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IndianFolklifeA QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER FROMNATIONAL FOLKLORE SUPPORT CENTREVOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003TIRBALLORE1

B O A R D O F T R U S T E E SC H A I R P E R S O NKomal KothariDirector, Rupayan Sansthan, Folklore Institute of Rajasthan, Jodhpur, RajasthanNational Folklore Support Centre (NFSC) is a nongovernmental,non-profit organisation, registered in Chennaidedicated to the promotion of Indian folklore research,education, training, networking and publications. The aimof the centre is to integrate scholarship with activism, aestheticappreciation with community development, comparativefolklore studies with cultural diversities and identities,dissemination of information with multi-disciplinarydialogues, folklore fieldwork with developmental issues andfolklore advocacy with public programming events. Folkloreis a tradition based on any expressive behaviour that bringsa group together, creates a convention and commits it tocultural memory. NFSC aims to achieve its goals throughcooperative and experimental activities at various levels.NFSC is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation.CONTENTSBamboo Flowering in the North-East................3Santal Theory of Discourse.......................6Thought and Lore in Tripura.........................12Kansari: The Goddess of Foodgrain................15Tribal Cultures..........................................18Kinship and Tribal Lore................................22Announcement.........................................14Review Books.................................................24T R U S T E E SAjay S. MehtaExecutive Director, National Foundation for India, India Habitat Centre,Zone 4-A, UG Floor, Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110 003 (Incoming)Ashoke ChatterjeeB-1002, Rushin Tower, Behind Someshwar 2, Satellite Road, AhmedabadN. Bhakthavathsala ReddyDean, School of Folk and Tribal lore, WarangalBirendranath DattaChandrabala Barooah Road, Silpukhuri, Guwahati (Retired on January 10, 2003)Dadi D. PudumjeeB2/2211 Vasant Kunj, New DelhiDeborah ThiagarajanPresident, Madras Craft Foundation, ChennaiJyotindra JainProfessor and Dean, Department of Arts and Aesthetics,Jawaharlal Nehru University, New DelhiMolly KaushalAssociate Professor, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, C.V. Mess,Janpath, New Delhi-110 001 (Incoming)Munira SenExecutive Director, Madhyam, BangaloreK. RamadasDeputy Director, Regional Resources Centre for Folk Performing Arts, UdupiP. SubramaniyamDirector, Centre for Development Research and Training, ChennaiY. A. Sudhakar ReddyReader, Centre for Folk Culture Studies, S. N. School, HyderabadVeenapani ChawlaDirector, Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Research, PondicherryCOVER ILLUSTRATIONFront: ‘Ardhanarishwara’ Madhubani painting bySmt. Kiran Devi - NFSC Collections.T H I S I S S U EThe focus of January – March 2003 issue is on Tribal Lore.Visual motifs courtesy: Maarten Hesselt van Dinter’s TribalTattoo Design (1999) and The Nagas published by Governmentof IndiaN E X T I S S U EThe theme of the April - June issue of Indian Folklife is FolkMedicine and Biodiversity. This issue seeks to explore therelationship between traditional medicine, biodiversitymanagement of natural resources and women’s livelihoodissues. Closing date for submission of articles is April 25,2003. All communications should be addressed to:The Editor, Indian Folklife, National Folklore Support Centre,7, 5 th Cross Street, Rajalakshmi Nagar, Velachery, Chennai -600 042 (India), Tele/Fax: 91-44-22448589/ 22450553, email:info@indianfolklore.org/ muthu@md2.vsnl.net.in/nfsc_india@yahoo.co.inEXECUTIVE TRUSTEE AND DIRECTORM.D. MuthukumaraswamyS T A F FAssistant DirectorsT.R. SivasubramaniamAdministrationAthrongla SangtamProgrammesMiriam NelkenProgrammes (Volunteer)Programme OfficerM. RamakrishnanPublicationsLibrarianR. MuruganSupport StaffY. PavitraP.T. DevanK. Kamal AhamedV. ThennarasuC. KannanREGIONALRESOURCE PERSONSV. JayarajanKuldeep KothariMoji RibaK.V.S.L. NarasamambaNima S. GadhiaParag M. SarmaSanat Kumar MitraSatyabrata GhoshShikha JhinganSusmita PoddarM.N. VenkateshaINDIAN FOLKLIFEEDITORIAL TEAMM.D. MuthukumaraswamyEditorM. RamakrishnanAssociate EditorVaishna RoyCopy EditorK. Kamal AhamedPage Layout & Designh t t p : / / w w w . i n d i a n f o l k l o r e . o r g2 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003

(UNIDO) committing funds. Other allied organisations -International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR)and International Fund for Agricultural Development(IFAD) also chipped in.Northeast, which grows about 60 per cent of the country’sbamboo resource, naturally became a major focus andthe hub of cane and bamboo development activities. Thus,under a UNDP-sponsored programme, INBAR wasinvited to set up an experimental agency, Cane andBamboo Technolgoy Centre (CBTC) at Guwahati to explorethe cane and bamboo resources of the northeast, and tobegin with, provide technical guidance to bamboo users,artisans and entrepreneurs as well as build networksbetween them and the technology providers.“One of the key components of our works is to set up ademonstration centre at Guwahati, where they can comeand see for themselves how technology can improve theirskills and products,” says Kamesh Salam, CBTC projectco-ordinator. For the last two years, the CBTC has beenpursuing those objectives, and has made some visibleprogress in creating interests among local bamboo usersand artisans.However, there are two immediate issues the CBTC isgrappling with, says Partha P. Majumdar, the projectmanager: The first is the management of bambooflowering crisis and secondly, to work out acomprehensive action plan for initiating thecommercialisation process of cane and bamboo resourcethrough a sustainable community-based bambooplantation programme that creates employment andimproves economic condition of the tribal people.In April a group of experts comprising the scientists,bamboo-based business managers and the forest officialsgathered at the Rain Forest Research Institute, regionalscientific think tank at Jorhat, to discuss how to transformthis ensuing flowering crisis into a huge opportunity.The immediate challenge is: what should be done with ahuge pile of bamboo, which might simply go waste dueto the impact of gregarious flowering? Should they leaveit to natural course as they did five decades ago, or theyshould make use of the resource?“We need to address two key aspects,” Director Generalof Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education(ICFRE), R.P.S. Katwal urged the experts. “First of all, wemust make an assessment of the bamboo stock that maybe available in the wake of the gregarious flowering, anddraw up appropriate strategies for their sustainableutilisation; secondly, develop comprehensive plans tomeet the challenging task of restocking the vast track ofarea with more valuable bamboo species.”The experts felt that a detailed resource survey andmapping of the bamboo resources of the northeasternstates had to be carried out, applying the state-of-theartGeographic Information System (GIS) incollaboration with the forest department and the ForestSurvey of India. They havealso suggested thata bamboo floweringdatabase be preparedwith the help of INBAR,RFRI, FSI and forestdepartments. Eventhough the FSI has doneinventory surveys of thegrowing bamboo stock inforest areas, the expertsadmitted that these wereunreliable as studies overthe last few decades offerdisparate account, andtherefore, an objectiveresource assessmentsystem for bamboo must be developed in the region.Courtesy: http://www.pennardplants.comRegarding the available bamboo stock, the HPC, the mainconsumer of raw bamboo, suggested that maximumextraction of bamboo should be done, if possible wellbefore the flowering; they offered to procure the bulk ofbamboo. “We are prepared to lift one million MT ofbamboo annually,” one of its senior officials told theexperts. It has even offered to become a nodal agency forprocuring bamboo from the region to feed the paper millsand other bamboo-based industries in the country. TheHPC officials fear that the Cachar unit, which uses mulibamboo, may be badly hit if the supply chain of mulibamboo gets disrupted due to flowering crisis. They alsourged the experts to suggest steps, includingimprovement of road and transport infrastructure andreview of lease and contract systems that would enablethe HPC to secure better access to the resources.However, many experts feel that considering the manyvalue-added uses of bamboo, the paper and pulp industrycould face serious resource (raw material) crunch, as itdoes not offer an attractive price for it.“Bamboo growers and users now will have many moreoptions to raise their income,” Salam claims, citing arecent INBAR study, which spelt out at least 10 majorbamboo-based sectors – construction, packaging,bamboo-board, bamboo-mats, house building, incensesticks, tooth picks, chop sticks, tools and implements,bamboo shoots, etc., – totally an economic activity wortha whopping Rs. 10,000 crore in the region.However, in order to anchor these ideas on a commercialscale, Prof. A Damodaran of Indian Institute of PlantationManagement, Bangalore focuses on a few other key issues:first, greater understanding of the existing structures andfunctioning of bamboo markets in the northeast;secondly, studying the entire bamboo supply chain –people and agencies involved in harvesting, collections,transportation, etc., – and its management to understandthe current operations both in terms of scale and extent;and finally, working out an accurate account of theBamboo plant4 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003

