Murder and suicide among the Munda and the Oraon

The study of murder and suicide has hitherto remained neglected by both the Indian and foreign anthropologists. The pioneer anthropological work in this field was done by Verrier Elwin when he published his book "Maria Murder and Suicide in 1943. "African Homicide and Suicide" edited by Paul Bohannan (1960) is another masterpiece on this subject. Except for these two books, there is hardly any other publication which deals exclusively with both murder and suicide in specific tribal communities. The present work on "Murder and Suicide among the Munda and the Oraon'" was undertaken to fill the gap in our knowledge of these aspects in Chotanagpur. It aims at focusing Munda Oraon customs and beliefs relating to acts of violence and demonstrates the importance of sociological, psychological and cultural factors involved in rder and suicide. It is based on intensive and extensive field-work done villages of Ranchi district

by the author in a number of tribal from where cases of murders and suicides had been recorded from January 1955 to December 1959. The two tribes the Munda and the Oraon-of Ranchi district were selected because in this district the tribals out number the non-tribals and in the tribal population, they form 79 per cent. Illustrative cases of murder and suicide have been given but care has been taken not to betray the confidence reposed in the author. The names of persons and villages in the text are, therefore, unreal.