Paper
Anthropology of women and Fieldwork tradition in Arunachal Pradesh
presenters
Radhe Amung
Nationality: India
Residence: Arunachal Pradesh
Rajiv Gandhi University
Presence:Online
Keywords:
Anthropology, Fieldwork, Gender, reflexivity, Arunachal Pradesh,
Abstract:
The discourse on dichotomy of sex and gender is a constant evolving phenomenon in a pursuit to understand ever evolving human life and society. Today, we understand gender as a fluid concept which gives an individual every freedom to define one’s sexual identity. Nevertheless, time and again, the concept of gender essentialism comes as focus in the discourse of Anthropology as growing body of knowledge through fieldwork tradition. How the idea of gender is constructed in particular context defines the bodily behavior of the researcher and researched and thereby equation between them, determining the nature of Anthropological fieldwork experience and the knowledge produced. Arunachal Pradesh which remains space for Anthropological fieldwork and experiences encountered can be very different from rest of the other places for both researcher and the researched upon as Arunachal being one of the most divers states culturally. It is one of the youngest states, located in the eastern most part of India; so is the case of Anthropology as an academic discipline in Arunachal Pradesh. However, Anthropology as a body of knowledge and more precisely to bring it out in written form has been practiced since colonial time. In the tapestry of Anthropological knowledge in Arunachal, the Anthropology of women in Arunachal Pradesh remains an interesting domain to be researched and explored. Hence, through this paper, researcher made an attempt to bring out diverse experiences of oneself and others engaging in Anthropology of gender and Anthropology of women in specific in the context of Arunachal Pradesh; and while doing so, changing dynamic and approaches in the fieldwork tradition is understood.