physical out-turn of bamboo annually not only from theforest areas but also from farmlands and plantations.“Bamboo out-turn is not merely a function of stock. It isa function of harvesting systems which, in turn, relate tothe economic situation of communities that subsist onbamboo – as is the case in the North-East,” he said.All these require supportive policy initiatives forsustainable bamboo supply and the processing chainsmanagement. Several policy workshops stronglyrecommended bamboo to be treated as agricultural croprather than a forest produce that would enable thecommunity to take up bamboo plantations, and accessA bamboo that never flowered!An Apatani folklore explains whyAs alarm sounded across the northeast over theimpending fall out of the gregarious bamboo flowering,a group of bamboo experts was told to visit Ziro, a scenicpristine valley in Lower Subansiri district of ArunachalPradesh. There they learned about a unique tribe, theApatanis, who developed an indigenous method ofgrowing monopodial bamboo (Phyllostachys sp.), whichnever flowered. Locally known as Apatani bamboo, itappears to be a close cousin of China’s ‘Moso’ species,which revolutionised the Chinese rural economy, saidDr. K. Haridasan, a senior scientist of State Forest ResearchInstitute (SFRI), who pioneered the cane and bamboosurvey and documentation in the northeast. Recently hevisited China to understand the economic miracle. “Onour way back, we brought some bamboo seedlings andtried on a few pilot plots. They are showing excellentresults,” Haridasan said, suggesting common genetictraits between the Moso and the homegrown Apatanibamboo.Apatani migration story also suggests the Chineseconnection. The Apatanis migrated from Sino-Tibetanregion and came down all the way to the present locationwhere they have settled with well-developed wet rice andbamboo cultivation. “It was a long journey, spreadingover centuries,” said 55-year-old Hibu Nyani, a respectedelder of Hong village. “On their way, our ancestors carriedthat special bamboo seeds and planted them whereverthey stopped.” And from the location of Apatani bamboothe migration route can be traced, he claimed.scientific and technology inputs. Of course, “it isimportant to ensure that bamboo produce required forsubsistence needs do not shrink in availability on accountof an excessive focus on commercially significantproducts,” Prof. Damodaran opined.The state governments of Tripura and Mizoram havealready come up with a bamboo policy, which providesfor creating bamboo districts, setting up demonstrationand training centres for bamboo growers, artisans andentrepreneurs. The state governments need to addressthe more fundamental issue of creating those enablingconditions that promote sustainable communitylivelihood and rural economy.But can anyone explain why Apatani bamboo neverflowers? Apatani folklore has some explanations aboutthat too, Nyiani said. “Our ancestors told us that oncelong long time ago, there was a huge seed-bearingflowering. They were so beautiful and aromatic that birdsdevoured them all. Bamboo were unhappy; they realisedthat if they produced seeds like this they would not beable to multiply because of the birds. So they decided toraise their families hidden from the birds, through theroots. Since that time there was no flowering.”Amazingly, scientists see a sense in the story, asHaridasan goes on to explain that the Apatanis propagatethe local bamboo through the rhizomes only. They plantthe bamboo rhizomes keeping specific space to allowthem to expand. Secondly, they strictly follow a sowingrearing-harvestingschedule, which spans over three-fouryears. “Any child can tell the age of a bamboo from itscolour,” says H. Doding, another bamboo plantationpromoter, who is himself a farmer. The bamboo copsesare ready for harvest within two years. Unless they areharvested within five years, decay will start, he added.That clearly suggests why Apatani bamboo never flowers.Apatani bamboo is an integral part of the local people, somuch so that, says Tilling Doley: “We leave our housesunguarded, but keep our bamboo plantations locked.”He is planning to set up a Bamboo propagation centre athis Nana-Koo Orchid Complex at Ziro, and has beenencouraging the community to get involved in theenterprise. In fact, considering the well-entrenchedindigenous bamboo plantation tradition, Ziro has beenrecognised as the bamboo district.Subscriptiondetails forGrassroots OptionsCATEGORY INDIVIDUAL INSTITUTIONAL/LIBRARY5 ISSUES _______________ RS. 85 _____________ RS. 30010 ISSUES ______________ RS. 165 ____________ RS. 30015 ISSUES ______________ RS. 220 ____________ RS. 750Foreign subscription (for Five issue):SAARC countries - Rs. 500Rest of the world - $ 40 (Individual) $ 100 (Institutional) inclusive airmail ChargesPlease fill in the order form and mail with your remittance(DD/MO) to Grassroots Options, Lower Lachumiere,Shillong - 793 001, MEGHALAYAName Mr/Ms: ..........................................................................................................Address: ...........................................................................................................Phone: .................. Fax: ................ Email: ............................ 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Can oral literature inform us about how symbolicthought works? I propose to analyse Santal metaphorsby looking at different genres of Santal discourse,metaphors that give us an insight in categorisation andwork as mnemonic devices shaping a local theory ofknowledge. My study of Santal discourse relatespatterns of speaking to other dimensions of interaction.Pragmatics as presented in this article, however, isinformed by analytical concerns developed inanthropology, in particular the study of oralperformance. I am concerned, here, by the grammaticaland semantic relations between speech events andactivities among Santals. To study Santal discourse isto grapple with what Leach (1972) calls the interpenetrationof codes. Santal discourse is constitutedby heterogeneity of codes and genres such as myth,narrative, riddles, folk-tales and omens and these formsshow some variation from one region to another.Despite the differences, Santal oral forms constitute auniverse of discourse.Twisted speech and metaphorsTwisted Speech as a SantalTheory of DiscourseMarine Carrin is Senior Researcher of the FrenchNational Council of Research and based atthe Centre d’anthropolgie, Toulouse, France.Email: MARINE-CARRIN@wanadoo.frThe Santals have developed a particular conception ofveiled language “twisted speech” used both in daily lifeand in ritual discourse. It induces metaphors andmetonyms, which contribute to shape analogicalknowledge by providing people with material forreflection and premises for action. Regarding veiledlanguage, Santals adopt two kinds of attitudes: to interpretmetaphors they must have in mind a typology of speechevents, such as exchanging riddles, interpreting omens,or consulting an ojha (priest and diviner). In thesecontexts, to make or not to make an utterance becomes amatter of sharing knowledge. This type of linguisticexchange is necessary to show one’s knowledge andbecome a key social actor. But Santals do not pay attentionto the metaphors they use in joking, or insulting eachother. At this level, metaphors contribute in shapingconceptual knowledge but are not necessarily interpreted.approach that differs from that ofrhetoricians who analyse metaphors aspoetic devices.Forms of speechToday, among Santals, traditional speechevents are infrequent but they markimportant occasions, such as celebratingJharkhand culture. Customary speech ispreserved and reinvented through revivalist movementsbecoming an object of prestige and a metaphor forresistance to pan-Indian hegemony (Chatterjee 1993, Carrin2002). Santal cultural figures such as Ragunath Murmuhave invented their own script to write Santali (Carrin2002). Today Santals are conscious that discourse is a toolfor resistance and asserting identity. This influences thesemantic constraints that mark the situation of discourse.Santal informants agree that there is a continuum fromthe most traditional forms of discourse to daily verbalexchanges. The creation myth is held as the most venerableform of discourse; then follows the baha seren - invocationssung in praise of the bongas (deities) of the sacred grove;da gama - prayers for rain; and finally bakhen - invocationsdedicated to the hill spirits or buru bongas. Then, opinionsvary: while some informants hold that the songs ofSohrae sung during the cattle festival are next on the list,others maintain that karam binti, a recitation to honourthe memory of a prestigious deceased, is more important.All seem to agree that mantar or invocations addressed tobongas during healing rituals are crucial, but some arguethat they do not trust the ojhas (diviners). But everybodyenjoys stories of bongas and witches who attack humanvictims, and some informants take them as serioustestimony of real experience.All these forms of speech have ritual value and contributeto the dynamics of knowledge. Yet, this picture may bechanging: narratives of ancestors are sometimes preferredto other forms of ritual discourse since people defendthis kind of knowledge as tradition. Such narratives arevalid knowledge, seen as transmitted by the ancestorsthemselves. Symbolic utterances like omens, riddles andmetaphors, on the other hand, are certainly part of thetradition but form a tacit knowledge that is not alwaysconsciously memorised. This tacit knowledge is cast inimages linked to non-verbal codes, for example, riddlesestablish analogies between humans and animals, whichallude to cooking, eating, defecating, sex and otherbiological functions. (Carrin-Bouez 1985).Explicit discussions of metaphor have multiplied in thepast 50 years and yet for most commentators, a metaphoris an expression that claims similarity or likeness and isintended to be taken non-literally. My own idea ofmetaphor is guided by anthropological concerns that takeinto account an interactional conception of meaning. Whatis being communicated is part of a context and cannot bedetermined without reference to a speech situation, anTraditional speech includes both ritual discourse andpolitical oratory. Political oratory, used at the kulhi durup(to sit in the village street), is a ritualised form of speechthat allows good speakers to argue in public. In the contextof political rhetoric, it is necessary to use euphemisms toavoid conflict. Santals deem it important to negotiate, asdid their ancestors in the forest. To manage actualconflicts, orators often allude to previous clan wars when6 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003

