Adi - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

Bruce visits the Adi, an isolated tribe in the foothills of the Himalaya between India (in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, carved from colonial Assam) and Tibet, ethnically closest to Bhutan, and shamanistic animists, enjoying governmental...See moreBruce visits the Adi, an isolated tribe in the foothills of the Himalaya between India (in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, carved from colonial Assam) and Tibet, ethnically closest to Bhutan, and shamanistic animists, enjoying governmental protection for their ancestral culture. They live in practically isolated villages, which few ever leave, practicing subsistence farming, clearing forests tracks every three year, and are omnivores, even live beetles, even fecal material is fed to 'toilet pigs'. The gam (elected chief, in a consensus model) of Jorsing village accepts to host Bruce, and gets everyone to help building a hut for him with simple forest produce, but many villages are beginning to use more permanent, comfortable modern materials, like electricity, connecting roads, even TV, all introduced by the Adi's own pragmatical choice. Apong, beer made from fermented millet, is crucial for social and ritual purposes, such as blessing the new hut. Bruce is 'adoped' by the 'gam', who brings some heirlooms. The measure of wealth are mithuns, a bovine species they keep in the forests, for work nor milk, rarely slaughtered except for offerings to the unseen, omnipresent spirits. The 'miri', traditional healer, is a female healer, whose influence and status wane because her healing inefficiency drives mostly youngsters to abandon animism in favor of modern medicine and often convert to Christianity, which however stresses prayer. They practice gathering and ambush hunting for days, using modern guns or traditional bow and traps, especially for deer, wild boar, monkey, squirrel and the surprising favorite: rat, which is eaten in the whole, fur and bones included. For the Aran festival, when neighboring villagers visit but Christians stay away, 'roti' bread is baked with raw-mixed in frog and cut-up rat; a mithun is strangled by hanging to be eaten with song and dance. Gratefull Bruce gets a send-off in style. Written by KGF Vissers See less