University College Cork

I was born in Poland from where I started my international academic journey between Poland, Germany, France, India, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico. I am a social anthropologist and scholar of religions.

Since September 2018  I am the Programme Director of the MA Anthropology at Study of Religions Department, UCC.

Since 2013 to now I am a Director of the Marginalised and Endangered Worldviews Study Centre (MEWSC) at University College Cork, National University of Ireland. https://mewsc.wordpress.com/

Since 2010 to now I have been Associate Researcher (chercheur associé) at the Centre d’Anthropologie Sociale (CAS-LISST, EHESS, Toulouse) and from March to April 2016 I was visiting Professor in Anthropology, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France

I specialise in I.) anthropology of South Asian cultures and religions (popular Hinduism, indigenous Adivasi religions, ascetic and ecstatic traditions, goddess worship);

II) scientific studies of religions;

III.) media anthropology with special focus on music;

IV.) museum anthropology (religion and museum);

V) comparative studies in indigenous cultures and religions - research on shamanism;

VI) marginalized and endangered worldviews.

At the moment I am working on comparative eco-cosmologies with special reference to indigenous knowledge systems and sustainability.

I am also working on a comparative analysis: “Brazil and India - A comparison of indigenous and marginalised socio-political groups” and on "indigeneity discourses in India and Latin America".

 In January 2011 I have finished my postdoctoral thesis in the Study of Religions ("Habilitation" = professorial qualification in the Study of Religions) at Freie Universität Berlin with my work “Marginalised Music - Music, Religion and Politics in western Orissa". This work presents the results of my long term anthropological documentation of hitherto unknown traditions of sacred music performed by marginalised musicians and priest-musicians of the Adivasi (indigenous) Bora Sambar region of western Odisha (former Orissa). The work is based on more than 30 months of ethnographic research in rural regions of western Odisha, India.

Since May 2002 I am holding a bi-national PhD (these co-tutelle) from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris and a PhD in Social Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin. My doctoral thesis focused on ascetic and ecstatic traditions in rural Hindu and indigenous India: 

 “Babas and Alekhs – Between Asceticism and Ecstasy. A comparative socio-anthropological study of the ascetic Mahima Dharma tradition in two districts of Orissa (Dhenkanal and Koraput) / Eastern India”.

My PhD Thesis supervisors were Prof Dr Georg Pfeffer and Prof Dr Jean Claude Galey

On an empirical basis, my PhD thesis investigated the structure and spread of a new ascetic religion in India. The work explicitly studied general processes of religious institutionalization, conversion and social change. The indicator of social change was seen here – in Max Webers’ terms – as the rise of an ascetic ethic. The originality of the study lies in its ethnographic diversity. Based upon thirteen months ethnographic fieldwork, the study was undertaken among Mahima Dharma ascetics and tribal converts. In the last decade, proselytizing ascetics spread the new religion among the indigenous population of eastern India, where the percentage of the new Mahima Dharma converts is now assessed to be about ten percent of the local population. However, in a tribal context professional ascetics are rare, appearing once a year to initiate new devotees. The new teachings have become ever more popular due to the vocal rituals of ecstatic female shamans, who are the local ritual specialists of the new religion.

A twofold character of the religion could be depicted: male ascetics represented the institutionalization and centralization processes of the religion, mostly marked by the importance of the scripture. In tribal context the ecstatic vocal rituals of female shamans expressed the autonomy of the local oral culture. The analysis of the oral material of the shamans’ poetic songs portrayed the autonomy and creativity of oral cultures, which through vocal expressions cope with a changing world.

 

 

 

 

 

Erasmus Credit Mobility Research stay at  Universidad Tecnica de Oruro, Bolivia from mid Nov till mid Dec 2018 Research: "Indigenous Education and indigenous Universities in International Perspective - example Bolivia " . 

Academic Year 2014/2015

The aim of this research at the partner University is to develop comparisons between India and Brazil in relation to its indigenous and socio-politically marginalised groups. Especially the situation of Indian and Brazilianindigenous peoples will be analysed. I also would like to establish socio-political comparisons between afro-Brazilian religious formations and subaltern religious groups in India.

