Mullukurumba: Re-Visited

This book is about the socio-cultural change among the Mullukurumba, a lesser-known tribe of Nilgiri-Wayanad, based on a re-study. Socio-cultural changes since the publication of the first monograph on the Mullukurumba (1971) and the factors responsible for such changes and the areas that remained unaffected by cultural contact are examined, analysed and interpreted in the light of recent findings by various scholars in the discipline anthropology. This book gives a brief review of research publications on the tribes of South India and depicts the socio-economic conditions of the Mullukurumba focusing the intra and inter-tribal and tribe-non-tribe interactions taking place in Nilgiri-Wayanad since the time of British India. The contact situation is explained through models, and generalizations have been drawn. As opposed to the ‘Hindu Method of Tribal Absorption’, the book modifies the earlier theory as ‘Tribal Mode of Hindu Absorption’, looking at the socio-cultural changes among the tribes from their own angle of outlook, an emic view; and thus breaking a new ground of theory building. The book will be useful to anthropologists, sociologists, economists, historians, political scientists, psychologists, philosophers, researchers, planners and development administrators. The book will be of much help to the Department of Science and Technology, Tribal Research Institutes, Department of Tourism and Culture, Department of Tribal Welfare and Non-Governmental Organizations.