As the bhangra and Bollywood of India’s urban middle class drown out rural folk music, a new exhibition in London beats the tablas for a dying art. From The Guardian:
You expect ancestor worship to be an exotic thing, and the Sora tribespeople of eastern India don’t disappoint. There are the men in red headdresses blowing crescent-shaped horns to summon the dead, the priestess clutching an axe for animal sacrifice. All is as promised by National Geographic. What you aren’t prepared for, however, is heathenism’s homely side.
The Sora’s solemn gesture of reverence, for instance, is to unfurl a sturdy black brolly straight out of 60s Whitehall. While the shamaness enters a trance, children cluster around, still in their school uniforms. And before villagers dance with the spirits of long-gone relatives, they change into their best outfits.
