The popular culture comprises of music, film, television, sports and fashion. As diverse a form of media as they may be, they all transmit and communicate meanings. While meanings are effectively communicated through spoken as well as written languages, they can also be conveyed through symbols, insignia, totems or emblems, engraved on body as tattoos. Tattoos are a form of art or design made on the skin, which changes its pigment. Tattoos engraved on body as symbols signify varied meanings. They speak to society or simply to the members, making social life replete with messages. Similar to text, tattoos convey stories that may relate to existential questions like genealogy, identity, status, achievement, medicine/therapy as well as ontological relations like ancestors, spirits and animals. Tattoos being an integral part of all the cultures played significant functions like medicinal, spiritual, social and semiotic. The understanding and perception of tattooing as a practice itself has undergone several changes over different time periods. Further, tattooing as a cultural practice has attracted the interest of Anthropologists, Sociologists and Psychologists. This work tries to understand provenance of tattooing as a cultural symbol in aboriginal/primitive as well as modern societies and culturally specific meanings attributed to them in both Indian as well as other contexts. Keywords: Rites of passage, semiotics, subculture, sacred
Even after 75 years of Indian freedom, the ascriptive nature of caste resistance has not been able to totally outlaw the empirical separatist practices of segregation, untouchability, and caste discrimination. Over 200 million people in India are classified as “Untouchables,” a group stained by birth who are placed under the Hindu caste system, which regards them as impure and less than human. The practice of “untouchability” is a form of social discrimination that is prevalent in many parts of India, particularly in rural areas. Despite the constitutional abolition of “untouchability” in India under Article 17, the practice still pervades society, particularly towards the lower castes. Among these castes, the Dalits face a particularly harsh reality. Caste-based violence is byproduct of a centuries-old custom. This inequality has far-reaching consequences for the Dalits, hindering their ability to legitimize their claims to access education, employment, housing, religious rights and all basic human rights, dignity and respect. This paper looks into the issue of the above said violence with conceptual understanding with qualitative approach through case study method and focus group discussions for understanding resistance and retaliation of caste based violence and assertion in the state of Odisha, Kendrapara district. Keywords: Caste-based violence, dalits, human rights, gender, Odisha
Recognizing traditional knowledge with medical value among Indigenous people is indispensable to sustaining their way of life. However, legal complexities and challenges exist in recognizing the medical value of traditional knowledge, as it is orally transmitted and thus undocumented. While a global solution to such difficulties cannot employ a “one size fits all” approach and invokes multifaceted solutions within national regulatory and policy contexts, India has shown progress in this area. Yet, appropriate guidelines for incorporating the diverse medical knowledge of Indigenous people under a coherent framework must be developed so that Indigenous people can enjoy, and utilize, their rights regarding this knowledge. The objective was to unfold the current situation of traditional medicinal value among Indian Indigenous communities and find ways of recognizing this knowledge within India’s intellectual property rights (IPR) legal regime. The present study was based on secondary data sources. A specific literature review was done using the key word “Traditional Knowledge”, combined with “Intellectual Property Rights”, “Tribes”, “Medicinal Plant”, “Ethno-medicine”, “Folk Lore”, “Medical Anthropology”, “World Health Organization (WHO)”, “Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)”, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), “Patent Act”, “Illness and Sickness” and “India” on PubMed, Google Scholar and other relevant online and offline sources from March 2021 to September 2023. Our findings recommend a multi-tiered approach to documenting traditional medical knowledge, sensitive to regional diversities within India, as a necessary precursor to legal recognition. Therefore, a human rights approach, particularly from the viewpoint of cultural rights, could be a best fit both to recognize the traditional knowledge as a cultural right and to offer the community as the right holder of the knowledge. Hence, appropriate guidelines to that direction should be formulated for incorporating the dispersed traditional medical knowledge of Indigenous people under a coherent framework so that they can enjoy, and utilize, their rights to this knowledge especially in the diverse Indian context. Keywords: Traditional knowledge, Tribes, Intellectual Property Rights, Medicinal Plant, WIPO, WHO, Act, India
The annual Urs festival, celebrated at the Mazar in the town of Midnapore, West Bengal, is the most significant regional Muslim event. Although the festival is a regional event, yet the celebration is attended by people from outside the state and the country at the Pir's Urs festival at Jora masjid Mazar. The Urs festival is also celebrated in other Mazars to commemorate the death anniversaries of different Pirs. The researcher collected data using participant observation and interview methods to study the Urs festival in the Mazar. The main aim of this study is to documnet the events held during festival and to understand the maintenance of cross-border relationships between two countries through transnational movements in the Urs festival at Jora masjid specifically focusing on the impact of cross-border pilgrimage. This Urs festival, with its regional origins, attracts participants from various regions and even from other countries, highlighting its global importance. This event commemorates the death anniversary of a respected Pir in the town and draws followers from diverse geographical areas, emphasizing its international appeal. However, information on the other Urs festivals in the town has also been provided here. Keywords: Mazar, Urs, Muslim, Transnationalism, Impact.
