Cycles of Life in a Bengali Town

Akos Ostor and Lina Fuzzetti first went to Bishnupur in 1967 and have been going back ever since. Between 1967 and 1973 they spent about 4 years studying the rituals and festivals, kinship and marriage, bazaars and politics, the Hindu majority and the Muslim minority. Since 1982 they have added ethnographic documentary filming to their fieldwork in the town and the region. They have published numerous books and articles and made several films based on their studies.

The first installment of the project visits the Bishnupur town in the late 1960's and early 1970's, entering the social domains of sacred rituals and festivals, bazaar and markets, marriage rites and kinship relations, celebrations of death there are, as well, accounts of the temples, music, arts and crafts, local history. We endeavor to give internal views of using the concepts and categories employed by the townspeople themselves in ordering and comprehending their own lives, and in addition, we provide anthropological analyses here and interpretations based on the field research.

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Future Possibilities

Rapid changes are transforming Bishnupur, so the second installment of the project will concern the transformations that have occurred between 1967 and 2003.

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Credits

Akos Ostor: Author
Daniel Schnaidt: Instructional Designer

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