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Abstract

This article intends to study the select tribal folktales of the two indigenous communities of the Northern part of West Bengal: Rabha and Lepcha. Treating folklores as people’s history of emotions, I have tried to illustrate how through their intimacies with the nonhuman elements of nature along with a preference for an ‘ethics of care’ and fostering, the heroes of some of the tribal folktales help to formulate a non-‘mainstream’ alternative ecomasculinity where the indigenous male heroes appear to be the an intimate caretaker of ecology as opposed to the image of the patriarchal ‘mainstream’ masculinity which is often insensible towards nature. The tribal tales as the sagas of the counter-culture of the tribal eco men, bring out the tribal men’s posthuman sense of belonging with nature, who on the basis of the ethnic knowledge can be seen as performing an endogenous alternative eco-friendly masculinity that is attentive and accountable towards human ecology.

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