PERFORMATIVE ARCHIVES: EMBODYING MEMORY, ENVIRONMENT, AND SPIRIT IN INDIA’S INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS
ShodhKosh Journal of Visual and Performing Arts March 27, 2026 Nidhi Vats
Indigenous knowledge systems in India resist translation into written archives; they are preserved through embodied practices such as ritual healing, martial movement, artisanal labour, ecological stewardship, and spirit-mediated communication. The paper argues that these practices function as living archives encoding ecological intelligence, historical memory, and ethical relationships with land and community. It criticizes mainstream epistemologies favoring textuality and scientism, showing how colonial and postcolonial paradigms splintered indigenous knowledge. The authors propose a pluralistic, practice-oriented model that treats embodiment as an epistemic situation, not a metaphor, and validates indigenous knowledge systems as legitimate epistemologies within contemporary India, offering insights for sustainable conservation and culturally sensitive policy.