Cultural Adaptation of the Ethnic Migrants to an Urban Setting: An Anthropological Study of Rajshahi City in Bangladesh

Abstract

The present research titled Cultural Adaptation of the Ethnic Migrants to an Urban Setting: An Anthropological Study of Rajshahi City in Bangladesh has been conducted with a major objective to explore the pattern and process of migratory transition of ethnic communities from rural to urban environment and their adaptation strategies by means of cultural assimilation in the complex urban setting of the city of Rajshahi in northern Bangladesh. Traditionally, these ethnic communities preferred to live in the rural areas and betrothed deeply in agricultural mode of activities since their first access in Barind Tract. Simplicity, distinctive cultural manifestations with ethnic peculiarity, social imminence among themselves are the fundamental uniqueness of these communities. Cities and towns are often regarded to be an exotic and inappropriate place for their existence and consequently, urban locality had remained reasonably an inauspicious and foreign world to these ethnic communities. Similarly, by a contrast to the mainstream population, only a few numbers of ethnic populace have responded to the pace of urbanization and have immigrated to the city and town areas of northern Bangladesh just at the commencement of 21st century. Rajshahi City having a significant center of administrative, commercial and educational functionaries of north and northwestern Bangladesh ranked as the principal recipient of these migrated ethnic groups. Migration and the process of urbanization undoubtedly create some fundamental problems of adaptation among these ethnic communities. Hence, migration and its encompassing complexities such as migrant's specialty, decision to move, causes and types of migration, process of urbanization as well as the problems of ethnic cultural adaptation to a new and unfamiliar urban environment definitely require a holistic investigation. It is with the above implications; the present study has encompassed a wide-ranging research investigation conducted among the ethnic migrants who have been residing at nine ethnic clusters scateredlly located in the urban areas of Rajshahi City. Initially, the study began with a brief description of various ethnic communities in Bangladesh and analyzed the anthropological significance of ethnic culture in structuring and patterning the Bengali culture type with a specific emphasis on various ethnic groups of northern region. It contains a cross-cultural glimpse of the basic socio-cultural aspects of ethnic groups living particularly in Barind Tract. And a concise note on the trend of urbanization in Bangladesh also has been incorporated with a view to assess the position and participation of ethnic communities in the contemporary urbanization process. The basic aspects of Rajshahi City such as its socio-cultural history, ecological setting, geographical location, major functionaries, demographic characteristics, migration scenario and its specialty as well as the pattern of ethnic settlement have been discussed briefly in a separate section of the research. Rural-urban migration of the ethnic communities, and its associated phenomena such as various theoretical explanations, factors and variables that influence ethnic migration in the flow of urbanization and the facts and findings regarding migrants' basic characteristics have been analytically presented. It delineates the migratory movements of ethnic communities from the perspectives of time and space and highlights the general tendency of ethnic settlements, decision-making process and the role of kinship network during migration. The core cultural configuration and social environment of the Santals and the Paharia in the city have been analytically discussed base on major findings of the research. This section has clarified various issues interrelated to migrants' cultural adaptation from the anthropological point of view and presented a thick cross-cultural interpretation of the entire cultural arenas of two ethnic groups in the urban context. This section of the dissertation has shaded light initially on the physical environment of the settlements to which the migrants ought to adapt and presented a comparative analysis of the housing arrangements and space use coupled with the formation of community and neighborhood in the changing ecological setting. The core cultural elements of the ethnic migrants such as economic life and employment, social control mechanism and political affairs, marriage, family and kinship, religious beliefs and rituals have been analyzed both from the diachronic and synchronic perspectives for a better understanding of the potentialities and inconveniences of traditional ethnic culture in adapting to complex urban setting. As it has been obvious that under the influence of urbanization the economic structure, political process and the religious beliefs of ethnic migrants have been radically changed after migration and this changes have directly affected almost entire faculties of ethnic cultural universe like reproductive strategies, food habit and dietary rules, disease, illness and healing practice, system of communication as well as the festivals and ceremonies in the urban areas. But the basic social institutions such as marriage, its associated activities, family structure and its authoritarian role over the young members and the significance of kinship ties by no means have lost their prominence in adapting to urban complexity though a minor impact has been evident on the formation and functions of these traditional social institutions. Migrants are generally acculturated in adopting various cultural traits of urban life through their multi-lateral interaction with diverse urban institutions and functionaries. And the role of voluntary associations has become a major imperative to get a better survival in changing circumstances. Finally, the concluding section enlightens us with a theoretical statement on the changes and shifts in ethnic adaptation strategies by means of culture to the complex urban milieu of a pre-industrial city like Rajshahi in Bangladesh. It will enable us as an anthropological baseline for understanding the contemporary process of urbanization and its encompassing scenario that generally are happening in Third World countries.