 493293_1_En_BookFrontmatter_OnlinePDF.pdf Foreword Preface Introduction Contents Editors and Contributors Abbreviations List of Figures