Sumant Badami | Macquarie University (original) (raw)

My research deals with the Paniya of Wayanad, a marginalised indigenous ethnic group in the South Indian state of Kerala, who were slaves until the latter part of the 20th century. Even though Kerala once claimed to be a distinctive model of modern development, 65% of the tribal communities in Wayanad still live below the poverty line. The perceived failure of the state to provide for marginalised communities has paved the way for a new wave of post-colonial development activity that I explore in my forthcoming book, The Ant Knows its Way: Stories of Death, Place and Belonging. Based on sixteen months of fieldwork, over a three-year period, I describe the practice of being ‘Paniya’ in a world where religious groups, development organisations and political parties all attempt to tell them how to act and who to be.

The impact of liberalisation, decentralisation, transnational labour flows and internal migration, has contributed to the adoption of globalised practices of consumption and more conservative political attitudes in Kerala. I locate these themes within a political economy of conditional aid, through which international and local bodies use money, access to land and resources, as well as the promise of social mobility to compete for control over marginalised populations, like the Paniya.

I am particularly interested in the complex relationships between people and objects in the negotiation of place and identity. By looking at aspects of Paniya material culture, I explore questions of agency and the ways in which objects, such as ‘god stones’ and sacred groves, can facilitate certain behaviours or cultural practices.

My research highlights the importance of spirit possession, music/song, funeral rites and black magic healing rituals, which help the Paniya to maintain a sense of place and belonging in the midst of inequality and social exclusion.

Through a sustained ethnographic examination, I describe these practices in a range of contexts involving politics, religion, biomedical health, public interaction, and native title. I illustrate the intimate connection between understandings of death, history, geography, the environment, forms of cultural instruction and styles of political legitimacy.

I have an ongoing personal and professional commitment to understanding aspects of creativity and cultural improvisation. In my research, I included a large amount of ethnographic material on the use of song and creativity in the performance of indigenous rituals. I am a trained musician and youth worker and I have recently begun conducting a number of improvisational workshops with adolescents in high schools and youth centres in New South Wales. I have been using these workshops to gather material for my research on youth culture, performance and cultural creativity. Drawing on the work of Professor Tim Ingold, I have begun to develop innovative, research-inspired, student-centred methods to demonstrate the way in which sources of creativity are embedded in social, political and religious institutions, and to examine the relationship between creativity and the perception and passage of time.
Phone: +61 405271757

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