Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

administrative purposes, and do not represent a viable geographical region. The area
covered by a place name is a more homogenous geographical or cultural formation and
can be used as the unit of analysis.
It should be mentioned that the incessant rains in June-July did not hamper the
enthusiasm for walking, and instead, gave us several insights regarding the nature of the
terrain we were traversing. During 29 th and 30 th of June we decided to take stock of our
work in a workshop to be attended by all those who were directly involved in walking. In
the workshop, conducted in Trikkulam UP School at Tirurangadi, We conducted an
exercise of consolidation all that we saw and learned while walking. All the teams
brought their tour diaries and sat down to consolidate their work in a prescribed format,
including all that has been listed above. The teams found that consolidation was not an
easy task. Although a wealth of material had been collected while walking it was difficult
to arrange them in a prescribed form. Still, the exercise proved challenging and
stimulating. The workshop decided to complete the work in another month continuing
with the tour diary system, and it was also decided that the teams would sit down and
consolidate their work after the walking is over. The walking was completed by August,
and then the teams began to consolidate their work. Most of the geographical
information, except the information that could be compiled by a mapping process had
come in, and we hoped to compile the remaining material from the existing maps
The second phase began in September- October when we went ahead with our proposal
for a socio-cultural survey. Since, it was a survey that investigated thaw patterns of
everyday life, the timing of the survey was important, as our estimate was that the
priorities and perceptions of the people on every day issues would change very fast, and
we chose the time immediately after Onam to conduct the survey. The research team
once again talked to the all the Panchayat members and other leaders on the importance