Cultural Contact and Change in Dormitories

CULTURAL CONTACT AND CHANGE IN DORMITORIES

Dormitory is a place where the youth organizations of the tribes are housed. The youth organization of tribes, once having a place of pride, are withering away day by day owing to following two important reasons –

1. Adopted the naming system after various village government officials:

The various officers of the dormitory are named after various village officials functioning for the Government. For example, Maria gotuls, the head of the organization, is known as silledar or chalan.

2. Conversion to Christianity leading to feeling of deprivation:

Among those tribal folk in Middle India or in Assam who have got converted to Christianity are not permitted by the Church to attend these dormitories. This caused strained feelings and gave place to resentment and a feeling of deprivation.

3. Parent-children relation-hostility:

Mills and von Furer-Haimendorf pointed out with regards to Assam dormitories that as long as the young boys and girls go to the dormitories to get their training the intra-familial relations are exceedingly good and smooth. But once the rod of control passes into the hands of the parents at home, the relationship between parents and children becomes hostile.

4. Urban contact:

Tribals contact with city life has vastly affected their way of life and being attracted to the city way of life, the tribal youth are slowly and gradually becoming indifferent to their tribal culture. Opening of schools has stopped the children from going to dormitories.

5. Lack of love and understanding about tribal way of life: 

Due to the urban influence and contacts with a high prestige value, there is a loss of love for and confidence in their typical ways of life.

6. Practise of dormitory system is declining:

It can be either because of the missionaries’ attitude towards it or because the growing effects of cultural contact have brought about the breakdown of an institution, which occupied a dominant and central place in many tribal cultures.

Thus, the above explains clearly that the consequences of cultural contact have gone deeper and have even begun to cut at the roots of this institution.