“brothers were fighting each other and when the horn ofepilepsy was sounding.” The ‘horn of epilepsy’ alludesto mythical madness, a hot wind that stirred theirancestors to forget their blood ties and kill each other.Metaphors as a coherent semantic domainSantal metaphors form a coherent semantic domain. Someseem to be sensory images, like echo-words composedof morphemes which carry meaning in one type ofdiscourse, but are applied to characterise another reality:thus the echo-word poloc’poloc’ which usually appliesto “a small quantity of sperm” gets another meaningduring the name-giving ceremony where it alludes tothe “the birth of a child.” In echo-words, the repetition ofthe root stresses the meaning: thus ‘saguc baguc’ — “aconfused speech” describes two stars that get too closein the sky, provoking an eclipse, which the SantalsA Santali boyassociate with incest (Bodding 1929: 269). The translationof a spatial into an auditive code is common in Santaliwhere, for example, a talkative person is called (lapar lapar)- an echo-word describing a quick movement of thetongue.How do Santals talk about their own speech? In Santali,the most frequent term to convey the idea of “speaking”is ror, and the substantive of the term means “speech,word.” To speak implies a movement from inside tooutside, talk is a “door” (silpin). We may note, here, theexpression ror chuti - “to free one’s talk, to joke.” But incertain contexts ror means “to criticise,” kami karon te gutiyeror keda — “he has scolded his servant.” The term lai “tosay, to tell, to inform” is often affixed in expressions suchas lai doho “to tell information” while the term galmaraomeans “to converse, to discuss” and is used to conveythe idea of a discourse between lovers.Santal discourse is compared to a fire since one must getwarm to speak well. But heat is associated with rage:edreye sengel ena — “to consume oneself with rage”. Theterm sengel “fire” appears in different contexts to evoke a“dry” talk that, one suspects, is under the influence ofwitches and malevolent bongas. The insults of angrywomen (eger) are dangerous as they go deep inside theskin. And the proverb says: women’s reproaches (ruhet)penetrate the skin, sharp as the stones on which onesharpens one’s knives.”Ritualised speech protects the person from theuncontrolled speech of those who utter angry words (egerkatha). Some examples of ritualised speech are foundduring hunting where the dihuri, the hunting priest, asksvillagers whether everybody is at peace or whether theyhave quarrelled. They should answer that all is fine, thatthey will take what is good in each other’s talk, whichmeans they should not quarrel during the hunt. Indeed,the hunt is when the priest settles disputes and traditionis cultivated. Juniors must learn from theirelders how to shoot and share game, asspeech should be straight like an arrow.But the hunters wait for the signal of theDihuri Baba, the “father of the hunt”, asthey should not wound animals for thesake of killing. The same concerns applyto speech — men should measure theirwords, unlike women whose jokes arethorny, or witches whose words aremagical arrows (ban) killing their victims.Courtesy: www.kamat.orgThe vegetal metaphor as an internalmetaphorSapir and Crocker (1977) stress the problemof internal metaphors, which they opposeto external or ordinary metaphors. InSantali, good speech is straight as thevillage street (mucat), which applies to chiefs who takegood decisions. But ancestors often talked using benthakatha, which are twisted like branches, as truth is notsimple. The image of a branch makes us aware that Santalsconceptualise discourse as a living kind. Internalmetaphors imply a relation of predication between anatural species and the members of a given society.Internal metaphors are constituted of a series ofoppositions (some of which correspond to different levelsof vegetal taxonomy) that connect known aspects of theworld. First, trees allude to mythical times when Santalancestors were resting in the forest under two kinds oftrees: sal (Shorea Robusta, L) and mohua (Bassia Latifolia,Gartn.), which are valued in rituals and connected byanalogy with body substances. The bone is compared tothe branch and the flower to the uterus. (Carrin 1986).Ritually, some metaphors linking bone and grain occuras twisted speech during both the name giving ceremonyand funerals. After the cremation, the mourner takesthe bones of the deceased and puts on them a flower.SANTAL THEORY OF DISCOURSE7

This is called jan baha “to make a flower out of bone”implying the regeneration of the patriline.Two other figures, from clanic myths, stress the identityof humans and trees: thus bid dare, “to lift a branch ofsal ” alludes to the gesture of the chiefs during themigrations, who used to brandish a branch of sal, symbolof the ancestors, towards the sky to rally theircompanions. Even today, such a branch is planted atcrossroads to inform villagers about a meeting, the numberof leaves indicating the number of days before the event.Planted with its leaves downwards, the same branchindicates that a meeting will sanction a transgression ofendogamy. The branch as metonymic for the personappears in different contexts: the expression karam dar“branch of the karam tree” is used to address a ceremonialfriend. More globally, branches and saplings (dar) alludeto grand-children, roots (rehe) to ancestors, and climbers(nanri) to friends, in ceremonial speech during marriageor in narratives about the ancestors. The same metonymyapplies to parts of the tree, linked to parts of the body:branch relates to arm, roots to feet, leaves to ears, bark toskin, sap to blood, trunk to body, upper branches to headand so on.The image of the ear is also rooted in narratives, asancestors used to rest under trees to listen (anjom) to thetradition “with their ears under the leaves.” Here, leavesallude to ancestors and continuity. Reciprocally, to touchsomebody’s ear marks an engagement: young couplescatch each other’s ears to get betrothed. During themarriage ceremony, the bride’s parents warn the parentsof the boy that they have given the flesh and the bones ofthe girl but “have kept the blood from the ear”, a way tosay they will keep an eye on their daughter, even aftermarriage.The animal metaphor as an external metaphorDomestic animals, insects, water snails and crabs - whichare eaten by the Santals - are found in riddles. But tigersand leopards cannot be evoked in twisted speech as theyserve as witnesses when somebody takes an oath andsays: “Let tigers and leopards eat me if I lie!” Externalmetaphors that are built on comparisons are found inanimal riddles. Most often, the hidden term of thiscomparison refers to another animal or to a human beingas in the following: “A black dog is swimming in theriver” answer: “A leech”: the implicit meaning is thatnobody sees the legs of a swimming dog. But myinformants suggest another homology between the dogand the leech: “When we work in a rice-field” they say,“leeches rub our legs just like a dog.”Yet another riddle built on different premises suggestsanother aspect of the leech: “A sheep is killed for the onewho has no teeth”; answer: “A leech.” Here, the killingof the sheep evokes a blood sacrifice to a mysterious entityCourtesy: www.kamat.orgA Santali girldeprived of teeth while the answer stresses the bloodsuckingnature of the leech, which in its turn recalls thebonga.Some of these external metaphors express paradoxes thatget resolved in similarities: tiny animals which seem verystrange have, in fact, some hidden human dimensions:“With haste, he has built his house”; answer: luman, thesilkworm. The silkworm symbolises the taming ofwilderness as they produce silk thread, but the Santalstalk of the silkworm to evoke the puberty of young boys.Becoming adult implies a risk that is compared to themutation of the silkworms as they emerge from theircocoons, an image which, in ritual speech, describes thewandering of the ancestors across mythic countries.Some of the animal riddles are used as warning. It iscommon to say to a pregnant woman: “Do not look atthe tortoise!” (hembrom). The Santals think it a taboofor pregnant women to look at the tortoise (flesh andbelly), since it evokes the open skin of the baby’s head.Both anatomical parts are “skin under bone”, which isevident for the tortoise but applies equally to the babywhose skull is not yet closed, and reflects the beatingof its heart. Both the belly of the tortoise and the skullof the baby are supposed to get harder to become bone.Moreover, the flesh of the tortoise is called “bonga kojel” or bonga’s flesh. Infants should avoid touchingtortoises as their shadow is not yet fixed, and theymay be attacked by bongas.Twisted speech and the hidden intentions of discourseIn daily life as well as in ritual discourse, utterancestransfer moral attributes to objects that frame specific kindsof interaction, such as “a fowl promised” or sim agom8 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003

