SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Fieldwork is an essential aspect of all areas of anthropology, because it is used to

gather primary data from the field. The term ‘fieldwork’ is used to describe

research in all areas of anthropology from social and cultural anthropology to

medical or biological anthropology. Anthropologist all over the world focuses on

field work in remote and distant areas, such as among the ethnic communities.

Though in the present time field work is done in a variety of settings from urban

areas, small communities, cultural institutions, museum library etc.

Fieldwork is among the most distinctive practices anthropologists bring to the

study of human life in society. Through fieldwork, the social anthropologist seeks

a detailed and intimate understanding of the context of social action and relations.

It allows the anthropologist to inhabit and convey situations from an insider’s

perspective and at the same time offer the information for anthropological

interpretation.

Field work is the hallmark of anthropological research. It is very essential for the

anthropologists to understanding the socio-cultural problems of human beings.

Fieldwork is the foremost source of data collection. Any researcher in the field is

mainly depends on fieldwork for generating the research data. Field research or

field work is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library or workplace
setting. The approach and methods used in the field research vary across

disciplines. Field research involves a range of well-defined, although variable,

methods: informal interviews, direct observation, participation in the life of the

group, collective discussions, analyses of personal documents produced within the

group. The results of the extensive fieldwork carried out by the cultural

anthropologist are written up as ethnography, which is defined as description of the

society. The ethnography, reports on the environmental setting, economic pattern,

social organization, political system, religious rituals and belief of the society

under study. This description of the society is based on what anthropologist call

ethnographic data. Technically, the term ethnologist refers to the anthropologists

who focus on the cross-cultural aspects of the various ethnographic studies done by

the anthropologists. Ethnologist takes the data that are produced by the individual

ethnographic studies and analyze this data to produce cross-cultural generalization

about humanity and cultures everywhere.

Ethnography as a method seeks to answer central anthropological questions

concerning the ways of life of living human beings. Ethnographic questions

generally concern the link between culture and behavior and how cultural

processes develop over time. In order to answer the research questions and gather

information, ethnographers often live among the people they are studying or at

least spend a considerable amount of time with them. While there, ethnographers
engage in participant observation method, which means that they participate as

much as possible in local daily life while also carefully observing everything they

can about it. Through this, ethnographers seek to gain what is called as ‘emic

perspective’ or ‘the native’s or insider’s point of view’. The emic word view is

quite different from the ‘etic’ or outsiders perspective on local life, is a unique and

critical part of anthropology. Through the participant observation method,

ethnographers record detailed field notes, conduct interviews and gather

documents. Through interviews, the cultural anthropologists gather basic data

regarding the census materials, dietary information, and household composition

data etc.

Thus, Anthropology is the study of people, past and present, with a focus on

understanding the human condition both culturally and biologically. This joint

emphasis sets anthropology apart from other humanities and natural sciences. In

general sense, anthropology is concerned with determining what humans are, how

they evolved and how they differ from one another. In anthropology the whole

world is considered as laboratory as it offers a total study of all aspects of culture

i.e. economics, health, technology etc and the society is an integrated and

comprehensive manner. It is comparative and tries to find out the similarities and

differences among them.

mind ‘. It studies human life at the intersection of the sciences and humanities that

includes human biology and evolution, archeology, culture and language. Each

focus on a different set of research interest and generally uses different research

techniques. A field study is a sub field and a general method for collecting data

about users; user needs product requirements that involve observation and

interviewing. Data are collected about task flows, inefficiencies and organizational

and physical environment users. This report is based on the works of field study.

The emergence of anthropology as a branch of knowledge goes back to the remote

past. Aristotle (384-322 BC) was the first to coin the word ‘anthropology’. Today

anthropology has become a broad based study much more than any other scientific

discipline as it has to deal with a wider variety of problems. Anthropology includes

a broad range of approaches derived from both natural and social sciences. The

natural sciences such as biology, zoology, anatomy, psychology, geology etc. have

intimate relationship with physical anthropology and the social sciences such as

sociology, psychology, human geography, political science and history are very

helpful in studying cultural anthropology. Archeology is closely link to geology,

paleontology ,chemistry and physics in dating the past and in analyzing the

archaeological sites and finding out the chronological sequences, Anthropology

today transcends between the natural sciences, social sciences, biological sciences,
humanities including psychological and symbolic dimensions of mankind in all

forms.

We the students of M.A/M.Sc , Department of Anthropology, Gauhati University

completed our fieldwork on the Karbi of Kakojan village located in the East Karbi

Anglong district of Assam. Various information and data’s was collected about the

village regarding different topics. The data thus collected is discussed in brief in

the following chapters.

The 1st chapter gives us an idea about the introduction, aims and objectives of field

work, selection of the study area which was selected by our supervisor Dr. Arifur

Zaman, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Gauhati University.

