Ethnography of Performing Artistic Ritual in South India: Generative Ritual and Myth

Mayuri Koga (Kaichi International University Lecture)

I am very glad to receive the 30th Pacific Rim Grants for Research (Publishing Help). I am grateful to the Governing of Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Foundation and members of the operating and screening committee. This book cites the case of teyyam, the folk ritual in Kerala, South India, and describes the consciousness of caste and occupation, belief to spirit and cosmology and analyzes the conflict when teyyam is accepted as performing arts. This book is divided into two parts. First, I was able to clarify how the ritual developed related to the local king and how the ritual relates to castes and houses. And I focus the performance and sequence of the ritual and cleared how the ritual and mythology has changed historically related to caste, kingship, and taravad (matrilineal joint-family). Then I analyze the rebirthing of the ritual according to the change of the modern society. There are three topics of rebirthing of the ritual. First topic is the revival of the ritual. The house which stopped the ritual for a long time because of the land reform and the collapse of the matrilineal system restarted the ritual after 1990’s. Second topic is the change of the performer’s social status. The people who were depressed to the bottom of the caste society got the status as the “artist”, and raise the social status. Third topic is the problem of the art and politics. Teyyam is not a simple religious ritual, but the performance with several phases, and the arena for conflict and dispute. 　　　Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Foundation made it possible to publish this book and this is great pleasure to me and the people of Kerala. I deeply thank Foundation and members of committee for supporting me.

Education:
I graduated from the Economics Department of Keio University in 1994. I finished my Doctor in Philosophy degree in Keio University, graduate school of Sociology in 2001. From 1997 to 1999 I was associated with University of Delhi as a casual student. In 2001, I was a fellowships from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science. In 2007, I earned my Doctor in Philosophy degree of Sociology. I was a part-time lecturer at Rissho University (2007-15), Keio University (2010- ), Toyo University (2014), and Kanto Gakuin University (2014-15). From 2016, I am a lecturer at Kaichi International University.