that denotes a sal leaf wrapping a few feathers of a fowl.In case of misfortune, a kinsman of the sick persondedicates this materialised promise to the bonga, who isheld responsible for the disease.Heavy speech (hambal) conceals the intentions of thespeaker. Such a speech traverses the person to whom itis addressed, and the idea of crossing implies death(paromea, he has crossed, he is dead). Some domesticimplements have a double meaning. For example, thegrinding-stone (gurgu) used to crush the roots of turmeric(sasan) conveys an idea of fertility, since the clothes ofthe bride and the bridegroom are daubed with sasan waterbefore the wedding. But young men who learn the art ofpossession sit and turn on the gurgu to get in a trance,which is compared to love ecstasy. Thus the grindingstonelinks possession and sexual pleasure. At night,witches crush poisonous roots on the gurgu to provokemiscarriage.The semantic holism of ritual discourseThe internal metaphors, like “humans are trees,” developimages at different levels of discourse, such as the namegivingceremony, narratives, riddles, invocations orexorcism. But one category of text, the karma binti, is sungby a guru to honour the memory of a prestigious deceased(goc’karam binti). The Karam narrative elucidates magicalproperties of trees, which stand for wealth and virtue. Itpresents some ritual enigmas where taboos regarding treesare questioned: thus it is said, “do not use the soso treefor the funeral pyre, it does not burn.” The paradox isresolved if one knows that for exorcism, ojhas makeoracular sticks from the branches of soso, which are pliableand, in certain circumstances, spit fire. This fire iscompared to Shakti, the cosmic energy of the goddess, orto the ojha’s matted hair. (Carrin, 1997).Santals use bentha katha to produce metaphors that arelinked to form a coherent body of knowledge, like thevegetal/human/animal paradigm. These metaphors maybe used in formulas of ceremonial speech or even ritualgestures. During the divorce ritual, the husband tearsthe leaf but keeps silent: the metaphor is enough. Santalojhas who master ritual discourse comment on bentha kathaby arguing that the twisted speech is the original languageof the bongas, which men try in vain to imitate. Ojhas arefond of telling stories of meetings between men andbongas, where the latter proffer inaudible speech, not todialogue with humans but to threaten them. (Carrin1996a). One cannot communicate with bongas since therelationship is asymmetrical. Still, bongas often appear inhuman form so as to seduce women and trap them sothat they forget taboos or transgress sexual rules. Theojhas are the best informants about witches as they seewitches roam the villages by night, aiming their magicaldarts at human victims. (Carrin 1996b).Coherence of twisted speech as a kind of knowledgeHow can a discourse which is conveyed by different kindsof utterances and repertoires of speech forms represent asingle body of knowledge? Geertz (1983) has shown thatknowledge is ineluctably local, indivisible from people’sinstruments and encasements. Barth proposes to breakwith the implicit presupposition of cultural unity, todistinguish and analyse the “internal processes ofdifferently constituted traditions of knowledge.” (2002:3). Two kinds of knowledge are at work in Santal society:the knowledge of ordinary people, which relates to thetradition transmitted by the ancestors; and the secretknowledge of the ojha who belongs to a broader traditionthat is mixed with popular Hinduism tinged with tantricor shaktist elements. We have seen how Santals reflecton their own linguistic activity. They conceptualise thegood knowledge of the ojha (bidia) as a language to appeasemalevolent bongas, while witches have stolen the bidiaand perverted it. This local conception of knowledgeenables us to evaluate how metaphors shape a model ofknowledge production and transmission. The fieldcovered by metaphors includes both daily communicationand ritual discourse, two modes of speech, which areparallel, as can be seen from words that have a doublemeaning.Courtesy: www.kamat.orgA Santali mother with her childI have used an interactional conception of metaphor,inspired by pragmatics, to analyse how different figuresare displaced from one level of discourse to another. Thepragmatic approach has allowed me to consider someobjects as support of speech, as when words stand forobjects; and to materialise intentions of discourse, as wehave seen with the grinding-stone and the winnowingvan.SANTAL THEORY OF DISCOURSE9

Internal metaphors like“humans are trees” organiseknowledge - including folkclassifications- but they alsoproduce other figures thatdelimit semantic fields: thusvegetal metaphors concernrites of passage, and animalmetaphors stress thedifficulty of getting mature.Analysing Santal twistedspeech, we have noted thecentrality and recurrence ofsome of these tropes - thebone and the flesh standingfor the permanent andephemeral - as if minorgenres were contributing toA Santali drummershape analogical knowledge.The same analogy of bones and grains produces andorganises metaphors at different levels of discourse.Internal metaphors show how different parts of the treebecome equivalent to different parts of the human body.External metaphors show how the transformation of fleshand bone is a common central paradigm for animals andhumans. The recurrence of these metaphors means theyare embodied in ritual, as we have seen from the sequenceof funerals, where the mourner makes flower out of bone,a symbol of regeneration of the lineage.Courtesy: www.kamat.orgKnowledge of metaphors varies greatly between persons:for common people, riddles and jokes are easier toremember than stories about ancestors or narrativesconcerning the bongas, which may relate to individualexperiences and are not evoked publicly. Common peoplememorise the “little talk” they have to remember on ritualoccasions like name-giving and marriage but thisknowledge is limited if we compare it to the ojha’s oratoryart. The ojha tries to enhance any ritual he performs bydisplaying two kinds of knowledge. The first kind ofknowledge is characterised by stories concerning theancestors and is shared with senior men. His secondknowledge includes change in tradition (Carrin 1986) sinceojhas are more or less Hinduised and share a broader fluxof knowledge which takes its roots, in Bengal, in popularas well as sect Hinduism, evoking Balinese moral andritual system of thoughts. (Barth 2002).seduce are drawn to use sweet words, to resist the sarcasmof good orators. It is important to be able to decodemetaphors to guess at the hidden intentions ofprotagonists of discourse, as men, bongas, witches or evenojhas usually lie. But how can one avoid lying in achanging world where the basic criteria of truth arechanging? And how are metaphors able to inform Santalsof the process of knowledge production and change intradition? Most Santals understand these figures whileojhas monopolise some sectors of knowledge such asritual discourse and knowledge of the pharmacopia.The conceptual structure of the ojha’s knowledge isdifferent, since he is used to confronting the knowledgeof his colleagues who may belong to differenttraditions. The systematic nature of the ojha’sknowledge reflects his ability to unite a heterogeneousset of skills and beliefs into a coherent discourse. Themetaphors that the ojha uses help him to conflate thediversity of his inspiration into a model that he cantransmit to his disciples. In opposing the knowledgeof the common man to that of the ojha, I have tried toshow how several branches of knowledge coexist,stressing that the metaphorical base of both sustain atacit communication between Santals. But the ojha’smetaphors seem superfluous to ordinary people, sincethey do not link into everyday knowledge and ritualdiscourse, which for them shape both the worlds theyperceive and the image of the world that they cast intorituals.But metaphors also stress the importance of tacitcommunication in a society where secrecy andwitchcraft are central. Among Santals, to tell the truthrequires divination as if it was difficult for ordinarypeople to guess what their addressee really wants tohear. Metaphors must fit the audience. How to speaktruth and be a good orator when the audience hasbecome heterogeneous, some sharing the values of theirHindu neighbours while others are steeped in tribalrevivalist ideas? Those who cannot impose their speechlack prestige, while those who want to convince orCourtesy: www.kamat.orgA Santali girl with her pet10 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003

