CIR Lecture: Ancestors, death, and the Ho language of mourning. Notes from fieldwork in tribal Middle India
| When: | Mo 23-09-2013 16:00 - 17:30 |
| Where: | - |
Colloquium on Indian Religions
Ancestors, death, and the Ho language of mourning. Notes from fieldwork in tribal Middle India
Eva Reichel, M.A. (Berlin): This talk is about the Ho, one of those more than sixty tribal communities living mainly in the Indian states Jharkhand and Orissa. I will focus on the relations between the living and the dead, as the active role of Ho ancestors in the lives of the living will reveal central values of the Ho's worldview. How do they conceptualize death and the future fate of a Ho's soul? The language of ritually mourning an individual's death betrays, how the universal bio – physical phenomenon of loss is responded to in culturally specific ways of renewal and inclusion. I will conclude by giving an ethnographic example to show how in the case of a 'bad' death the respective soul is being treated and accompanied over many years.
Location: room 253, Oude Boteringestraat 38