Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Hello, Nice to Meet You
First session of CAC and one particular line by the professor struck me and kept me pondering - "Tribals are not subjects to be shaped by others, then they would be mere objects". When people (probably also certain students on their field works) go to survey/research tribal life, tribals are in fact treated as mere reserach objects belonging to some lost chapter in history. Interviews start with questions like "Been to School?", "Part of any SHG?" or perhaps even "Do you know our Prime Minister's name?". Gone are the days when conversations began by asking the person's name first and enquiring if he was in good health, probably thats because in the eyes of these so called 'researchers', tribals are nothing but mere research objects.
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3 comments:
I guess many students like us often become aggressive in conducting our research during the field work. This might be because of the variables that we keep searching for a substantially quantifiable results that we seek to find. The reason for stereotyping a certain class or community or group of people may also be the result of set prototypes we have in our minds. It is important to understand all aspects of life of the 'subjects' for arriving at real conclusions.
i dont think its just the tribals who are subjected to a 'research object' type of treatment , as matter of fact, anything which matches our preconcieved notions is subjected to such kind of treatment. take any person with some sought of deformity, we dont care to ask him his name first , it is his deformity which attracts our attention. Same is the case with tribals.
yeah,i do agree with Sarah Sn. it's only the condition of the person or matter in the front that creates curiosity in us to think of him/her/any object.So anything that is studied would be called research objects,no doubt.May that be tribals,any business tycoon,any group of women,group of children,or group of tigers.All are included under research objects.
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