JUNGLE RABHA MASKS AND MASKED DANCE

ABOUT THE BOOK:- The book is based on extensive field work among the forest dwelling Rabhas of North Bengal conducted in 1982 and 1983 during the collection of their traditional cultural artifacts (ethnographic object) as the museum specimens. Among the collected specimens masks are considered as one of the significant cultural elements of the forest dwelling Rabhas. But there is hardly any written record about them. Therefore the study on the Rabha masks and the masked dance was taken up from anthropological perspective to carry out further research on them in future. For the convenience of study the historiography of the Rabha masked dance divided into three phases –Pre –British British and Post –British. The attempt has been made here to ascertain the status of the dance in each phase for bringing out a clear picture as to how the physical environment government forest policy acculturation processes and economic activities in particular and exerted their influence on this particular cultural aspect of the forest dwelling community over space and time. The idea behind this proposition was to trace out the rise gradual propagation and downfall of this performing art in different phases of time since its very inception. ABOUT THE AUTHOR:- Dr. Sabita Ranjan Sarkar has obtained M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Anthropology from the Calcutta University. He has specialized himself both in social anthropology and museological anthropology. He has put up 35 years of service in different anthropology museums of the country both in government and private sectors. He rendered his services in different museums such as Anthropology Museum of the Cultural Research Institute Govt. of West Bengal Kolkata; Indian Museum Meghalaya State Museum Shillong Don Bosco Ethnographic Museum of Centre for Indigenous Cultures Shillong; Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya Bhopal Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts New Delhi. He undertook field research and published boo