Reciprocity in field work

Collaborating with the Adivasi Koya of Kamaram, Telangana, India

Bibliographic Data

ID18969640
AuthorsElvin Xing Yifu (0000-0003-4351-2316, Australian National University, corresponding author), Arun Mypathi Kumar (Kakatiya University)
Year2022
Volume18
Issue2
Pages290-298
Publication date2022-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAlterNative An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1177-1801 • E-ISSN: 1174-1740
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/11771801221100959
OpenAlexW4293072868
LanguageEN
References cited19

Indigenous communities in India, or Adivasis, have always been the object of anthropological research. However, knowledge production on Adivasi communities has created a civilizing discourse that has contributed to their marginalization. In following the need to reject anthropology’s savage, primitive, and native slot, we present a case study of a research project on Indigenous knowledge of the Koya peoples, an Adivasi community in India. We argue that this project is an expression of the agency of the Adivasis and constitutes a form of generative refusal, where new insights and possibilities are generated. Next, we reflect on how fieldwork with Indigenous communities is not merely extractive but can create a collaborative and reciprocal endeavour. Finally, we discuss the methodological aspects of co-producing scholarship on Adivasi communities and its implications

Indigenous · Political science · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Traditional knowledge · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Ecology

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