Forest, Folk, and Fiction: Rain-Maiden and the Bear-Man as a Site for Ecoculture among the Nagas

Abstract

Forests are one of the most commonly recurring settings of folktales and oratures. In the popular imagination, forests are often seen as the site of the unknown, the non-human, enchanting and, mystifying, however, in the northeastern cultures of India, especially in Naga folklore, the forest provides a liminal space to the human and non-human through the confluence of spirits inhabiting all forms of body. Easterine Kire’s collection of short stories The Rain-Maiden and the Bear-Man (2021), essentially dealing with the life and culture of the Nagas, encapsulates a multifaceted representation of forests, orature and folklore juxtaposed with narratives that broach upon socio-cultural, supernatural, and ecological entanglements. This paper aims to read the representation of the spirits, forest and folk as portrayed in The Rain-Maiden and the Bear-Man as a strategy that blurs the human–nonhuman, human–environment distinctions vis-à-vis socio-ecological representations. Highlighting the prevalence of a sustainable life during the contemporary ecological crisis, this paper will take an ecocultural approach to show how certain traditions interact with their surroundings. Juxtaposing this with lifestyle changes brought about by modernity, this paper will rely extensively on the idea of eco-narrative. The framework of eco-narrative would trace the interaction of humans within the scope of nature thereby negotiating how narratives situate the discourse of folk culture.