No abstract

The Kora is a small tribal group who are mostly found in eastern part of India. Like many other ethnic groups, the Kora had their own distinct culture, customs, rituals and religion. However, in comparison to other major tribal groups in West Bengal, the Kora as a group to date have recevied relatively little research attention. In this article, we reappraise our experience and observation on the social-cultural life of the Kora people of Paschim Medinipur district, which we collected as part of anthropology undergraduate fieldwork in the year 2002. Through an ethnographic re-analysis method, we try to provide a fair glimpse regarding the process where the Kora, as group, is adopting certain Hindu traits. We also look to find the probable reasons that hold the key to understanding the source of continuity and change in Kora communities at large.

Research on fieldwork experiences is not something new to the discipline of Anthropology. However, undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training programs in India as a research area still remained unexplored. The purpose of the study described in this paper was to explore the proceedings of undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training programs in India. This article uses the authors’ own recollections regarding an undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training program carried out by a college affiliated with the University of Calcutta. All four authors along with their 21 fellow students have participated as trainees in this fieldwork training program. Through a qualitative analysis of these recapitulated events involving the acts of “preparation before the field trip,” “doing fieldwork” right up to “writing of field reports,” the study stresses one of the less emphasized and methodologically significant issues of education and the socialization process the trainee fieldworkers pass through while doing fieldwork. This article illuminates how the real-time field exposure guides naïve students to realize the utility of different research tools, techniques, methods, and some of the true requirements of an ethnographic fieldwork.