Sixteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

In Bangladesh, different types of folk performance are arranged throughout the year. Most of them are both secular and non-secular (devotional) performances. In this study the following questions have been considered throughout the work: Did they perform for a long time? What are their beliefs? What was their hidden transcript? Do they have any personal aspiration which was not fulfilling yet? Who plays a major role in selecting the issues for representation in the performance? Moreover, this study figures out a way in which their practice been emerged into the locality. How do they socially exist and follow their rituals? In this context where is their resistance? The moral and social value of the performance has been sought. People’s endeavors through transformation and adaptation have been sketched out by following the demographic and historic biography of the performances. In this research I observed many performances and collected information by staying at the house of one religious leader of the performance. I identified their social status and economic level; collected local history and other information; analyzed information through the Subaltern theory of Ranajit Guha and Power relation of Michael Focault. This analysis reveals how the outlying class of a society keep existent themselves through non-persistent and inimical circumstances of a society.