ReferencesAndersen, P., M. Carrin and S. Soren, (forthcoming) FromFirerain to Insurrection sengel dak’khon hul dhabic’ ReassertingIdentity Through Narrative.Barth, F., 1987. Cosmologies in the Making, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Barth, F., 2002. “An Anthropology of Knowledge”, CurrentAnthropologist, vol.43, 1: 1-17.Beck, B.E.F., 1978. “The Metaphor Mediator between Modesof Thought”, Current Anthropology, 19: 83-97.Ben-Amos, D., 1974. “Catégories analytiques et genrespopulaires”, Poétique 19: 265-293.Bodding, P.O., 1925-29. Santal Folk Tales (vol. 3), Instituttefor Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Oslo: Aschehoug &Co.Bodding, P.O., 1932-36. A Santal Dictionary (vol. 5), Oslo:Jacob Dybwad.Booth,W.C., 1978. “Metaphor as Rhetoric: The Problem ofEvaluation”, Critical Inquiry, special issue on metaphor: 49-72Carrin-Bouez, M., 1985. “La proie du vautour, devinettes etpensée symbolique chez les Santal”, L’Homme 95, XXVI (3):71-96.Carrin-Bouez, M., 1986. La Fleur et l’os: symbolisme et rituelchez les Santal, Cahiers de l’Homme, XXVI, Paris: EHESS.Carrin, M., 1996a. Des récits tenus pour réels, les bonga alibidu désir, Traditions Orales dans le Monde Indien, Etudes réuniespar C.Champion, Purusartha 18: 367-381Carrin, M., 1996b. “Celles qui sont sorties du regard, Histoiresde sorcières en pays santal”, Autres mondes, numérocoordonné par G.Calame-Griaule et al., Cahiers de LittératureOrale, 39-40: 157-174.Carrin, M., 1997. Enfants de la Déesse, Dévotion et prêtriseféminines au Bengale, Paris: Editions du CNRS et de la M.S.H.Carrin, M., (à paraître) Le Parler des dieux, formes et argumentdu discours rituel santal.Carrin, M., and H. TAMBS-LYCHE 1999. “Une églisenationale pour les Santal: du romantisme scandinave àl’orthodoxie luthérienne”, Archives des Sciences Sociales desReligions, 103: 99-127.Chatterjee, P., 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial andPostcolonial Histories, Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University PressDuranti, A., 1994. From Grammar to Politics, LinguisticAnthropology in a Western Samoan Village, Berkeley: Universityof California Press.Fernandez, J., 1974. “The Mission of Metaphor in ExpressiveCulture”, Current Anthropology, 15: 119- 46.Fernandez, J., 1991. Beyond Metaphors: The Theory of Tropes inAnthropology. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.Geertz, C., 1983. Local Knowledge: Further Essays in InterpretiveAnthropology, Basic BooksHymes, D., 1972. “Models of the Interaction of Languageand Social Life”, in J. Gumperz and D. Hymes (eds), Directionsin Sociolinguistics, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,35-71.Courtesy: www.kamat.orgKeesing, R.M., 1985. “Conventional Metaphors andAnthropological Metaphysics: The Problematics of CulturalTranslation”, Journal of Anthropological Research, 41: 201-217.Keesing, R.M., 1993. Earth and Path as Complex Categories:Semantics and Symbolism in Kwaio Culture, in P.Boyer (ed),Cognitive Aspects of Religious Symbolism, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Lakoff, G.and Mark Johnson, 1980. Metaphors We Live By.Chicago: Chicago University Press.Lakoff, G., 1987. Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: WhatCategories Reveals about the Mind, Chicago: University ofChicago Press.Levi-Strauss, Claude, 1962. La Pensée Sauvage, Paris: Plon.Levinson, S.C., 1983. Pragmatics, Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.Needham, R., 1975. “Polythetic Classification: Convergenceand Consequences”, Man, (N.S.) 10: 349-69.Ortony, A., (ed) 1979. Metaphor and Thought, Cambridge:Cambridge University PressRosch,E., 1978. “Principles of Categorization, in Rosch, E. etB.B. Lloyd, Cognition and Categorization, Hillsdale, N.J.:Lawrence Erlbaum.Sapir J.D. and C. Crocker, 1977. The Social Uses of Metaphor,Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Searle, J.R., 1979. “Metaphor”, in A. Ortony (ed), Metaphorand Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Shore, B., 1996. Culture in Mind, Cognition, Culture, and theProblem of Meaning, New York: Oxford University Press.A Santali womanSANTAL THEORY OF DISCOURSE11

‘A Spear Hurts Its Maker’:Thought and Lore in Tripuraillustrations of proverbs have beennoted below which illuminate the mainthemes and concerns of Tipperah triballife.Traditional aphorism, beliefs, proverbs, riddles,stories and songs current among the tribes of Tripuraconstitute an important area of research in folkthought.Judged by their proverbs, these tribes seemto possess a sound understanding of human nature.Their proverbs indicate careful observation and wisegeneralisation on human character. This articleattempts to understand the socialthought of the Tipperah (alias Tripuri,Tipra, Deb Barma), the largest tribalcommunity of Tripura.Historical backgroundJagdish Gan-Chaudhuri is Professor in Political Scienceat B.B. Evening College, Tripura. He has written severalbooks on the history and tribal culture of Tripura.That evil deeds return upon the doer isrecognised by such proverbs as ‘Spittlefalls back in the face of him who spitsupwards’, ‘A spear hurts its maker’,‘Sin does not spare one who commitsit’, and ‘Pride makes a scholar blind and immoralconduct makes a saint blind’. The power of money isunderstood through the proverb ‘If somebody possessessufficient money he can obtain even a tiger’s eye’.The importance of industriousness is reiterated in a fewproverbs such as ‘He who loves family too much sinksand dies; he who loves work prospers’, ‘He who takesTripura is situated between Assamand West Bengal and its populationis heterogeneous. The Bengalis fromthe west and the tribes from the easthave extended their settlements,which resulted in two types ofagronomy: plough cultivationpractised by the Bengalis and shiftingcultivation practised by the tribes. Assuch, the western valley has becomebookland, while the eastern hills haveremained folkland for a long timenow. The socio-political order wasdominated by a ruling dynasty of theTipperah community. The kingdom was attackedrepeatedly and invaded by Afghans and Mughals, butthe battles ceased during the period of Britishadministration. The dynasty survived severalvicissitudes of history and was handed over to theGovernment of India in 1949.The major tribes of Tripura are: Tipperah, Riang, Kuki,Lushai, Halam, Jamatia, Noatia, Magh and Chakma.Most of them are farmers who use the slash-and-burnmethod of cultivation. The life is largely rural, there islittle commerce and literacy is very low. The middleclass is very small in number. Each community has achief and village council. The prosperous males arepolygynous, while the ordinary people aremonogamous. Family is the main unit of social life.Social thought of TipperahThe lack of written records makes the span of socialthought a short one. But it reveals a keen sense ofobservation and a desire for world affirmation. SelectedCourtesy: Tribal Dances of India (1999)Jhum dance of Tripurifood on banana leaf during his youth will take food on aplate of metal during old age’ and ‘An idle person findsno food, a shrewd person finds no shelter’.The hollowness of foppishness has been censured bythe proverb; ‘Even a rat does not enter into his houseto discharge faeces, but he exhibits foppishness’.The advantage of keeping company with good personsis expressed in the following proverbs: ‘Burning ofpoor quality wood produces excess of ashes, talkingto notorious persons produces altercation’ and ‘Prefera house next to that of seven witches, but avoid a housenext to that of a deceitful person.’ The influence ofsocial environment on human life is stated in proverbslike ‘Keeping company with a fickle lady makes a manfickle; keeping company with a fickle man makes awoman fickle; and ‘Keeping company with a thiefmakes a man a thief’.The following proverb makes an assessment about thethree prominent neighbouring communities: ‘The rice12 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003

