Specially Written for Vikalp Sangam

Abstract

First fruit ceremonies are a practice popular among rural and indigenous communities with regard to the
offering the ‘first harvest’ of cultivated crops. This paper deals with these ceremonies, which are essential markers of time, for uncultivated foods as well as for various forest species that are commonly used by indigenous communities in Bastar, central India. The article goes on to suggest that first fruit ceremonies are the mother bed of all indigenous knowledge and the use of the forest, whether for food or other species of utility, has been guided by them. It is remarkable that even in the past, when forest cover was extensive and the human population compartively small, there were norms that governed the use of the forest. It is suggested that such knowledge, expressed through first fruit ceremonies and related norms, that pertain to conservation, are common to most indigenous peoples. The causes for the waning of such knowledge in indigenous societies and a potential way out of the crisis is a part of the paper.

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Author Bio

Madhu Ramnath has lived for many years in Bastar and has been a student of adivasi and Linnaean
botany, and the related fields of ethnobotany and language. Over the last decade he has been concerned
with the behaviour of wild yams, and attempts to tame them around his home in Adukkam, Tamil Nadu.

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