Paper short abstract:

This paper is an attempt to explore how 'genealogy' can be effectively applied for thorough and comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of issues under developmental research beyond tradition in anthropological research.

Paper long abstract:

The anthropological tradition of using genealogy for kinship analysis is universally recognized. Genealogy gives a considerable advantage to understanding the past history of individuals and their families. Anthropologists have already explored and analyzed its scope in understanding social and cultural dynamics of societies through lineage. However, its scope in developmental research, for instance, for studies of poverty, social mobility, land use dynamics, and agrarian transition amongst others has been rarely examined. This paper is an attempt to explore how 'genealogy' can be very effectively employed to understand the detailed accounts of such issues through family charts and furthermore, processing and analyzing each family chart for a wider understanding of village/community issues. This is a participatory approach to data collection and gives opportunities for looking at both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the issues. It can be supplemented with household data collection for more clarity and a comprehensive understanding of the issues which is analyzed in the paper. The statistical application to processing genealogical data can further strengthen the outcome of research. The author shares his practical experiences of using this tool for understanding the dynamics of land use patterns and social mobility in his ongoing study in Jharkhand, India. Genealogy of the families has provided much useful information about change in housing patterns, landholding and land use pattern, cropping patterns, occupational mobility, and educational mobility amongst others.