Lingering Behind the Hazes: Teaching and Researching Anthropology in Arunachal Pradesh

Abstract

The paper focuses on teaching and researching of anthropology as a culture centred discipline in Arunachal Pradesh. It notes that in spite of about two decades of emergence as a university discipline, anthropology has not been able to break through the negative pictures of colonialism and subjugation to the discipline of tribal studies. Factors accountable for the poor state of teaching and research in anthropology in Arunachal Pradesh include institutional and structural incapability and limitations, a curriculum that fails to address both the aspirations of the students and the role of the discipline in state and national development as well as the inability of the anthropologists themselves to rise up to the dynamic challenges of contemporary Arunachalee society. In view of the foregoing, there is need for a serious rethinking and fundamental restructuring of the discipline focusing essentially on the curriculum, professionalism, and development values of the discipline. It is only through the above that teaching and researching in anthropology would be more fruitful to both theoretical and practical concerns as an authentic narrative and imagery of Indian cultural realities.

Keywords: Teaching, Research, Anthropology, Tribal Study, Arunachal Pradesh