Economic Transformation of the Tribals

This book belongs to an area of study in economic anthropology. The problem of a particular tribe, viz., the Mech tribals spanning about more than a century has been studied. It is study also on the whole range of problems faced by a tribe like Meches who at one particular period of time were exposed to ‘modernisation’, ‘money economy’ and ‘technological transformation’ which had destroyed the whole tribal mode of living and brought about certain significant changes. Present Mech tribals have certainly been successful in conquering the inhibitions of old tribal culture which put obstacles in their way to development, but majority of the Meches have not been so successful, not because of their lack of Desire in them for change in every cases but mainly because of the circumstances created by economic conditions. Such aspects of the problem have been brought out in this book. The main contention of the book has been the proposition that social dualism largely observable in the Mech society, is a reflection of economic dualism. The study makes it abundantly clear that dualism in the Mech society is due to difference in attitude of those who are and / or were economically affluent and those who are and / or were not. The study has specifically pointed out that a tendency towards retaining and changing to old customs and traditions are really hangover of the past attitudes conditioned largely by the past economic conditions of the tribals and are get nurtured by present day impoverishment of a group within the Mech society. The study as such can be regarded as a ‘poineer’ one in the field of economic anthropology.