India stands as a mosaic of diversity, its cultural heritage and intricate social fabric enhancing its complexity. Within this context, a distinct amalgamation of ethnic groups, each distinguished by culture, language, and traditions, finds its abode. However, this tapestry bears threads of fading identity and existential turmoil that intertwine with the De-notified, Nomadic, and Semi-nomadic communities. Hence, this research explores the critical factors surrounding the ethnic identity of these communities within India, simultaneously delving into the influence exerted by globalisation upon their livelihood practices and the anomalies in self-identity amid the diverse Indian milieu. The study is rooted in an investigation encompassing five communities: Dhara/Dhibar, Bansphor/Bansforda, Khurpalta, Muriari, and Savar. These communities are drawn from clusters in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were employed to identify and select the community members as participants, followed by the collection of data through numerous qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, observation, field notes, and focus group discussions. In addition, existing literature was undertaken to supplement existing knowledge through literary sources, governmental reports, and unpublished reports. The study’s findings illuminate how the erosion of traditional livelihood practices has propelled these communities to the verge of marginalisation, concurrently exacerbating the intricacies of their identity predicament in their daily life. Keywords: de-notified; nomadic; ethnic identity; Indian communities; marginalised groups; intersectionality; social inclusion; social justice; identity struggle; livelihood
Societies perceive health in terms of disease and well-being, the health-seeking is regulated by varied practices in the fold of culture and environment. Health-seeking behaviour and practices vary across cultures due to diversities in the concept of health, socio-religious beliefs, and eco-cultural processes. The present study delineates the health-seeking behaviour among the Pengu tribe in Visakha Agency. The present study has been selected Eight Pengu villages representative and purposive sampling procedure and used participant observation, case study, FGDs, and in-depth interview methods. Pengu ethnic group has its own perspective and view of health and the healthcare system. The Pengu ethnic community thinks that illness is the consequence of supernatural phenomena, thereby carrying out prayers or performing ritual acts, which cure the illness and relieve them from pain. Four kinds of healthcare practitioners are seen in the study area. They are Disari, Gurmai, Pujari and Quacks. Accepting modern medical treatments and medication is at the initial stages of acceptance, but inaccessibility and unavailability of need and urgency are driving them back to native methods of healing. Keywords: Illness, Seeking Behavior, Health, Pengu, Particular Vulnerable Tribal Group, Andhra Pradesh
when Sergey Arutynov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, breathed his last Moscow, Russia. He was an ethnographer with extensive experience in field work in many countries of the world, with encyclopedic knowledge in the fields of archaeology, botany, geography, history, and linguistics. He was a world famous scientist, a teacher, a poet, and many more.
