ECSAS 2023 – Turin 26-29 July

Tigers, Humans and Were-tigers in Aboriginal India: a Case Study of Coexistance in the Anthropocene

Presenter

Beggiora Stefano - University Ca' Foscari of Venice, Dept. of Asian and North African Studies, Venice, Italy

Panel

23 – Engaging the world through contemporary South Asian tantric and shamanic traditions

Abstract

 This paper aims to investigate the dynamics of coexistence between big cats and ‘adivasi’ (aboriginals) groups in some peculiar forest reserves and jungle ranges of the Indian subcontinent. Inculturation processes and bidirectional cultural loans between Hindu (tantric) religiosity and forest shamanic cults will be analyzed in the light of an extensive anthropological field research and multispecies ethnography. Therefore, on the basis of the relationships between these two peculiar categories now considered endangered, I will propose some working models involving different methodological approaches aimed at understanding the interaction between human-non-human in a modern ecological perspective.