The point of departure: An industrial neo-colonial intrusion into mineral rich territories of indigenous and analogous peoples takes place in India and Brazil. During the process of industrial extraction of natural resources diverse indigenous / analogous communities are deprived of their fundamental human rights for secured livelihood and preservation of ecosystems. The industrial boom and global rising of BRICS countries, such as Brazil, India, China, South Africa as well as South East Asian countries foster a genocidal, culturecidal and ecocidal dynamic against vulnerable indigenous/analogous peoples. With the ecological destruction most valuable local knowledge resources and worldviews dramatically disappear. These worldviews and local knowledge systems could however harbour a key for finding local and global solutions for a sustainable and philanthropic world of cultural and eco-biological diversity, justice and mutuality. With the destruction of ecological landscapes also cultural and social systems collapse. Culture preservation and the inclusion of culturally creative expressions such a language and the arts have proven to be a solution for emancipatory and inclusive claims of marginalised pre-colonial communities. The aim of my research is to develop a forum for discussion with Brazilian social and political scientists at Universidade Federal do Piauí in order to seek new solutions and imagination how to build up resilience of vulnerable indigenous/ analogous communities against today’s new phases of globalisation and modern colonisation processes. Local modes of expressions, communications and symbolic effectiveness such a languages, performances, visual arts and oral literatures will be discussed in order to substantially revalue the worldviews and local ecological knowledge systems of indigenous and analogous peoples. The example of cultural resilience of afro-Brazilian worldviews will be taken into account and compared with diversity of socio-cultural groups in India.  The goal of my research visit to Brazil is to promote a dialogic transcultural imagination and reflection on resilience of threatened worldviews and ecological landscapes of indigenous/analogous peoples or socio-politically marginalised communities which will help to imagine and create a transcultural philanthropic world of social, cultural and ecological justice.  

Indian Studies, Adivasi Religions  and Indigenous Cultures.

Nov. 2006 to May 2010 Project Co-Director within the Tandem Museum project “From Imperial Museum to Communication Centre”

Role as Senior Research Associate ·   Carried out eleven-month ethnographic research on the musical traditions of subaltern musicians (Ganda) in the town of Sambalpur and in remote villages in Western Orissa/eastern India. ·   Documented the local music, dance and theatre traditions of the region and analyzed the local theological and moral systems channelled and transmitted through diverse musical forms. Thereby, special emphasis was placed upon the inter-village orchestra of the marginalised Ganda musicians and the emotional and transformational power of funeral and mourning music and songs performed by non-Brahmin priests. ·   Collected and documented music and recordings of the endangered local music of Western Orissa. ·   Co-operated with local culturally focused NGOs and organized cultural programmes for local artists and musicians in Sambalpur/Western Orissa. ·   Studied the interwoven nature of music with ritual, indigenous theology, ethnicity and local politics. ·   Co-operated with the Museum of Ethnology, Berlin. Particular effort was made to curate and conceptualise an exhibition  and to create a CD collection of the musical traditions of western Orissa for the museum.

May 1999 to May 2002Junior Research Associate at the Institute of Ethnology/Social Anthropology, Freie Universität (FU) Berlin.  Doctoral research within the Orissa Research Programme funded by the German Research Foundation Role as Junior Research Associate ·   Conducted a thirteen-month ethnographic research project in Orissa among ascetics and tribal converts. Ethnographic work covered investigations on forms of local asceticism and on religious missions in Hindu rural and tribal regions. ·   Studied local networks of ascetics and the social structure of conversion; carried out recordings and transcriptions of local religious songs.  ·   Successfully completed bi-national Ph.D. thesis (for the FU Berlin and the EHESS Paris)on the spread and structure of a new ascetic religion in Orissa/India  

Nov 2018 – Dec 2018           One month field work in Oruro & La Paz in Bolivia on indigenous universities  

01/2016 -03/2016           Two-months field work in Madya Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka   03/2015- 05/2015           Two-months field work in North East of Brazil

09/2009 – 10/2009        Two-months field work in the context of the VW Tandem-Project “From Imperial Museum to Communication Centre” (final revision of research on local museums in India and on local music and museums in Orissa).                 

11/2008 – 02/2009 Three-months field work in the context of the VW Tandem-Project “From Imperial Museum to Communication Centre” (documentation of local museums in Orissa, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, and of local music in Orissa). 

10/2007 – 01/2008 Three-months field work in the context of the VW Tandem-Project “From Imperial Museum to Communication Centre” (documentation of local museums in Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim and the Andaman Islands, and local music in Orissa).

12/2006 – 03/2007 Three-months field work in the context of the VW Tandem-Project “From Imperial Museum to Communication Centre” (documentation of local museums mostly in Orissa and Chhattisgarh).      

02/2006 – 03/2006  Two-months field work in Orissa in the context of research on music and religion.

2002 – 2004            Twelve-months field work in rural and urban Western Orissa in the context of research on sound, society and value-systems in the context of postdoctoral research project. 

1999 – 2001            Thirteen-months field work on the spread and structure of the ascetic new religion Mahima Dharma in Hindu and tribal Orissa as part of research for my doctoral dissertation. 

1994 – 1995            Three-months participant observation in a Hindu-Moslem village in Gujarat as part of a student excursion.