Cultural Adaptation of Char People in Riverine Bangladesh: A Study of Two Villages in Rajshahi District

Abstract

The present study deals with the cultural adaptation of the char people of two villages in the Padma floodplain of Rajshahi District The researcher kept trying found the historical background of the settlement and of their socio economic status of the char villagers; • the response strategies of char villagers to environmental hazards and disasters, such as, riverbank erosion, flood, drought, storm etc.; the adaptation strategies undertaken by the char villagers in respect of social, cultural and economic contexts of char environment. Char people have a different term of culture is called and it 'indigenous' and choura' culture. They learn it from the environment. Because, they are living in a hazardous area. In char area people are always fighting against environment to live. People are often become tempered with others, they speak very loudly. Like this there is another more concepts in char area. They are dependent on the Padma River. For this reason people's habit and life style are different from other part of Bangladesh. In this study I had a look of char people's historical background and their socio-economical profile. I found 95 percent of char people are migrated from other char, because of river bank erosion. And a very few people are living here more than fifty years. They have a different views about household and family life. Peoples are taking two times food in a day. In the morning peoples usually starts their daily work with 'Panta Vaat' and in the evening they take a heavy meal with rice, vegetable/meat/fish/dal and others curry. Both primary and secondary data used in my study. I specially depend on my primary data. Primary data collected by survey method and informal interview. In survey method I used household base survey and its also associated with some case studies and FGD's. A set of questionnaire was prepared for collecting primary data (See Appendix). Qualitative and quantitative data were collected throughout field work. Some statistical techniques, such as correlation, chi square, etc. are also used. In this present study researcher highlighted in qualitative research. I had been tried to present the process of cultural adaptation in char 3rea by char people. In this study researcher present the variation and speciality of char culture. It was not possible to cover all of the aspects of cultural adaptation process in Char Taranagar and Char Majhardiar. Although it should be more interesting to the reader.