Profile Of A Little-Known Tribe

This book is a purposive, exhaustive an altogether new ethnography on the Lisu, a little known ethnic group of the present state of Arunachal Pradesh. Through synchronic and dischronic description this volume tries to understand the culture and the problems of the Lisu in terms of historical perspective, linguistic affilitation, folklore, material culture, economic organisation, life cycle rituals, social organisations, social control, religious organisations, social control, religious organisation, world view, etiology and medical system and transformations. This ethnographic study aims at constructive Lius culture as a whole. Lisu culture, like every other culture, primitive or modern, is a complex whole. This culture is not without inner contradictions or contracts, which in fact designs its own colourful tapestry. This ethnographic knowledge on the life and culture of the Lisu may be fruitfully utilised by the administrators, political leaders and the policy makers of Arunachal Pradesh for the efficient functioning of its government, because this book not merely raises the basic problems of the Lisu but also offers practical solutions to them which are common to many other ethnic groups of the present state of Arunachal Pradesh. Besides it will stimulate the interest of the anthropoligists, sociologists, economists, linguistics, folklorists, historians, geographers, political scientists and the students of religions.

Dr. Asim Maitra (b. 1943) obtained first class in M.Sc. (Anthropology) with specialization in Social and Cultural Anthropology. He is a gold medalist of the University of Ranchi. He has been serving in the Anthropological Survey of India in various capacities since 1965 and is at present posted in Shillong as Assistant Anthropologist. Dr. Maitra has three books to his credit entitled Machai Culture: A Monographic Study (1983), Religious Life of the Brahman (1986), and A Guide Book to Lisu Language (1988). He has published a number of papers in both the disciplines (physical and cultural) of Anthropology in department bulletins and national journals (social sciences) in India. He participated in the scientific deliberations in the Xth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences held in New Delhi in December 1978 where he presented a paper in the seminar on Local Religions in Asia. Dr. Maitra is the Life Member of the Indian Anthropological Society, Calcutta and the N.K. Bose Memorial Foundation, Varanasi and Man in Asia, Ranchi. The area of his research interest is ethnographic, religious and linguistic studies, and his present field of investigation in Arunachal Pradesh.