Un paysage de noms : génonymes, clans et ethnicités dans l’Inde du Nord-Est

Abstract

In India, surnames are a primary criteria of status recognition. Among many populations of the northeastern region, they correspond to clans and are thus recognized as a sign of membership to a particular tribe. However, assignments and spellings are not consensual and often become the issue of controversial identity claims. The spatial distribution of surnames builds a landscape within which different actors cut their own boundaries. As ethnicity issues are at the center of northeastern politics, the matter is not negligible. The mapping of surnames and surname identifications provide many insights into identity formation processes. And more generally the surname corpuses contained in the Indian electoral rolls are a fruitful resource for social anthropology when associated with traditional fieldwork.