Goan Anthropology : Mothers ,Miracles & Mythology
- Author: Robert S. Newman
- Publisher: Goa 1556
- ISBN: 9788193814062
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Goa, that small region on India's west coast ruled by Portugal for centuries, developed a unique and complex cultural synthesis. Though it is now known for palm-lined beaches, drugs, and laid-back vacations, there is a lot more. Goa is an amazing example of how two cultures meet and merge. 'Goan Anthropology: Mothers, Miracles and Mythology' (part of a two-volume work) describes how Catholic and Hindu mother goddesses blended over time and how a miracle revealed social divides in a Goan village as well as religious synthesis. What did a colonial official in the 1890s see in the same place that Newman researched nearly a century later? Myths of Goa have loomed large for centuries. They change with time, but did they ever reveal the "real Goa"? Did Goans ever have a role in shaping such myths? Even Goan language is an example of synthesis as most people speak different languages in different social situations -- Konkani, English, Marathi, Hindustani, or Portuguese. Though part of the work presented here was done in the 1970s and 1980s, it is valuable as social history because it underlines the ongoing process of change in Goa. Robert S. Newman, the American anthropologist, reviews how he got to writing on Goa: "At the age of 21, I arrived in northern India to begin a two year term of service in the American Peace Corps. I was stationed in Lucknow and on one of my vacations I decided to visit Goa. Goa fascinated me. Its beauty and calm, its mix Goa fascinated me. Its beauty and calm, its mix of Portuguese and Indian culture and cuisine, the polite, orderly people who were utterly different from the turbulent crowds of north India -- even as I took the bus to Belgaum I decided that I would definitely have to come back; though I did not know when, because I realized that I wanted to learn more about what made Goa tick .of Portuguese and Indian culture and cuisine, the polite, orderly people who were utterly different from the turbulent crowds of north India even as I took the bus to Belgaum I decided that I would definitely have to come back; though I did not know when, because I realized that I wanted to learn more about what made Goa tick." This book contains his essays on Goa, the former Portuguese colony in South Asia, and its language, religions, myths, and more. A fascinating insight into understand Goa.
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