The Hands Remember What the Market Forgets: Neuro-Aesthetics in Indigenous Craft Ecology

Abstract

This study examined the intersection of indigenous craftwork, neuro-aesthetics and psychological resilience among the women artisans at Sonajhuri Haat, Santiniketan, West Bengal. The study employed decolonial feminist framework to address the marginalisation of Indigenous knowledge in neuro-aesthetic discourse. Through participatory methods, including body-mapping, motif analysis and story-work valuation, we developed a thematic structure of creative resilience index (CRI) that integrates somatic, psychological and possible economic agency metrics. It revealed three key findings: (a) artisans descriptions of crafts therapeutic benefits (e.g., clay slows my heartbeat) align with neuroscientific evidence on flow states; (b) motifs like cooling the eyes wave patterns correlate with alpha wave synchronisation, demonstrating indigenous intuitive mastery of neuro-aesthetic principles and (c) artisans value crafts on higher denomination for inter-generational soul labour (trauma recovery) than the market prices reflect. These findings have critical implications for social work, advocating for policy shifts towards culturally grounded mental health interventions, trauma-informed craft therapies and anti-exploitative intellectual property models. The study highlighted the urgent need to centre indigenous epistemologies in neuro-aesthetic research and economic policy, offering the CRI as a tool to decolonise craft valuation and amplify artisans agency.

Keywords: Indigenous Neuro-Aesthetics, Creative Resilience, Decolonial Feminism, Craft Therapy, Cultural Preservation, Participatory Research

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