This chapter also includes arrangement of the field trip, composition of field team

along with our two teachers Dr. Kunal Choudhury and Dr. Jyotishman Taye.

Apart from these, the journey, time and duration of the field work, selection of the

informant, first day impression of the study area, various methods and techniques

used during the field work are also mentioned in the first chapter.

The second chapter includes the general information of the land. It is divided into

two sub divisions i.e. the first part talks about the origin of the name and

significance of the village history, location and boundary, topography,

hydrography, the flora and fauna, size and settlements pattern, sanitation, climate,
market, transport and communication, house type, village shop, electricity, village

path, educational institution, medical facilities, the playground, the club, the sacred

place, the burial ground. The second part includes the social features of the Karbis

like their dress and ornaments, language, food and drink, economy, family,

marriage, religion, descent and inheritance, village organization, birth, death and

disposal, kinship terminologies, weaving, festivals, musical instruments.

The third chapter is based on ethnographic account of the hill Karbis of Assam

where their history of origin and migration, clans, marriage, family, religion, food

habits, dance and music, status of women, social structures etc.

In chapter 4 the demographic outline of the Kakojan village and its analysis has

been mentioned. There is total number of eleven population distribution tables in

this chapter. This chapter has categorized the population according to sex, sex and

age, marital status, educational status according to sex, spatial distance, clan or

linage, primary and secondary occupation, knowledge of secondary language, size

and type of family and possession of domestic animals and birds. The table 4.1 is

about the total population of the studied village which was found to be 505 with

276 males and 229 females respectively. When divided on age and sex in table 4.2,

the highest population for both males and females were found in the children

between the ages of 0 to 4 years. In table 4.3, there are 117 married pairs in the
village. There are 8 widowers and eleven widows. The table 4.2 depicts that

majority of the population were educated up to L.P standard. Table 4.5 depicts

most of the marital alliances were within the village. In table 4.6, which depicts the

distribution of population by sex and clan lineage shows that the ronghpar sub-clan

of the timung clan has the maximum males and in case of female, the terang clan

has the highest number of individuals. Table 4.7 shows agriculture as the primary

occupation followed by daily wage labour. Also the women’s of the village have

weaving as their secondary occupation. Table 4.8 represent that Assamese is the

major secondary language used by the people of the village followed by Hindi and

English. The table 4.9 shows the household according to the size of the family. Out

of 87 households 31 families are small, 27 families are medium, 20 are large and 9

families are very large. Table 4.10 shows the type of families present in the village.

There are 50 nuclear families, a total of 36 joint families and 1 extended family

respectively. The distribution of families according to the possession of domestic

fowls and birds is depicted in table 4.11 which shows that there are large numbers

of fowls owned by the maximum families followed by cattle and dogs which are

reared in significant numbers. Only 1 family in the village possesses a total of 4

pigeons.

Chapter 5 is based on the special topic which is related to the conception and child

birth found among the people of Kakojan Village of East Karbi Anglong district.
In the Kakojan Village when a woman finds that the continuation of menstruation

has stopped and starts vomiting and feeling weak, than they became sure that the

woman has got pregnant. When conception takes place the women first reveals the

news to her husband and then to the other members of the family. Since the

immediate time of conception of the baby, the women folk maintained certain

restriction in terms of food and movement of the pregnant women. The women is

restricted to go out in certain places like funeral ground, forest, house of a

deceased person etc. as they believed that the negative forces can harm them. The

pregnant woman is also restricted to consume pork, papaya, and sour foods etc. for

the fear of abortion. In all the cases the new born were immediately given breast

milk. Prevalence of pre-lacteal feed was found. Traditionally, the village women

were not aware the scientific knowledge of application of breast feeding within 12

hours of delivery and its advantages in child health. But now a days due to the

availability of modern health care facilities all the women becomes conscious and

feed their child immediately after birth as this milk contain colostrums. Nobody

reported of discarding the colostrums. Majority of mother applied some material

to the naval of the baby for early healing. When the child cries the mother, father

or the elder used to sing lullabies. The lullaby song “Tu-va-e” is sung to pacify the

weeping child. The karbi child is always under the watchful eye of the mother,

grandmother and other immediate members of the family. In terms of their

medicine with the wild herbs. Karbi tribes use different words to identify the

diseases and according to the symptoms of the diseases, they identified the causes

and remedies to treat the diseases. The fieldwork report have shown that the

literate section of people have already adopted the modern medical treatment for

antenatal cheek-up and child delivery while the other section of people still hold

their traditional pattern of treatment like using of wild herbs etc. In the Kakojan

village the health activist provide information about the services of the mother

which includes T.T. vaccination, immunization, prevention and treatment of

anemia, delivery by trained personnel, institutional delivery and birth spacing. The

concept of family planning is also introduced among the karbi people of the

village. The ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) worker themselves visit the

houses and provide polio to the children from each and every household and they

hand over the contraceptives only to the women in the absence of the male family

members. The primary health center has not been opened yet in the village. They

visit the Nahorjan hospital and Bokakhat hospital for medical purpose. They also

have ICDS center which also provides them with essential things like rice, pulses

etc. The ASHA karmi takes care of lactating mother and the new born baby. The

Government has provided various plans and programs for the mother and the baby

to promote the maternal and child health care practices. The 108 free ambulance
services are also provided by the government to facilitate the people to overcome

from the trouble.

