On the occasion of World Environment Day on Saturday, IGRMS organised a lecture of Alok Kumar Kanungo on “Signified, Signifier and Sign: Identities of Naga Artefacts in the museums” via Google Meet and Facebook live.
The lecture was chaired by Director IGRMS Dr Praveen Kumar Mishra. Introducing Dr Kanungo, the director said that he was presently Assistant Research Professor(Archaeology) at IIT Gandhinagar, Gujarat and Adjunct Faculty in Flinders University, Australia. For the past two decades, Dr Kanungo has conducted research on the museum collections and contemporary practices of the Nagas, resulting in numerous publications including the book German Anthropologists on the Naga Hills.
The lecture was extensively formulated in the manner of bringing new strategic research productivity for the recreation of the social identity and ethnicity of Nagas, conceptualization of the origin, tracing the migratory route, translation of cultural heterogeneity, adaptation and social significance of Nagas through the collective study of their cultural materials from field, and by integrating the field notes, diaries of initial visitors to the hill with his scientific documentation of the Naga heritage in the pre-World War(s) collections in various museums across Europe and UK.