of the Kuki-Lushai people is fine, the curry of theBengalis is tasty, the hands of the Riang people areopen.’The need for independent thinking has been urged inthis aphorism: ‘If you scatter rice in a jungle on otherpeople’s advice, it will be impossible to collect all thegrains again.’The force of rumour has been explained with an analogyfrom wild life: ‘It is possible to shut the mouth of anelephant and a tiger, but it is impossible to shut themouth of man.’Practical advice for business transactions is utteredthus: ‘Money in one hand, goods in another.’ Anothervery shrewd advice is ‘Do not give loans to a sweettonguedman’, After taking a loan weep a little, laugha little if you are denied a loan.’Sweet behaviour has been appreciated in this proverb:‘After swallowing sweetmeats, we no longer feelsweetness, but the sweetness of amiable behaviourremains in memory.’The selfish tendency to get rid of someone after he hasserved his purpose finds expression thus: ‘Young boys!Please come and help in cutting down deep jungle.Young boys! Please go away, we are now relishing thepork of a big swine.’The danger of going to law courts for filing suits againstneighbours has been pointed out: ‘It is better to stepfaeces than to step in a court of law or on a policestation.’A mother’s love and affection has been found to be agenuine and enduring trait. So the proverb runs: ‘Thereis nothing as round as the moon, there is nothing aspowerful as the sun. There is nothing as good as amother’s love.’In domestic life, peace and prosperity have been highlyvalued. Hankering after beauty and luxury is despised.So the admonishment: “Do not marry a beautiful lady,do not go to market to purchase vegetables and do noteat big fish.’‘While being overflowed, even a dry bamboo takesa side’‘Where posts are properly planted for a hut, it isdifficult to push axe to slash the hut’‘Dry bamboo depends on green bamboo, greenbamboo depends on dry bamboo’‘Excessive beating makes the back mad, excessiveabuse makes the ear mad’In domestic life, the hazard of being the parents ofmany worthless children is realised and at the sametime the reputation of being the parents of only onepopular and prominent son is preferred. The relevantproverb is: ‘Sometimes ten gourd plants cannot coverthe whole trellis and sometimes only one gourd plantcan cover the entire trellis.’Their social thought indicates a strong tendencytowards world affirmation. Theirs is not a philosophyof world negation. The saying goes like this: ‘Whileyou work, work with dogged tenacity; while you eat,eat like a king.’Folk thought is usually strongly influenced by a deepbelief in supernatural forces; divine reward andpunishment are supposed to be behind every action.Fate, soul, rebirth, deity and ghosts and spirits occurprominently in the folk thought of the Tipperah people.Here are some proverbs about fate:‘Thundering of clouds is audible, but thundering offorehead is not audible.’‘The Mahabharata is readable, but this small foreheadis not readable.’The Tipperah community ruled the kingdom for severalcenturies, and it boasts of having as many as 185 kings.On the whole, the Tipperah folk thought is, like thatof many other preliterate people, simple, practical,direct, and rich with rhetoric decorations and imagerydrawn from the immediate sylvan neighbourhood.In domestic and civic life, due attention was paid toorganic solidarity and social control, as well asobedience to elders and fraternity. Precocity has beendisliked. Too much control is disastrous. The followingproverbs are significant:‘If strangled, milk will come out’‘Elder brothers are as honourable as parents’‘If brother is good, loan is available’‘If sister is good, curry is available’‘Friction arises even among earthen vessels’‘Indirectly teach the daughter-in-law a lesson, bydirectly beating the daughter’Courtesy: Tribes of Assam, Part II (1988)A Kuki woman weaving in loin loomTHOUGHT AND LORE IN TRIPURA13

AnnouncementTHE MUSIC OF SOUTH INDIAThe course “The Music of South India” takes place from March 17 to June 20, 2003. An online preview, a descriptionof the course and information on how to register are found on the following e-learning website:http://www.carnaticstudent.org. It goes without saying that it comprises practical exercises with transcriptions inorder to enable all participants to experience the melodic and rhythmic beauties inherent in Carnatic music. Moreover,several renowned musicians and scholars have come forward to provide guidance on the most intricate aspects ofthis music whenever required.The list of previous participants includes performers, music lovers, students and educationists, some of whom havealready been involved in Indian music and dance. They have expressed their impressions as participants of thecourse, including the practical exercises incorporated in it, in terms of “stimulating”, “meaningful” and “very enjoyable”.On www.carnaticstudent.org you will find more spontaneous feedback recently received from participants who hailfrom different cultural and educational backgrounds (including India). Their reactions confirm that my principalendeavour, namely to address and accommodate individual learning needs and interests is being highly valued byall participants. I should add here that their questions and comments have brought this course alive and will help todevelop it further in accordance with newly emerging needs and interests. Even “unconventional” ideas are beingdiscussed in the course along with those concepts that every course on Indian music should address in an approachablemanner.I trust that my personalised approach sets this course apart. In other words, this course complements other educationalventure on Indian music currently found on the Internet as well as those local and distance education programmesthat are currently being offered by various (open) universities. As nothing is taken for granted here, participants arewelcome to join on virtually any level of exposure and experience, including complete novices interested in this fieldof study and music practice. Concert organisers and critics are likewise bound to benefit from participating in acongenial atmosphere provided by a common cause, namely the appreciation, propagation and investigation ofSouth Indian music in a modern and international context.Please note that teachers in any academic or artistic discipline are particularly welcome to participate along with theirstudents and pupils. This will enable us all to explore this enjoyable music in novel and ever more effective ways,namely in a spirit of cooperation across all cultural boundaries. E-learning frees us from the many constraintsimposed by other ways of delivering and sharing educational contents. Any reputed institutional course programme— anywhere in the world — can in principle associate itself with this course for mutual benefit.Special terms for groups of students (e.g., music, dance, Indology, cultural studies) are being offered by the DistanceEducation Centre of the University of Lueneburg in Germany which organises, hosts and supports this course andnumerous others. Given the highly affordable course fees even for individuals, money (or the lack of it) will hardlystand in the way of participation for anybody interested in it.Please feel free to enquire about any aspect of the course about which you would like to get additional clarificationson perusing the additional information found on www.carnaticstudent.org.Ludwig PeschPostbus 33501001 AD, AmsterdamThe NetherlandsE-mail: ludwig@euronet.nl14 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003

