Moynihan South Asia Center: Kinship is Hardship: An Ethnographic Study of the Nachnis of West Bengal, India

Moynihan South Asia Center presents: Saloka Sengupta - Kinship is Hardship: An Ethnographic Study of the Nachnis of West Bengal, India

Saloka Sengupta, Doctoral Student, Department of Anthropology, Indian Institute of Technology Hyberabad

Nachni nach, a dance form from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, is witnessing tough times in its five hundred year history. Looking at how the nachni moves from one musician to another, this paper explores the redefining of kinship amongst women performers of a folk art form which is in crisis, in the age of the Internet.

Sponsored by the South Asia Center at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs