Totemic Beliefs and Biodiversity Conservation Among the Karbis of Assam, India

Abstract

Biodiversity loss is recognized as an important global issue, affecting the life of the people, especially the tribal people and all those myriad species who live and co-exist along with them. The tribal people being the forest dwellers, always try to adjust according to their physical surroundings, and in doing so, they have develop a sense of belief systems, which had always guided their social, cultural and religious aspect of life in a sustainable way. The tribal people believe that, they have a bizarre relation with some plant and animal species, so they desire to preserve and never go for consume such plants and animals. Moreover, they belief that their clans are associated with a particular plant or animal species which ultimately became their totemic object. In this context, the present study focuses on identifying the totemic beliefs of the Karbis with the aim that such indigenous beliefs systems could help in the conservation of biodiversity and ultimately in the preservation of their beliefs system.

Keywords: Totemic beliefs, biodiversity, clan, conservation, indigenous beliefs.