Description
Book SynopsisThe uneasy alliance of tribal art and the museum movementAs India consolidates an aggressive model of economic development, indigenous tribal people known as adivasis continue to be overrepresented among the country's poor. Adivasis make up more than eight hundred communities in India, with a total population of more than a hundred million people who speak more than three hundred different languages. Although their historical presence is acknowledged by the state and they are lauded as a part of India's ethnic identity today, their poverty has been compounded by the suppression of their cultural heritage and lifestyle. In Adivasi Art and Activism, Alice Tilche draws on anthropological fieldwork conducted in rural western India to chart changes in adivasi aesthetics, home life, attire, food, and ideas of religiosity that have emerged from negotiation with the homogenizing forces of Hinduization, development, and globalization in the twenty-first century. She documents curatorial proje
Trade Review"The book offers a fascinating case study that, on the surface, is about a new museum of indigenous expression. The story runs much deeper than that, however, and Tilche skillfully weaves together interlocking narratives about identity, belonging, religion, and politics."
* IIAS Newsletter *
