In a paper focused on musical, ritual and technological innovations among multiple generations of Hindu drummer-priests, Allocco shared findings from her recently completed sabbatical field research in Tamil-speaking South India.
Amy Allocco, professor of religious studies and director of Elon’s Multifaith Scholars program, presented new research at the 28th European Conference on South Asian Studies (ECSAS) held in Heidelberg, Germany from Oct. 1–4, 2025. Allocco presented as part of a double panel, “Intergenerational Innovation in South Asian Lifeworlds,” that she co-convened with Jennifer Ortegren of Middlebury College. Their session brought together eight scholars from India, England, Japan and the United States whose papers explored how generational change shapes religious, cultural, and social practices across South Asia.
Allocco opened the session with her paper, “Generational Innovation among Tamil Hindu Ritual Drummers.” She discussed how Hindu drummer-priests, known as pampaikkārar, adapt their music and rituals in response to changing religious sensibilities, aesthetic tastes and new media environments. Her paper highlighted how younger generations of drummers have begun to use digital technologies and social media platforms to reach new audiences and sustain their art in an increasingly technological world. Through this research, Allocco demonstrated how their creative innovations reflect not only the social and economic aspirations of these ritual artists but also the tides of globalization and neoliberal consumption so prominent in Tamil society today. Allocco drew directly on material from her recently completed sabbatical fieldwork project in Tamil-speaking South India, which was supported by a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship and an American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Senior Fellowship.
This was Allocco’s first time attending and presenting at the ECSAS, which meets biennially. This year’s conference brought together 900 scholars from around the world for more than 125 sessions of interdisciplinary exchange on the study of South Asia. It was organized by the renowned South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University, Germany’s oldest university, founded in 1386, and held at Heidelberg’s Neue Universität.