Kansari: The Goddess of FoodgrainAruna Joshi is Head of Publication Wing, Bhasha ResearchPublication Centre at Vadodara and Chief Editor of Dhol,a magazine circulated in different tribal languages ofWestern India. Email: brpc_baroda@sify.comThe southern districts of Gujarat as well as thenorthern and north-western districts of Maharashtraare largely populated by several tribal communities.The Bhil, Konkna, Gamit, Warli, Dhodiya, Dubla, andChaudhri are among some of them. The Konkna orKunkna is one of the prominent tribal communities ofthis region. Konknas are mainly agriculturistsproducing foodgrain of all kinds. Some say that theymigrated to these parts from the coastal area ofMaharashtra known as Konkan, while others argue thatthey have always been native to this land, and thatthis land itself was included under the term ‘Konkan’.In any case, the Konknas have lived in this mountainousregion for several centuries, have been very closelyassociated with land and farming, of both the shiftingand steady variety, and have come to be recognised inthe area by the term ‘The Farmer’ or Kunbi.The Konknas take great pride in the name ‘Kunbi’ whichmeans producer of grain. When the crop is harvestedand brought to the granaries, the Bhagat is invited toperform a ritual and to sing the narrative of Kansariwith the accompaniment of instruments like thali orghanghli. The narrative varies from place to place andfrom singer to singer in its plot, characters, and style.However, the focus of the narrative remains on theimportance of foodgrain and the power of Kansari -the goddess of foodgrain - against those who wouldmerely consume and misuse it. These long narratives,often sung through the night, are not songs ofpropitiation to the goddess Kansari. Rather, theypresent Kansari as a human figure, as a protagonist.Apart from these long narratives sung by the Bhagat,there are also several shorter versions of the story ofKansari, some of them versions for young children.But in none of these versions is the story seen as mereentertainment; it is always seen as a narrative havingBhagat narrating the story of Kansarireligious sanctity and imbibing the centralcultural values of the community.Religion, here, is viewed not as a sect ofworship, but as the central principle orvalue upon which a community buildsitself.The faith in Kansari can be seen amongthe cultivator tribes throughout thetribal belt from North and Northwest Maharashtra,from the Dhule, Khandesh and Nasik areas up to centralGujarat, including Baroda district and further. Theconcept of Kansari in the psyche of the communitiesis somewhat complex – the pod of foodgrain is Kansari,the grain itself is Kansari, the plant, the deity - symbolfor foodgrain, the divine as well as human characterfound in the stories - all bear the name Kansari. Andwhen one asks what does Kansari stand for, the Bhagatreplies - “This is foodgrain, this is prosperity, this isour God.” … “This is everything, this is the onlything”… “For us, there is no greater god, the harvestedfoodgrain itself is the highest God.” Thus, one cancertainly say that Kansari is a matter of faith for thefood-cultivating tribal peasants of the region. However,as one starts looking at the several versions of the story,one wonders if it speaks merely of faith or suggestssomething more.It will be interesting to look at some of the motifs thatemerge from a number of versions of the story ofKansari. But before we do that, let us have a briefaccount of the longest version so far published. Thisone is a ritual narrative sung by the Bhagat, ShriManubhai Bachalbhai Vadhu of Toranvera village ofsouth Gujarat, documented and presented by ShriDahyabhai Vadhu, a Konkna himself. (Vadhu,Dahyabhi, ed., 2000. Kunkna Kathao, Sahitya Akademi).The story begins with the genesis; the end of the worldand a new beginning. Gods, who are judges of humanbeings’ behaviour, bring about the catastrophe, and outof the seeds of all living beings, including humans, storedcarefully by the gods, the new life begins. Humans onceagain grow in number, and in this society of humans, ‘aking is made’. The daughter of this king marriesKartukidev, a god, and gives birth to Kansari. The toddlerKansari is able to produce foodgrain from pebbles andturn water into milk. But ‘the black-headed human beingis not supposed to have such potential in her’, therefore,the envious gods kidnap the child. She is found andbrought back only when she comes of age. The youngdamsel Kansari falls in love with a shepherd (cowherd)boy, singing beautiful music on his flute called theTambemahovar. In the Swayamvara she declines all the godsand kings congregated there and offers the Varmala tothis Goval. The angry gods conspire and one day killKansari’s consort - the shepherd. To avenge this and toseek justice, Kansari appeals to all the natural phenomena– the clouds, the thunder, the winds - and withholds allfood and water on earth. The whole world is now inmisery and people start despising the vicious gods whoTHE GODDESS OF FOODGRAIN15

are primarily responsible for the calamity. At last, thegods apologise and appeal to Kansari to save the world.Kansari brings the food and water back into the world,then brings her consort back to life, blesses her ardentfollower, the Kunbi, and at last takes her place of reverencein the conglomeration of the gods - the Devasabha.Although other versions of the Kansari story differ fromthis version almost in every literary respect, there aresome common patterns of structure, behaviour andstatement implicit in them are shared by all the versions.The first and foremost thing that one notices in thesestories is a kind of social hierarchy implied there. Amongthe characters depicted, several are ‘gods’. They have acommunity of their own. There are also some ‘kings’.As against these powerful entities, there are the ‘men’,The protagonist is supported in this fight by naturalelements such as clouds, wind, thunderstorm, and theanimals and birds befriended by him. They are peers ofthe protagonist, not slaves or servants to his command.With the help of these friends from the natural world,the cultivator protagonist defies the powerful lords andestablishes his supremacy in cultivation and hisunchallengeable relationship with foodgrain, with thegoddess Kansari promising the Kunbi, “I will always staywith you. I will give you prosperity. Toil in the soil; holdalways a stick in your hand. Feed the hungry. I’ll be withyou.”There is another interesting character-motif in the stories.There is Yehu Mawli – Mother Yehu — who commandsall the seeds of foodgrain. In case of want of seeds, theKunbi can assuredly go to Yehu and ask for seeds (onreturn basis). Yehu certainly is not a memberof the Devsabha, yet she commandsrecognition among the gods; the Kunbisrevere her and depend on her. In one of thestories, Yehu is depicted as an old woman(doshi), with eyes as big as the wheel of acart, one requiring space of twelve bullocksfor her seat and one calling with a robustshout. In another story, Yehu is an asceticmaid, who conceives by ‘consuming thebread half consumed by Mahadev.’ Kansariis born. Later, she finds out the whereaboutsof the irresponsible father from Yehu andmanifests her powers to him.the ‘Dubla Kunbis’ (meaning poor farmers, also specificcommunity names). The focal point of the story is alwaysthe equation and tension between these two groups. Apartfrom the gods, there is also a Bhagwan who seems to bea higher god with wider powers and who is beyond thetension between the two.Among the gods there is a ‘Mahadev’. He is powerfulamong the gods, commands their community and he isthe ‘lord’ for the ‘people’ in the respective story. He isthe chief of ‘Dwaraka’ city, which is the seat of power ofthe gods. One can see a certain acceptance of his place ofpower at the primary level; yet, when he, along with hisassociates turns atrociously against the people out ofjealousy or greed, there is revolt against him by theprotagonist, either Kansari herself in a human form orthe Kunbi, the cultivator of foodgrain, or sometimesKansari herself as the cultivator. It may be a mild fightonly to cleverly escape the atrocity or exploitation, or maytake the form of a clearly spelt out, explicit war involvingthe phenomena and affecting the entire humanity.Bhagat narrating the story of KansariKansari, as a character in the stories, is oftendepicted as a young girl. The girl hassuperhuman qualities suggesting or leadingto prosperity, yet she herself denies allpleasures and comforts and prefers to livea commoner’s life, toiling in the soil. Kansariis an independent mind, nobody can own or commandher. She lives where she wants to live, does what shewants to do; she values and maintains her dignity andindependence. In several stories, she comes to the Kunbi’shouse as a diseased and dirty creature and tests hischaracter. While all others despise her, Kunbi is kind toher and offers her regular shelter and bread to be sharedwith him. Kansari is pleased with this nobility and blesseshim with prosperity. But when this prosperity leads toindignant treatment to her, she immediately leaves him;all his prosperity vanishes and in repentance, he yieldsto her.As one looks at a number of these stories together, therearise several questions in one’s mind. First of all, shouldthese stories be grouped together as a whole or shouldthey be treated as separate tales? All the stories are referredto by the community members as ‘the tale of Kansari’,yet there is so much variation in every aspect that it ishard to relate any particular version to another, sometimeseven the character of Kansari herself being a somewhat16 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003

