******************************************************
*        http://www.anthropologymatters.com            *
* A postgraduate project comprising online journal,    *
* online discussions, teaching and research resources  *
* and international contacts directory.                *
 ******************************************************

(Apologies for cross posting)



Dear all,


find below the call for papers for the International Conference on
“Negotiating Ethnicity: Politics and Display of Cultural Identities in
Northeast India”


Place and dates of the conference: Vienna –1st week of July 2013 – 3 days
conference
Submission deadline for abstracts: September 2012
Submission deadline for registration: February 2013
Submission deadline for papers: Papers submission deadline: two weeks
before the conference. The papers will be circulated among participants
prior to the conference.


Participants: Around 40 people, 20 from India (fees covered: travel fares
and lodging for all speakers and discussants).

20 minutes to present each paper, and 15 minutes for each discussant to
take questions.

Contacts:
Bianca Son, Jürgen Schöpf, Mélanie Vandenhelsken, Shahnaz Kimi Leblhuber:
[log in to unmask]


Call for Papers
Collective identities and ethnicity are subject to changes in many parts of
the world today as several scholars have highlighted. Through this
conference, we wish to examine those changes, particularly the new forms
and meaning given to ethnic identities, belonging, etc. in various parts of
Northeast India, as well as look at practices related to ethnicity and
cultural identities. “Northeast India” is the political unit defined by the
Indian Government as the ‘North Eastern Council,’ which now includes
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura
and Sikkim.


We intend the conference to promote an interdisciplinary forum and invite
proposals from scholars working in a variety of disciplines, including, but
not limited to, history, sociology, economics, anthropology and cultural
studies, to submit research paper proposals. We invite cross-theoretical
examinations of the recent transformations of cultural identities and
ethnicity in relation to inter-ethnic and inter-state relations, borders,
politics, agency, migration and diasporas, globalization, and tourism, etc.

The debate that started in the 1970s (mainly with Fredrik Barth’s, but with
his numerous critics, as well) has enabled us to understand that the
changes connected to ethnicity, culture, and collective identities, are not
a result of the disappearance of culture, but a much more complex
phenomenon. Since then, ethnicity and cultural identities have been much
discussed in academic circles, and we propose to join this debate with
studies and observations on Northeast India, as a starting point for
comparison to a wider area.

Changes related to ‘ethnicity’, ethnic identities, and ‘culture’, raise
several questions.


*A first set of questions looks at how ‘transformations’ of ‘cultural
identities’ can be analyzed:
*Do new forms and meanings given to ‘culture’ link to politics and to the
social spheres in Northeast India, and how? What practices relate to new
forms given to ‘culture’ and ‘identities’ in Northeast India today? In
particular, how are culture and identity related to the religious sphere
and to rituals? The role of rituals and religion is of particular
importance, and the processes of turning culture into an ‘object of cult’
need to be studied further, as well as the practice and performance of
cultural production. Aside from these questions, what is the place and role
of commodification in the changes of ‘ethnicity’ and ‘culture’? Claims for
the existence of ‘primordial’ ties by the people should be questioned,
along with the connection they make between those ties and commodification
of culture, etc..

*A second set of questions focuses on the relations between external forces
and agencies that produce and shape new forms of ‘culture’ and ‘identities’.
*What is the role of politics related to collective identities and
ethnicity? In this regard, the historical and formal relations between the
Northeast and the Indian Central State are of great significance,
particularly the reservation system, and more generally the ‘ethnic
politics’. Additionally, actual ethnic classifications and social grouping
that have been conditioned by history are of interest to this conference,
including the role of colonization in shaping representations of the Indian
population as a whole, and the objectification of culture, for example.

Some recent changes however, cannot be analysed as a one-way process that
merely involves the state. Groups’ particular histories and practices also
need to be taken into account. People are certainly not passive in the
processes of changing the forms and meaning of collective identities, and
attention should be given to the ways they accompany, reinforce, use,
contest, and divert, those changes. Power relations, hierarchy and gender
must also be taken into account.

 *Role of globalization and trans-border networks
*Are globalization and the State mutually exclusive, or can they be
combined to produce “vernacular” or “glocalized” forms of power
organization and collective identities? Finally, how do migration,
diasporas, trans-border networks and solidarities, and tourism take part in
this process of changing the meaning, the forms and practices related to
ethnic and/or collective identities? How do these fields interact to
reshape collective identities in Northeast India?


-- 
********************************

Marion Wettstein

Research Project "Ritual, Space, Mimesis among the Rai of Eastern Nepal"

Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde (ISTB) der Universität
Wien
Uni-Campus AAKH
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2.7
A-1090 Wien

affiliated with the Center for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS) of
Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu

further information at www.marionwettstein.ch

*************************************************************
*           Anthropology-Matters Mailing List                 *
* To join this list or to look at the archived previous       *
* messages visit:                                             *
* http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/Anthropology-Matters.HTML   *
* If you have ALREADY subscribed: to send a message to all    *
* those currently subscribed to the list,just send mail to:   *
*        [log in to unmask]                  *
*                                                             *
*       Enjoyed the mailing list? Why not join the new        *
*       CONTACTS SECTION @ www.anthropologymatters.com        *
*    an international directory of anthropology researchers   *
***************************************************************