After a long two and a half decades, when Budhan became a symbol of movement, the conclusive verdict in the Budhan Sabar death case was delivered in February 2023, in which he died in jail custody following an illegal detention by the local police authority. Budhan was a member of the Kheriya-Sabar Tribe, an Ex-D.N.T. in the Purulia district, which was formerly known as the Criminal Tribes and was officially used after the introduction of the Criminal Tribes Act in 1871. The British capitalised on colonial legislative authority to stigmatise such class and tribal identities in order to control and wipe them out from any passive or active struggle in the remaining phases of their reign; however, these stigmatic feelings of exhaustion and dearth of confidence long persisted among these marginalised tribes of India for decades after independence. The present study illuminates the connection between colonial stereotypes and the Budhan Sabar case in Historical point of view. Keywords: Budhan Sabar, Criminal Tribe Act, Police brutality, Stereotype, Stigma.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is a great thinker, academician, philosopher, lawyer, and renowned intellectual who took up leadership for the upliftment of the depressed, underprivileged and marginalized classes in society, securing human rights through various movements in social, educational, economic, and political realms. Dr. Ambedkar’s comprehensive efforts spanned social, economic, political, educational, intellectual, women’s rights, religious, and labor movements, highlighting his dedication to addressing the challenges faced by these communities. It also underscores his role as a scholar, activist, and architect of the Indian Constitution, emphasizing his principles of liberty, equality, fraternity, and social justice. Furthermore, it discusses the root cause of inequalities in India as caste-based, with Dr. Ambedkar identifying Brahmanism and Capitalism as enemies of humanity. His significant contributions to economic thought, including land reforms, industrialization, and the role of the state in economic planning and development, are highlighted. Additionally, the paper emphasizes his emphasis on the importance of education in empowering marginalized communities and his efforts to secure equal status for women in Indian society. Furthermore, it outlines his legal activism, proposals for legal reforms, and his memorandum to the Constituent Assembly, which aimed at establishing social democracy and state socialism. His unwavering commitment to advocating for the rights of Dalits and other marginalized communities through legal means is also highlighted, along with his struggle for separate electorate and the Hindu Code Bill for the protection and development of Hindu women. The paper concludes with a call for further research into the economic conditions of these communities, their political ideologies, and the governmental and organizational efforts to enhance their self-employment opportunities and overall progress. Keywords: Depressed, Human rights, social reforms, educational upliftment, economic reconstruction, political movements
: The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that the field of poetological messages in Russian modernism has not been studied sufficiently. Furthermore, the addressed lyrics of poets-modernists in the context of poetic manifestos have been studied little. Therefore, this article aims to reveal the mechanism of lyric addressings, firstly, in different movements of Russian modernism (symbolism, acmeism, futurism), and, secondly, in the paradigm of the Silver Age. The research methods are based on the works of the Russian philologists who have studied the addressed lyrics of Russian modernism: S.N. Broitman, L.G. Kikhney, N.V. Nalegach, and T.S. Kruglova. The article identifies a number of general patterns inherent in almost all manifestos-messages of Russian modernists: historical realities in the poetic manifestos of modern authors; the techniques of biworld; special edifying quality polemically aimed at the poetic opponents; autocommunication of poetic messages. These generalities indicate the underlying unity of Russian modernism in the poetological sphere: most lyrical manifestos are constructed on the same principles. It is the first time when the aesthetic platforms of different movements and idiopoetics of Russian modernism from the standpoint of the addressed lyrics are brought into comparison in Russian study of literature. Besides it is shown how the communicative component allows the poets to build and adjust their theoretical position in the light of solution of the most important poetological problems (sometimes in the course of discussion). The materials of the article are of practical value for literature teaching at higher and secondary school as elucidating the addressed lyrics of Russian modernism, and peculiarities of the poetic manifestos.
Competitiveness is one of the most important and valuable advantage that ensures technical and vocational colleges to achieve success and long-term viability. In order to improve competitiveness of technical and vocational colleges in undeveloped areas of China, this paper proposed a new perspective which drew knowledge-base and dynamic capability view into evaluating vocational colleges' key resources and capabilities, specifically for the intangible resources and dynamic capabilities. This paper presents a new viewpoint of researching competitiveness via measuring specific knowledge based intangible resources and dynamic capabilities for vocational colleges in undeveloped areas of China. Integrated theories of knowledge-based resources and dynamic capability view, and based on the findings of experimental study in selected five vocational colleges in undeveloped areas of China, eventually, the paper reoriented and identified the key components of intangible resources and dynamic capabilities for vocational colleges, also shed light on the measurement model of intangible resources, the measurement model of dynamic capabilities, which effected on enhancing competitive advantage of vocational colleges in undeveloped areas of China. Accordingly, the outcomes of this study would contribute for managers of vocational college to improve competitiveness of technical and vocational colleges.
