ShodhPatra: International Journal of Science and Humanities

Semiotics and Indigenous Performance: A Barthesian Analysis of Bohua/Bohuwa Dance among the Sonowal Kacharis

This paper examines the Bohua dance of the Sonowal Kachari tribe as a complex semiotic and performative system that encodes cultural identity, myth, and ritual practice. Drawing on the ethnographic account, the study employs the theoretical frameworks of Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Sanders Peirce, and Roland Barthes to analyze the dance as a multilayered system of signification. It further integrates performance theory through the works of Richard Schechner and Victor Turner to explore the embodied, ritualistic, and liminal dimensions of the performance. The paper argues that Bohua dance operates as a second-order semiotic system in which mythological narratives—particularly the story of Shiva, Sati, and Daksha—are transformed into naturalized cultural meanings. Through gesture, costume, music, and ritual practices, the dance constructs a symbolic framework that communicates values of renewal, purification, and communal cohesion. The study also highlights the role of repetition and “restored behavior” in preserving cultural memory, as well as the participatory role of the audience in interpreting and sustaining meaning. By situating Bohua dance within both semiotic and performance-theoretical paradigms, this paper demonstrates that indigenous performance traditions function as dynamic sites of meaning-making rather than static cultural artifacts. It underscores the importance of such traditions in maintaining cultural continuity and identity in the face of social and historical transformations.