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Classifying musical instrument into various categories has been the main preoccupation of the organological studies forquite many years. It is in recent years the field has been viewed from various perspectives connecting it toethnomusicology. Just as any other social phenomenon, musical instruments, and the process of making them are integral part of socio-cultural melee of tribal society. This article focusses on Mandar, a most common percussion instrument found among the tribal communities in Jharkhand. It delves deep into the ingenuity and indigenous knowledge of the community that makes mandar. While doing so, it elucidates socio-cultural context of the community that makes Mandar. The exploratory research is based on primary data collected over a period; the paper assumes importance in absence of such research on tribal musical instruments.

Keywords: Mandar, Tribal musical Instrument, ethnomusicology, Organology of tribal musical instrument and indigenous knowledge.

When a language is likely to become extinct it is called an endangered language. It is a serious concern for any society. Language spoken by the Tai-Phake of Assam is designated as one of the endangered languages in India. This language is at a risk of falling out of use because it has a smaller number of speakers at present. For sake of present study adult Tai-Phake of four villages (Ningam, Long Phake, Phaneng and Bor Phake) of Tinsukia district, Assam were selected randomly. A total of 405 adult Tai-Phake were studied. Data were examined according to different generations. Number of subjects gradually decreases from generations 3 to 1. More than 91 percent respondents were born in own village. Language self-assessment diminishes from generations 1 to 3. It reveals that process of modernization is playing an important role in different spheres of life of older and new generation of the study population. There exists a fear that this language is likely to become extinct near future. In view of this they have started arranging night classes at village level for the children particularly though it is in initial stage. To arrest becoming extinct of Tai-Phake language thus the local people must play an important role.

Keywords: Tai-Phake, Assam, Language, Endangerment, Modernization.

Border study has emerged to be a promising field of anthropological research in recent times. Apart from studying the cross-border communities and settlements, the border research encompasses exploration of economic exchanges taking place across the border. Haat or the traditional rural market located at the border area represents a rich site of anthropological investigation. The present paper is a documentation of the establishment and functioning of an Indo-Bangladesh border Haat located between Srinagar (South Tripura district, India) and Chhagalnaiya (Feni district, Bangladesh). It discusses the role of Border Haat and some social issues and problems.

The present study investigates the nature of the decline in agricultural land and trends of Bheri farming and its impact in Garbhera village under the Bhagwanpur-1 block of Purba Medinipur which is one of the major shrimp-producing districts in West Bengal. It enquiries why agricultural land has been converted to bheri. In this village, now various types of fish such as Ruhi, Catla, Mrigal and different species of shrimps are cultivated in bheri. For this cultivation, the bheri owners lease agricultural lands from the farmers. The farmers lease out the lands for more profit than their paddy cultivation or some other reasons. As a result of this cultivation, the lifestyle and economic conditions of the farmers have changed as well as the environment and health have been affected. As a methodology, this work includes land use and land cover classification done by Landsat series of Satellite images and ARC GIS 10.8 software to show the dynamics of agricultural land and bheri farming in 10 years intervals between 2002-2022 (i.e., 2002, 2012, and 2022) and interviews of farmers have been conducted to find out the reason behind the conversion of agricultural land to bheri farm. According to the data obtained from satellite images, the amount of agricultural land in 2002 was 1.26 square/km and in 2022 it decreased to 0.11 square/km. Similarly, the extent of bheri farming in 2002 was almost zero but in 2022 it increased to 1.11 square/ km. That is, the amount of agricultural land in the total area of this village has decreased by about 6% while the amount of bheri farming has increased by 62.71%. On the other hand, due to Vannamei farming, the amount of agricultural land is decreasing. Farmers are getting involved in some alternate occupations such as human hair workers, migrant labourers, small shop owners etc.

Keywords: Bheri farming, Bheri owner, Paddy farmer, Lease, Satellite image, Land use and land cover.

The scientific study of the pattern of epidermal ridges is known as dermatoglyphics. The ridge pattern of fingerprints develops in intrauterine life and remains the same until death before being altered by decomposition. Dermatoglyphics can be used for various purposes, especially in personal identification and population variation studies. A cross-sectional study was conducted to understand the fingertip patterns, angle, ridge count, and different indices among the Lodha population of Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India. A total of 103 (male-48; female-55) individuals were selected for this study using the purposive sampling method. Interview, schedule, and ink method (Cummins and Mildo, 1943) were used to collect data directly from the participants. A higher percentage of arch and composite patterns can be observed among the male participants (4.16% and 7.5%, respectively) compared to the females (2.18% and 3.45%). Females had a higher percentage of loops and whorls (52.9% and 41.45%, respectively) than males (49.58% and 38.75%, respectively). The difference between fingertip patterns of male and female Lodha participants was statistically significant (?2=12.124; p?0.05). While no statistically significant difference between male and female participants was found in atd angle, ridge count and in other indices. More studies are necessary to understand the finger and palmprint profiles of the Lodha population.

Keywords: Dermatoglyphics, atd angle, Ridge cound, Pattern Intensity Index, Furuhata Index

The mother tongue constitutes an important part of a people’s identity. For some indigenous groups, such as the Kusunda of Nepal, the language is the primary remaining marker of their unique identity. The Kusunda are a small, 161-member strong indigenous ethnic group who used to speak the eponymous language isolate Kusunda. They were a nomadic hunter-gatherer group inhabiting the middle hills and inner valleys of western Nepal. In the course of history, there has been a gradual decline in the number of Kusunda people, and since the mid-1800s their community became increasingly fragmented. In this article, we describe how, encouraged by socio-economic and socio-political changes occurring in Nepal since the turn of the century, the Kusunda are also reasserting their identity. Among the various aspects of their culture, the revitalization of their language has become the major focal point of these efforts. Despite the progress made in this respect, we conclude by reiterating the Kusunda’s idea of an integrated settlement as the best way to preserve their identity for posterity.

Keywords: Kusunda; language endangerment; ethnic revival; language revitalization; Nepal; integrated settlement