Agency and Knowledge in Northeast India:The Life and Landscapes of Dreams (Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series) '18
内容
Access to Northeast India has been difficult for researchers due to the ongoing Indo-Naga political conflict. The anthropology of dreams is an emerging field of research. This book explores the relationship between dreams and agency among the Angami Naga in Northeast India. Based on two years of uninterrupted ethnographic research, it reflects on the fact that, despite the many changes the Nagas have undergone as a result of British colonialism, widespread conversion to Christianity, political conflict, and global capitalism, dreams and dreaming remain important avenues for negotiating uncertainty, and dealing with the future. Through dreams and dreaming, one may glean knowledge from signs, gain insights from ancestors, and potentially obtain divine blessing. As such, dreams and dreaming continue to assert themselves in the ordinary and extraordinary lives of people, and thus merit closer anthropological examination. The book offers a unique glimpse into the ways in which knowledge circulates among lineage and non-lineage clan members in a close-knit community; the dynamics of everyday decision making; and more precisely how signs and omens, perceived as divinely-imparted knowledge about the future, continue to intersect, and often contradict genealogical wisdom, and the enduring pattern of clan patriarchy in everyday community life - especially in the midst of war. A highly innovative book, it provides an in-depth overview of the body of literature on dreaming, combining anthropology and philosophy and applying it to the Northeast Indian setting. It will be of interest to those studying Northeast India, indigenous religion and culture, indigenous cosmopolitics in tribal India more generally and the anthropology of dreams.