Taro (Colocasia sp.), as a food crop, is often associated with mixed cropping patterns in the agricultural practices of the Konyak population in Nagaland. Its farming included intensive care and proper use of tools to prevent damage to the plants during their maturation process. Taro farming is mainly associated with women, who also carry out harvesting and storage. A well-defined work distribution among the Konyak population serves as the proper channel by which every gender was to follow the path, making taro farming associated with women, but at the same time, men could also participate in taro-related activity as no one in the society was barred from farming taro. Storage of taro forms the primary source of food security among the Konyaks of Nagaland; the process of taro storage has been in practice among the Konyak population for a long time, and remains a significant practice. The sheer matter of experienced hands was required to perform storage and adaptation to such subsistence, which led to the reflection of their cultural identity. The preparation also depends on the female folks; well-dried taro corms served as a potent means to their survival in times of food shortage and provided a cyclical nature of seedlings for planting.

Keywords: Cultivation, Harvest, Konyak, Storage, Taro, Work.

The funeral traditions of the Nyishi tribe in Arunachal Pradesh represent a profound manifestation of their cultural identity and indigenous knowledge systems. These rituals, which unfold across distinct pre-funeral, funeral, and post-funeral phases, are rich with symbolic meaning and serve as crucial mechanisms for community cohesion. This study documents these practices in detail, capturing both their historical significance and contemporary transformations. As globalization accelerates, these practices face unprecedented challenges. Religious conversions, particularly to Christianity, have introduced competing belief systems that sometimes conflict with ancestral practices. Urbanization and migration have dispersed communities, making it difficult to gather extended families for prolonged ceremonies. Economic shifts have called into question resource-intensive funeral practices that once demonstrated family prestige. Despite these challenges, many Nyishi people demonstrate remarkable adaptability. Hybrid ceremonies incorporating both traditional elements and modern practicalities have emerged. This research, conducted through immersive fieldwork, oral history collection, and visual documentation, contributes to broader academic discourses on indigenous knowledge systems and cultural continuity. By examining how the Nyishi negotiate between preservation and adaptation, this study illuminates larger patterns of cultural resilience in Indigenous communities, offering insights into how traditional practices maintain relevance amid rapid social change.

Keywords: Nyishi tribe, Burial tradition, Funeral rite, Belief system, Arunachal Pradesh.

Body mass index (BMI) as an indicator of obesity has certain limitations. BMI tends to overestimate body weight in individuals with high muscle mass. As a substitute, waist circumference and waist-hip ratio have been adopted by most healthcare professionals for defining obesity, but they do not necessarily illustrate the difference between upper body and lower body fat. Studies show that neck circumference (NC) plays an important role in predicting cardiovascular risk factors beyond the classical anthropometric measures because it provides an indirect assessment of upper body fat distribution and visceral adiposity. In Indian context, studies regarding the association between NC and obesity are scarce. Thus, the present study intends to compare young adult participants of both sexes for NC, BMI and waist-hip-ratio and to investigate the association of NC with central and general obesity. The study further attempted to create the cut-off points for assessing obesity using neck circumference. A total of 115 participants (65 girls and 50 boys) were recruited for this cross-sectional study from Howrah district of West Bengal. Data on socio-demographic and anthropometric measurements were collected following standard protocols. Independent sample ‘t’ test was applied to compare the anthropometric characteristics between the two sexes. Pearson’s correlation was performed to understand the association of neck circumference with BMI and WHR. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to determine the cut-offs of NC for all the participants. Our study showed a significant positive correlation of NC with both general and central obesity; though a proper cut-off value of NC has not been established in the case of the present population. We conclude from this study that NC could be used as a tool to measure central obesity and thereby predictors of cardiovascular disease, at least among the young adults of this study populations.

Keywords: Neck circumference, Body mass index, Body fat, Cardiovascular disease, Subcutaneous fat, Central obesity, General obesity

The present cross-sectional study was conducted among preschool children aged 2-5 years. The principal aim of the present study was to examine the age and sex-specific variations in anthropometric characteristics among preschool children. The Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) centres were randomly selected from various villages of Maynaguri Block, Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, India. For the present report, nine anthropometric measurements were taken and 4 measurements were calculated by standard procedures. Most of the anthropometric variables show increasing mean values with advancement of age. All the anthropometric variables are higher among boys than the girls. Statistically significant sex differences were found in some anthropometric variables such as height, weight, arm span, sitting height, head circumference and chest circumference and one derived variable that is waist hip ratio, where p<0.05, there was also statistically significant age variation (p<0.001) observed in all anthropometric variables and derived variables except Waist Hip Ratio. The existence of significant age and sex-specific variations of anthropometric characteristics like height, weight and body mass index was found among preschool children. The present study reported that the mean height, weight and body mass index was compatible with the children of regional and national studies. The median height and weight of the both boys and girls of the present study were lower than the international standards like World Health Organisation and National Center for Health Statistics. Appropriate nutritional intervention programs are needed to achieve the full-fledged growth potential among preschool children of the study population.

