Reading Women Reading Indigenous

<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences </strong> <strong>CSSS Colloquium </strong> <strong>Dr. Vijaylakshmi Brara</strong> (Centre for Manipur Studies, Manipur University) a talk on <strong>Reading Women Reading Indigenous</strong> Date : <strong>September 3, 2015 </strong> <strong>Abstract: </strong>"Indigenous religions are characteristically based on oral traditions – 'the transmission of beliefs, rules, customs, and rituals by word of mouth'– rather than on written law and sacred texts. In these systems, indigenous women 'preside over rituals, preserve but also re-create traditions' Indigenous religions are not monotheistic, but tend to view the cosmos as made up of the living and the dead, each essential to the whole. Nature must, therefore, be nurtured. This is in stark contrast to the Western hierarchies of (masculine) intellect and (feminine) intuition or emotion, of objective and subjective, material and imagined reality. Such hierarchies may provide a basis for the view that the natural environment and 'inferior beasts' are there for humankind to explore and exploit." Gender narratives in Manipur have been based on ingrained belief system with a framework of historical antecedents. Women in this region are women embedded in their histories and these histories are in-turn embedded in their cultural past and mythical narratives. Therefore they bring out a different reading of women, from their western as well as the other Asian sisters. The way we perceive our women is evident in the mythology and legends and folklore of our region. The popular image of woman is of an independent minded, happy, hardworking with a sense of justice. There are stories of Imoinu, Panthoibi, Laijinglaibi, Pidonu etc who asserted their decisions, rebelled against the social order and had a mind of their own and are today used a complimentary nomenclatures for young girls and women. Does this indegeneity make us look towards the window opening to South East Asia? Do we then need to dig these matri past to bring out the corrective view of looking at our world? These two will be then the focus points of this paper. <strong>Bio-Data: </strong>Vijaylakshmi Brara is a sociologist and is presently Associate Professor at the Centre for Manipur Studies, Manipur University. Her major areas of academic interests are gender, culture and grassroots political institutions. Her research area has been north-east India for over two decades. She is the author of the widely acclaimed book, Politics, Society and Cosmology in India's North-East (OUP). She has around 25 published articles to her credit.