They Ask If We Eat Frogs: Garo Ethnicity in Bangladesh

Author(s): Ellen Bal
ISBN: 978 981 230 446 9
Publisher: ISEAS Publications
Publication year: 2007
Pages 244
Price GBP 25,95

This study is a critical investigation into the category of tribes in South Asia. It breaks away from previous studies of tribes in the region. While it focuses on one so-called tribal community, the Garos of Bangladesh, it neither studies Garo culture as such, nor their social organization. Instead it deals with the evolution of Garo identity/ethnicity and with the progressive making of cultural characteristics that support a sense of Garo-ness , in the context of the complex historical developments in this part of South Asia and the world.The importance of this work is not confined to a better understanding of how smaller ethnic groups form, survive or disappear in modern society. It also leads to a more comprehensive insight into how social life in the border region of South and Southeast Asia is organized and how it has transformed over time.This book will be of interest to historians, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, students, scholars of South and Southeast Asia and policy-makers.