CONCLUSION

In the conclusion, it can be said that in the primitive Karbi society, the maternal

and child health care was a concerned matter for the people but they had used their

traditional medical practices to take care of the pregnant women and the newly

born infant. During that time, Karbi people were less concerned about the concept

of hygiene and did not maintain any dietary plan during pregnancy. Presently,

several change and development has been taking place in the Kakojan village

regarding maternal and child health services. Specially the Karbi women has

changed their outlook for the maternal health care and become aware for the

antenatal care and check up and for institutional delivery. The field work report

revealed the fact that, now-a-days, Karbi women, especially the literate section of

people has preferred to go for consulting with the gynecologist and other medicinal

doctors for antenatal check up. They are becoming conscious about the antenatal

complications, vaccines during pregnancy, drugs during pregnancy etc. ASHA

worker are also working in the villages and they are providing great role to

encourage the karbi women to take the medical treatment during pregnancy and
provide them health related information, various facilities, and benefits allotted by

the government.

In the present times several factors are responsible for the change in the health

status of the people of the Kakojan village, and these includes:

 Literacy.

 Modernization.

 Impact of Christian religion.

 Development of mass media and technology.

 Free medical check-up in rural and interior areas.

 Various women and child health care programs implemented by the

government.

With this tremendous change can be observed in the health care practices

among the Karbis. They are very efficient in their traditional medical practices.

Until today, the Karbi people tried to treat the normal diseases by their own

herbal treatment. However, in case of maternal check-up and diagnose, they

usually come to the hospitals. The successful medical treatment and the

dedication of medical stuffs are the responsible factor for such type of change.

In the primitive time, people took the help of village headmen, village midwife,

and some elderly person to know about the symptoms of different diseases and
the remedies because they could understand that and take advice of

knowledgeable person is necessary for treatment which is still followed by a

section of the society but the fieldwork report have also shown that the literate

section of people have already adopted modern means medical treatment and

diagnosis for the antenatal check-up and child delivery. The Karbis are now

conscious to read different health magazines, article, and periodicals to gather

information about different diseases and remedies. It is the contribution of

literacy and mass media along with modernization which have brought such

awareness and changes among the Karbi tribes.

hospital and collected information regarding child birth after that we went to Chekso village

which is a neighboring village of the Kakojan and visited ASHA karmi’s house. Her name is

Tado Terrangpi. There I took another case study regarding the modern health care. I asked her

about the role of health activist. She reported that they provide information to the village people

about the modern health care measures of the mother and child care which includes T.T.

vaccination, immunization, prevention and treatment of anemia, delivery by trained personnel,

institutional delivery and birth spacing. These again include the steps like-early registration of

pregnancy, promotion of institutional deliveries, use of contraceptives, promotion of exclusive

breast feeding for the first 4-6 months, proper weaning, and infant immunization, care of both the

pregnant mother as well as the newborn. After collecting the details we went to the Kakojan

village where I along with my group members collected the remaining hunting and fishing

implements. We gathered details about three hunting implements and four fishing implements.

On my way I meet Bapu Killing who is a medicine man. As he was free at that time I collected

the information about the mode of treating new born infants. He told me about the various herbal

treatments like use of Lokong Korong’, Madhuri kumoliya paat which leaf of the guava tree,

‘Longdaksu‘ for treating jaundice, fever and asthama. He said that these herbal treatments are

very effective as the person suffering from the above mentioned diseases gets cured within four

to five days. When I asked about how he gained the knowledge about these traditional herbal

medicines he said that he has learned from his mother. Soon after that I went to the midwife’s

(dai buri) house where I had conversation with her regarding home deliveries. She informed me

that before delivery when the labor pain of the expectant mother starts, she is taken to the

sleeping room where she is made to sit on the floor. A strong chord is firmly tied to one of the
bamboo posts of the room. The expectant mother holds on the chord firmly by both of her hands

so that she could put stress in expediting delivery easily. In case twin babies the process is

similar to that of giving birth to a single baby. Once the first baby is born she checks the position

of the second baby by feeling the abdomen and if it is in good position, the baby is born soon

after the first one and if the position is not right direction then massage is given and after a

couple of minutes or hour apart the second baby is born. After noting the details, we left the

field at 4:40pm. After coming back to our camp site we had our lunch and took some rest.

Around 8pm we had discussion regarding all the data collected in the field with our supervisors.

After having our dinner we again started to complete the left over tabulations.