Research
Research programme
My work asks how Indigenous communities think with, and through, their worlds — how knowledge, kinship, objects and economies hold together as a way of reasoning about life.
Doctoral Research (in progress)
Cultural Cognition of Birjia: An Anthropological Study
My doctoral research studies the cultural cognition of the Birjia, an Indigenous community in Latehar district, Jharkhand. It asks how shared knowledge, classification and reasoning are formed and transmitted within the community, and how they inform kinship, livelihood, material practice and everyday social life.
The study is based on qualitative ethnographic research — participant observation, interviews and sustained fieldwork — in the villages of Dauna and Purandih, conducted with attention to consent, reciprocity and the community's own terms of representation.
[Add the full abstract, theoretical framing and expected contribution of the doctoral project.]
Doctoral research in progress (2021–present) at the Department of Anthropology & Tribal Studies, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, under the supervision of Prof. Rabindranath Sarma. Supported by the National Fellowship for Scheduled Caste (2023).
Thematic Interests
- 01
Indigenous Knowledge Systems
How communities generate, transmit and safeguard knowledge about land, ecology, healing and craft outside formal institutions.
- 02
Cognitive Anthropology
Cultural models, classification, memory and reasoning — how shared conceptual structures shape everyday perception and practice.
- 03
Kinship & Marriage
Descent, alliance, terminology and the changing organisation of household and affinal relations.
- 04
Ethnography & Field Methods
Long-term participant observation, life histories, and reflexive approaches to writing culture.
- 05
Tribal & Indigenous Communities
Social organisation, livelihoods and continuity among Adivasi and Indigenous communities.
- 06
Economic Anthropology
Subsistence, exchange, labour, markets and value in non-industrial and transitional economies.
- 07
Material Culture
Objects, technology and craft as carriers of meaning, skill and social memory.
- 08
Indigenous Rights
Land, forest and cultural rights; representation, policy and advocacy.
- 09
Culture & Social Practices
Everyday practice, ritual and social life as the ground on which cultural meaning is made and sustained.
Research Methodology
Qualitative ethnographic research, participant observation, interviews and fieldwork.
Ongoing & Future Projects
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