ShodhPatra: International Journal of Science and Humanities

Between Change and Continuity: Tribal Identity in the Age of Globalization

This article reviews the existing literature on globalization and its effect on tribal identity and indigenous cultures. It looks at how economy globalisation, social organisation and cultural patterns constrain each other in the context of the simplified subject areas of anthropology, sociology and development studies, and how converging processes of cultural correspondence and technological transfer and development programmes initiated by States interact with such social organisation and cultural patterns among tribal people. Using a qualitative, literature-based methodological approach the study explores both theoretical understandings as well as empirical observations to outline dominant frames on cultural displacement and identity reformation. In a period of globalization and under the condition of the agency of the tribes, the study calls for culturally sensitive development policies that respect tribal agency and preserve indigenous knowledge systems along with the community-based cultural preservation practices.