Abstract
Arunachal is one of provinces of India and it is regarded as part of Eastern Himalayas. There are as many as 26 major tribes and about 110 minor tribes that inhabit in this area. There used to be close interaction between human and non-human animals. One of these animals was dog which played an important role in the various practices of the tribes. My focus in this paper is on the Tani group of tribes and specifically Adis comprise very significant groups within the Tanis. I analyze and fictional narrative by Lummer Dai. He was born on June 1, 1940) belonged to the Dai clan of Pasis, a sub-tribe of the Adis of Arunachal Pradesh. He died on April 5,2002 at the age of 62. As a member of the literate group and an intellectual, Lummer Dai chose fictional narrative as a medium to articulate the cultural identity of his tribe. An attempt at Retrieval of their history formed an important aspect of forging the tribal cultural identity. Animals specifically dogs played an important role among the Tani group of tribes of Arunachal Pradesh. Lummer Dai’s novel Mon aur Mon (Heart to Heart) represents the unique relationship between an old Adi woman and her pet dog. This proposal is an humble attempt to show how literary texts can be read with a view to exploring their articulation of the animal world and the relationship of humans with that world.
Presenters
Jagdish Lal DawarRetired Professor, History and Ethnography, Mizoram University, Haryana, India
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Dogs and humans, Fiction and Animals
