Centre for the Study of Social Systems
School of Social Sciences
CSSS Colloquium
Piers Vitebsky
(Professor in Anthropology, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
Will be presenting a paper on
Living without the Dead: Changing Forms of Loss and Redemption among the Sora Adivasis of Odisha
Date & Time: March 22nd, 2018 (Thursday), 3.00 pm
Venue: Convention Centre - Room No: 108
Abstract: Just one generation ago, the Sora lived in a world populated by the spirits of their dead, who spoke to them through shamans in trance. Every day, they negotiated their wellbeing in heated arguments or in quiet reflections on their feelings of love, anger, and guilt. Today, young Sora are rejecting the worldview of their ancestors and switching their allegiance to sects of Christianity or Hinduism. Communion with ancestors is banned, sacred sites demolished, and female shamans replaced by male priests, as debate with the dead gives way to prayer to gods. For some, this shift means liberation from jungle spirits through literacy, employment, and democratic politics; others despair of being forgotten after death. How can a society abandon one understanding of reality so suddenly and see the world in a totally different way? The author argues that the old way of life had become unsustainable, and explores how these sects represent a spectrum of forms of rupture and reform.
Bio: Piers Vitebsky is a social anthropologist specialising in the religions and languages of trbal societies, carrying out fieldwork among adivasis in India and in the Russian Arctic. He was educated in Cambridge, Oxford, Delhi and London, and recently retired as Head of Anthropology and Russian Northern Studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute in the University of Cambridge. His books include Dialogues with the Dead: the Discussion of Mortality among the Sora of Eastern India and Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia.
