Jata Removal Movement

For centuries, India has been known for its politico-religious structures, which have developed casteism and discrimination. Gender-based oppressions have been prominent features of the patriarchal culture in India – both obvious and subtle forms of gender inequity. Multiple rites, customs, traditions and protocols reflect gender discrimination, and in most cases show gender oppression. The subordination of women visible in Indian context can be referred in historic shift from matrilineal structure to bramhinical patriarchy. The body politics and allied symbolism about gender has been rooted in the deceiving collusion and integrated function of political and religious entrepreneurs. Jata (or matted hairs) have been a symbol used by the patriarchal oppressors for a number of sexual, social and gender oppressions. Multifarious oppressions have been created by developing superstitious religious belief systems and hijacking social communication. Through fatalistic sentimentalism of irrational beliefs, progress of rational social communication has been suppressed. The existence of oppressive Devdasi and Jata tradition signifies deep-rooted psychosocial control by the oppressors. Jata Nirmulan Abhiyaan (Matted Hair Removal Movement) has been a scientific movement rooted in rational thinking about beliefs and traditions. The collective act of removing the oppressive symbol of Jata is essential to value of human rights and gender rights. The negative social, psychological, health and development implications of matted hairs need collective attention for remedial actions. At the same time, it is essential to understand the politico-religious traditions , belief systems which rules the psyche of society to act on it

A remarkable investigation into the hominoids of Flores Island, their place on the evolutionary spectrum—and whether or not they still survive. While doing fieldwork on the remote Indonesian island of Flores, anthropologist Gregory Forth came across people talking about half-apelike, half-humanlike creatures that once lived in a cave on the slopes of a nearby volcano. Over the years he continued to record what locals had to say about these mystery hominoids while searching for ways to explain them as imaginary symbols of the wild or other cultural representations. Then along came the ‘hobbit’. In 2003, several skeletons of a small-statured early human species alongside stone tools and animal remains were excavated in a cave in western Flores. Named Homo floresiensis, this ancient hominin was initially believed to have lived until as recently as 12,000 years ago— possibly overlapping with the appearance of Homo sapiens on Flores. In view of this timing and the striking resemblance of floresiensis to the mystery creatures described by the islanders, Forth began to think about the creatures as possibly reflecting a real species, either now extinct but retained in ‘cultural memory’ or even still surviving. He began to investigate reports from the Lio region of the island where locals described 'ape-men' as still living. Dozens claimed to have even seen them. In Between Ape and Human, we follow Forth on the trail of this mystery hominoid, and the space they occupy in islanders’ culture as both natural creatures and as supernatural beings. In a narrative filled with adventure, Lio culture and language, zoology and natural history, Forth comes to a startling and controversial conclusion. Unique, important, and thought-provoking, this book will appeal to anyone interested in human evolution, the survival of species (including our own) and how humans might relate to ‘not-quite-human’ animals. Between Ape and Human is essential reading for all those interested in cryptozoology, and it is the only firsthand investigation by a leading anthropologist into the possible survival of a primitive species of human into recent times—and its coexistence with modern humans.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1861.