Keywords: Anthropometric characteristics, Anthropometry, Cross-sectional study, Preschool children, Sex variation.

The teeth being the hardest tissue in the body, are more capable of withstanding the onslaughts of time and natural agencies as compared to other components of the human body thereby, facilitating a better perspective on demography, biological affinities, diet, health and general way of life of populations. The estimation of age from radiographs have not received adequate attention in comparison to attrition-level driven aging techniques. 329 premolars belonging to both Indian males and females of known ages (20-70 years) were chosen. The coronal indices of the pulp cavities were measured from the radiographs (orthopantomograms) following Ikeda et al. (1985; Tooth Coronal Index = Coronal Pulp Chamber Height * 100/Crown Height). Subsequently, a linear regression model was prepared using the Indian data sets with age as the dependent variable and TCI as the independent variable. This model was tested on a set of teeth not used to prepare the model. The published equations on the Italian and Malawian populations were used on the Indian data sets. The range of indices of the age-groups 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-70 were found to be 20.93-46.65, 20.27-39.38, 9.93-27.84, 6.69-27.63 and 6.92-17.93 respectively. There is considerable similarity among the teeth sizes of the Indian and Italian populations. The published equations on Italian and Malawian populations could be used to predict the ages of the Indian population with a variation of ±5 years. Though it is a very preliminary observation on the odontology of two populations still it can be said that people from various parts of the world have more in common than the apparent phenotypic differences.

Keywords: Age-estimation, Pulp cavity, Tooth Coronal Index, Radiographs, Premolars.

Sitting height-to-height ratio or Cormic Index (CI) provides the relative contribution of leg length to height. CI varies across age and sex categories. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the age and sex-wise variations in CI among 300 (boys: 145, girls: 155) early adolescents of 11–13 years from West Bengal, India. Height (Ht) and sitting height (SH) were measured using standard protocol, while leg length (LL) was derived by subtracting SH from total Ht. The CI was calculated following standard formulae. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t test, one way ANOVA and Pearson correlation were performed using SPSS (version 20.0). Results revealed in case of boys, LL, became higher compared to girls after the age of 12. Among girls SH and CI decreased with age. CI showed a negative correlation with age only for boys. This study advocates for the integration of the CI with segmental growth monitoring since it appeared to be a more comprehensive approach to assessing adolescent health. This tool of assessing segmental growth may enhance early detection of growth abnormalities and associated health risks. However, validating these findings requires longitudinal studies with larger and more diverse samples to better understand adolescent growth patterns, after controlling the confounding factors, and long-term health implications.

Keywords: Adolescence; Segmental growth; Sitting height; Cormic index; Growth pattern

Anthropometry, particularly the Body Mass Index, is widely used, cost-effective method for assessing nutritional status and is correlated more with nutritional factors than with genetic influences. This study focuses on Paudi Bhuyan, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group in Odisha, India, where specific techniques were employed to evaluate their nutritional status amidst socioeconomic challenges. Data are collected from 2 districts i.e. Keonjhar (Banspal Block) and Deogarh (Barkot Block) of Odisha, India. The methodology involved anthropometric measurements from 521 adults, revealing significant findings related to gender and height differences across districts and emphasizing the need for targeted interventions to address malnutrition in vulnerable tribal communities.

Keywords: Anthropometry, Paudi Bhuyan, PVTG, BMI, Underweight, CED.

The folklore of Lahaula tribe is very vast especially it has a rich heritage of folk ballads of different genres like narrating stories of deities, embellishments, marriage rituals, historical incidents, significant persons etc. The study of their folk ballads is not much explored and discussed according to gender point of view so it becomes significant to analyse them as they were an inseparable part of their social and cultural practices like marriage and birth related practices. These folk ballads give a hint of how earlier people of Lahaula tribe had perceived about gender that what duties should they perform and what qualities they should possess? The folk ballad of Rani Rupi was selected as it gives a hint of underlined expectations of roles to be performed by a female in the Lahaula society. The presented ballad was collected from the local experts Lahaula tribal society. The theoretical framework of social construction of gender was adopted to analyse the selected folk ballad. ‘One is not born but becomes a woman’, the core idea of Beauvoir becomes applicable from the ballad of Rani Rupi as various types of qualities a woman should possess were presented in the ballad. The ballad is not only famous in the Lahaul area but also in neighboring district areas like Chamba and Kullu.

Keywords: Narrative analysis, Folk ballad, Tribe, Gender, Gender roles