Culture and Development, an Experiment with Empowerment

The Adivasi Academy has been implementing a comprehensive cultural approach promoting the Adivisi community's empowerment in different fields such as culture, education, healthcare, agriculture and economy. The Adivasi community had been facing lack of access and marginalization partly due to the British colonialism; during which many cultural misunderstandings related to communities’ and tribes’ costumes occurred. Through notably active campaigns, trainings for local people and highlighting cultural conservation, the Adivasi Academy has achieved many positive outcomes namely major policy debates and community's self-reliance. All these show that cultural parameters can play a key role in development. Such comprehensive cultural approach could be replicated in other community contexts in order to foster development and to fight against social exclusions.L’Académie Adivasi a mis en œuvre une approche culturelle globale visant à promouvoir l’autonomisation de la communauté Adivisi dans différents domaines tels que la culture, l’éducation, la santé, l’agriculture et l’économie. Cette communauté a été confrontée à un manque d’accès général et à une marginalisation, en partie dus à la période du colonialisme britannique, durant laquelle des incompréhensions culturelles liées aux coutumes des communautés et des tribus se sont multipliées. Les différentes initiatives de l’Académie Adivasi - campagnes actives, formations des locaux, actions de sensibilisation à la conservation culturelle – ont abouti à de nombreux résultats positifs, notamment la tenue d’importants débats politiques et l’autonomisation de la communauté. Tout ceci nous démontre que les paramètres culturels peuvent jouer un rôle clé dans le développement. Cette approche culturelle globale pourrait être dupliquée dans d’autres contextes communautaires pour encourager le développement et lutter contre les exclusions sociales.La Adivasi Academy ha puesto en práctica un enfoque cultural global que promueve la potenciación de la comunidad adivasi en diferentes ámbitos como la cultura, la educación, la sanidad, la agricultura y la economía. La comunidad adivasi se ha enfrentado a la exclusión y a la marginación debido, en parte, al colonialismo británico, durante el cual se produjeron muchas confusiones culturales con las costumbres de las tribus y comunidades. Mediante la puesta en marcha de campañas activas, la formación de la población local y el hincapié en la conservación de la cultura, la Adivasi Academy ha conseguido muchos resultados positivos, en particular, importantes debates políticos y la autonomía de la comunidad. Todo esto muestra que los parámetros culturales pueden desempeñar un papel fundamental en el desarrollo. Este enfoque cultural global podría reproducirse en otros contextos comunitarios para impulsar el desarrollo y luchar contra la exclusión social

A Forgotten Adivasi Landscape: Museums and Memory in western India

This article focuses on processes of remembering, forgetting and re-remembering. It examines a fundamental tension between the project of retrieving an adivasi past, initiated by an adivasi museum in rural western India, and the social and material landscape surrounding it, characterised instead by fragmentation and separation from the identity of adivasi. The article reflects on a collaborative research project between the researcher, young adivasi curators and inhabitants of the area adjoining the museum. It shows how, while curators engaged in a project of recuperation, at the same time, they were distancing themselves from their traditional identity by joining reform movements and new religious sects. Processes of memory and forgetting, however, also co-existed. People held multiple identities and the process of retrieving the past also called for transformation and reform. The article is a timely contribution to debates about adivasi identity, social transformation and religious reform. It also offers a reflection on the new role of indigenous museums and their potential to address a ‘crisis of postcolonial memory’ (Werbner 1998). Finally, it contributes to discussions of methodology with a focus on the collaborative process of collecting and its role in eliciting or preventing certain kinds of memories

Culture and Development, an Experiment with Empowerment

The Adivasi Academy has been implementing a comprehensive cultural approach promoting the Adivisi community's empowerment in different fields such as culture, education, healthcare, agriculture and economy. The Adivasi community had been facing lack of access and marginalization partly due to the British colonialism; during which many cultural misunderstandings related to communities’ and tribes’ costumes occurred. Through notably active campaigns, trainings for local people and highlighting cultural conservation, the Adivasi Academy has achieved many positive outcomes namely major policy debates and community's self-reliance. All these show that cultural parameters can play a key role in development. Such comprehensive cultural approach could be replicated in other community contexts in order to foster development and to fight against social exclusions

Livelihoods

Livelihoods (full version of the Special Issue

Livelihoods

Livelihoods (full version of the Special Issue