'No space of our own': The vanishing South Indian hunter-gatherers' experience in space sharing. Issue 3 (April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kakkoth, Seetha
• Is Part Of: Hunter gatherer research. Volume 3:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 501
• Page End: 513
• Publication Date: 2019-04
• Subjects: Aranadan -- hunter-gatherer -- Nilambur forests -- space sharing; Hunting and gathering societies -- Periodicals; 306.364
• DOI: 10.3828/hgr.2017.24
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1476-4261

Abstract

Abstract : This paper examines rapid development during the last six decades (1962–2016) of sharing in various realms (residential, socio-cultural, economic, political and religious) between Aranadan – a vanishing hunter-gatherer tribe in Nilambur valley, South India – and their neighbours. The Aranadan tribe in Nilambur Valley of Malappuram district, Kerala, had a population below 300 in 2015. Until they were resettled in government colonies in the 1970s they were leading a semi-nomadic life in the lower valley of Nilambur forests and had little contact with non-tribal people. These colonies located in the fringes of forests are surrounded by non-tribal people. It has been observed that during the course of time the interaction of the Aranadan with their non-Aranadan neighbours has increased significantly, slowly paving the way for the non-Aranadan to share their dwelling space. They have unhesitatingly shared their physical and metaphysical space with neighbouring dominant cultures, even while realising that there remains little space of their own.