The differentiation from the metacognitive perspective between more successful and less successful groups of students in solving a physics car on the hill question should give an insight into how to help less successful students improve their ability in solving problems typically encountered in a university physics course. This portion of the research centred on using context-rich physics problems to identify the differences in metacognition between more successful (MS) and less successful (LS) students. A qualitative research design was used and the data was collected and analyzed using the Verbal Protocol Analysis (VPA). A total of 21 students with a physics background at the university level were used. Two field studies were set up, with ten students participating in the first and eleven in the second. The first had the purpose of verifying the difficulty level of the physics task (Physics Problem Solving Achievement Test, PPSAT) and to refine the coding schemes (Coding Metacognitive in the Thinking Aloud Protocol, CMBTAP). All of the respondents solved four pencil and paper problems while they were allowed to talk themselves through. No time limitation were given for the respondents to answer the problems, right after the test each one was videotaped during interviews. During these, the written answers to each of the problems were shown to them and they were asked to recollect their thinking as they worked on the problems. According to Polya's problem solving strategy, the phases; early, middle and end were assigned and the observations during each phase were classified accordingly. In conclusion, this study showed that context rich problems required students to engage in metacognitive skill such as planning, monitoring and evaluating even if the student did not have the structure or knowledge to derive the correct numerical solution.
21st century system of education is very challenging since teachers are required to teach the students to solve problems in various fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This study was conducted to identify the chemistry teachers' understanding on the definition of education and design the teaching strategy according to their understanding. The study involved 20 chemistry teachers at eleven schools in the district of Malacca Tengah and qualitative research approach was adopted. The research design of this study was case study. Open-ended questions was the research instrument used to collect data. The data were analyzed by using thematic analysis. The findings indicated that six chemistry teachers gave the meaning of education as an acronym of STEM and used the word of integration in defining education. The results showed that there one of the respondents did not understand the definition of education and unsure how to implement education. The results also reported that nine chemistry teachers were unable to design a teaching. The implication of this study is to provide awareness to teachers and students that education is very important in shaping the 21st century teaching and learning process.
The accurateness of an instrument in measuring intended variables is significant to ensure the findings is really meaningful. Even the existing instrument should be review if it aims to measure the variables in different context and domain specific. This paper will discuss the development and validation process for the instrument measuring math anxiety for second former. There were four constructs in indicating one's anxious feeling based on Parkinson's Four Factor Emotion Theory (1995) which were appraisal towards stimulus, arousal, face expression and action tendencies. There were also correspond sub constructs for each constructs match according to previous literature. Experts review and psychometric analysis has been carried out to assess the quality of the instrument. The initial version of the instrument consist of 32 items which comprises of 14 sub constructs while the last version consist of 30 items with 12 sub constructs. The instrument testing was done towards 123 second former students and the psychometric analysis was applying Rasch Measurement Model. The psychometric elements tested includes item reliability, item separation, item and person fit, unidimentionality and rating scale validity. Results indicates that all the psychometric tests have met the minimum condition and thus the reliability and validity of the instrument proved.
The ability to change body direction in varying speed efficiently serves as an important attribute for netball players. It is also influenced by a variety of physical factors. This study aims to compare the change of directions speed (CODS) between young, hearing-impaired netball players and young, normal netball players. Seventy-five young, netball players (32 hearing-impaired - HI group, 43 normal netball players) aged 13 to 18 years (HI, M = 15.28 yr., SD = 1.35; Normal, M = 16.02 yr., SD = 1.2) underwent three CODS testing: T-Test agility, Zigzag agility test, and 505 agility tests. Results indicated significant performance differences between groups in which the younger HI netball players performed lower than the older HI netball players and the normal netball players. Postural stability and balance ability might have rendered the HI CODS performance, especially in the T-Test agility. Complexity of movement should be considered in selecting suitable CODS testing instrument for the HI population.
This study introduces the Video Modeling Module for children with ASD in order to increase their social interaction and emotional intelligence in classroom. Video modeling is a visual teaching method that used to teach multiple skills including social behaviors, daily living skills, adaptive skills, and conversation skills to children with ASD. The study aims to determine the validity and reliability of the Video Modeling Module for students with ASD which comprises on 10 sub modules which adapted from 10 video modeling. After the module developed, the analysis of validity and reliability were tested. There are four experts has been chosen to test the validity of the Video Modeling Module and the result showed that the value of validity coefficient is high which is .93 while the reliability analysis that was tested by using SPSS version 19.0 showed that the value of reliability coefficient is also high which is .906. The findings conclude that all the sub modules for the Video Modeling Module have a high validity and reliability and are ready to use by special education teachers in order to increase social interaction and emotional intelligence among ASD children.
