Thapa,Tapasya <br/><br/>
Of femurs, sham( ANIC) traditions and sites of decolonization 

 - Seminar  
 - 750, Feb, 2022: p.30-33 
<br/><br/> In a quote attributed to cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, a healed femur bone signifies the first sign of civilization in ancient cultures, as it attests to a tradition of care and healing in the spirit of humans actively belonging to a community.<br/>The authenticity of the attributed quote above may be under contestation, but it gained traction and became current on social media during the beginning of the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. For the purpose of this essay, the femur bone becomes the pivot around which extractions of signification and meaning making are attempted, keeping the lens of decolonization as a context and as practice. The femur bone is now placed in the space identified as the hills of Darjeeling, the sole wielder of this femur bone being the pheriwala. Who is this pheriwala? What does he do? Where does he go?<br/>‘For a hundred years or more, they forgot themselves in this little toy town. Its little roads, little machines, little houses are the proof. There was very little to support them, so they became wanderers, scattered through the great land of India.’ – Reproduced <br/><br/>