Courtesy: The Painted World of the Warlis (1998)secondary or peripheral one. Then what is it that holdsthese tales together so decisively in the collective mindof the people? As said earlier, in spite of all the variationof story-line or plot, character, length, style, presentationas well as intended audience and effect, each of the stories,even as a stand-alone, definitely carries a statement in it- a statement of the seemingly weak fighting their wayagainst the powerful for justice and rights, for values theycherish. And it must be this implicit statement that bindsthese separate tales together for the community.This leads us to further questions: What could be thesignificance of this statement for these people? Whatmeaning does this statement carry with it? What exactlydo these tales want to say? Who is this Mahadev? Andwhat conflict do these tales speak of?To think on these problems, one has to look at the historyof this region, the region on the borders of today’s Gujaratand Maharashtra states. For centuries, this fertile regionhas been ruled by one or another ruler from outside. TheIslamic sultanate, the Maratha rulers and the British, allhave governed this region, of course through the localrepresentative of the commanding power. And, throughoutthis period, the tiller tribes who settled in these junglesknown for its teak trees transformed the difficult region,through their toil, into a fertile land. While the tiller, keepinghis needs to the minimum, has cherished the thick of thejungle, the flora and fauna, the waters and mountains thathave actually entered his pantheon, the ruler’s concern hasbeen the revenue, from field and from forest. Though wedo not have much account of the common man’s positionfrom the earlier period, in the later period, there have beenpeasant uprisings and resistance movements in the tribalcommunities of this region. In The Coming of the Devi, DavidHardiman has given a very interesting account of how thenotion of resistance to the ruling class as well as the tradingclass got built up in the tribal population and found itsexpression in a seemingly religious movement of the date.A ghangli Bhagat singing during Kansari PujaThen, should we say that the tales we are looking at couldbe a memoir of a conflict woven with mythology? Is itremembrance by an exploited, marginalised, and mutedsociety of a voice raised against exploitation, perhaps withsome little success? The notion of defiance of the powerfulmay, perhaps, be a reflection of reality to some extent, ormay be purely ‘wishful thinking’ of a mutated milieu.What one gathers from this literature, oral though, is thatit must have been a conflict not merely on economicgrounds, but also of a value system. Through the defianceand humiliation of the exploitative, atrocious, andpowerful, and through the simultaneous despising ofpersonal pride and impudence, do these tales not seemto cherish and present a community’s value system as‘sacrosanct’ for its posterity? At one level, they take theform of a morality tale celebrating specific values andshaping up the collective mind. At the same time, in theevent of the values being challenged, they also suggest apossibility of standing up to face the challenge, lest thevalues be compromised with.It would not be possible, nor would it be justified, to tryto find a one-to-one relationship between historicalhappenings and the depiction in the stories. All one maysay is that in these stories, one may catch a reflection of aprolonged conflict between a land-based people and thepowers that governed them through the course of history.Whether it is the reflection of a specific fight against aspecific ruler of a specific time, or, if by making ‘Mahadev’a prototype for the ruler, it is an effort to keep the conflictover the value system alive in the collective conscience,it is hard to say. Yet, with their potential to weave togetherhistory with the values or religion of a people, and tocarry the fabric for future generations, these tales certainlydemand a far more serious investigation andunderstanding.THE GODDESS OF FOODGRAIN17

Tribal Cultures and theProblems of DefinitionR.E.S. Tanner is Former Lecturer in Comparative Religionat University of London and Former Chairman of EastAfrican Institute of Social Research, United Kingdom.Email: restanner@kutkai.fsnet.co.ukTribal culture is a phrase that has a familiar andperhaps even a nostalgic understanding of its meaning.The word ‘tribe’, in both its historical and modernusages, implies a known and identifiably separatecommunity with finite boundaries not only in the eyesof its members but also in the bureaucratic practicesof the dominating surrounding society and in theanalyses of social science specialists who have workedwith them. On the other hand, ‘culture’ has theconnotations of an assortment of widely known andused social ingredients, which are recognised asspecific to a particular society as part of its separate orseparating identity, but which in a non-tribal contexthas an elitist backing for its use and understanding.Of course, there may have been socially anddemographically isolated communities of which possiblyEaster Island in the southern Pacific Ocean may havebeen the only one to have survived in such isolation forsome four centuries. Even the inhabitants of the Andamanand Nicobar islands in the Bay of Bengal cannot fail tohave been intermittently influenced by occasional anddeliberate sea-borne outsiders, if only to develop a socialpattern of avoidance.For all practical purposes there aren’t, and probably neverhave been, isolated social systems, as humans have alwaystravelled and the distribution of material items and bloodgroups has shown a continual mixing of traits.Much thinking in tribal terms comes from the nature ofthe professional packaging with which they have beenpresented to outsiders and the outside world interestedin the incredulities of such diverse social systems.Anthropology has long created tribes without muchthought to the definitions involved, with large numbersof such tribal studies made on which the foundations ofIndian anthropology have been so fruitfully laid.It is the characteristic of social sciences trying to becomean accepted part of the scientific establishment to takeon a framework of thinking that both defines and delimitsthe groups of people which are studied. It is proposed toexamine these two terms in the context of the Kachins ofhighland Myanmar and the Sukuma of north-westernTanzania.These people now numbering some 1.5 million havelong been regarded as a separate tribe by the precolonialBurmese, the British and thecontemporary government. In thepresent federation there is a KachinState covering the hinterlands of Bhamoand Myitkyina administrative andtrading centres. There are alsosubstantial Kachin communities overthe border in the Chinese province ofYunnan. It could be said that the tribaltitle Kachin has been a colonial one kept on by theBurmese for different but similar political reasons.These people divide themselves into Jinghpaw, Maruand other tribes, which they themselves see as distinct.(Mawng1944).Does this political unit signify any concentration ofKachins for which there could be said to be aheartland? The answer is clearly no, since there areKachin communities well outside these sub-states, withsouthern boundaries in Mongmit, Hsenwi andTawnpeng sub-divisions.Second, their environmental style of living in smallcommunities of extended family with long houses onhilltops cultivating dry rice on a slash-and-burn cyclecontrasts with the Shans, who live in the valleysbetween them in permanent villages of single-familyhouses cultivating wet rice in permanent fields.Third, this valley and hilltop dichotomy is a shorttermillusion because, over the centuries, the Kachinshave always been trying to move downhill through theprocesses of threat, violence and marriage. On theother hand, the Shans have similarly been in theprocess of moving uphill by marriage and theadvantages of having in-laws as their more aggressiveand permanent neighbours. (Leach 1954).The British, who preferred the Kachins, with their moreextroverted lifestyle, to the more sophisticated Shanseven before their anti-Japanese guerrilla work, and whowere unaware of this symbiosis, were trying right upto the time of independence to find some socio-politicalway that would combine hopes of development andseparate the Kachins as a tribe from their neighbours.The Kachins as a cultureIf there is a Kachin culture, it is certain that it has nofinite boundaries — now or in the past. Theoretically,the centre of a culture must have a concentration ofcharacteristics and, almost by definition; this is likelyto be in some out of the way isolated community whoare hard to reach. However, the Kachins want to moveto find fresh areas to cultivate and to get employmentas well as to trade in opium and jade in return formoney, silver, ornaments and steel.The Kachins as a tribeThis isolation has always been relative, and Kachinwomen have always decorated themselves with Chineseand Indian silver coins and woven their own tribalcostumes.18 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003

The Kachin system of government had village headmenpresiding over expanding and contracting areas,combining inherited positions and personal charismaalong with an animist and local religion. No centralisinginstitutions existed at all other than costume andpersonal appearance.Their language is particular to them but as much asany used in any community would become a distinctdialect. The tongue has become more uniform as a resultof its commitment to writingwith Roman lettering and thespread of literacy, while beingsurrounded by Burmesespeakers with their distinctivescript with which many menare conversant.Thus, Kachin culture isdistinct enough to fit into theethnographic idea of a tribalculture but seemingly for theindividual, always transitional.In some ways Kachin culturehas been made moreprominent by its politicalneeds and the state’s need tostress cultural unity indiversity, while beingweakened in other aspects byeconomic necessity andBurmese military dominance.Its geographical expressionseems to be marked by altituderather than any sense of occupying an area in a waythat the idea of cultural and tribal boundaries wouldseem to be a categorical imposition.The Sukuma as a tribeThe Sukuma of Tanzania now number some five millionand have had a tribal identity attributed to them fromas far back as the early 19 th century, when they werecollectively referred to as the people to the north bythose travelling along the major caravan routes betweenthe Indian Ocean coast and the Great Lakes. Thiscollective identity seems to have evolved from theboundary delimitations and bureaucratic requirementsof the Germans and then confirmed by the British aspart of the necessary requirements for rationaladministration. There were no centralised orcentralising structures above that of chiefdoms thatgreatly varied in size. What are the sharedcharacteristics that make them tribally distinct apartfrom their shared tonal Bantu language? They have novillages and live in well dispersed single households,which are loosely grouped into various grades ofchieftainship responsible for arbitration of disputesand religious welfare of each area. This chieftainshiphad little in common since some were matrilineal andCourtesy: http://myanmar3.8m.comothers patrilineal, while some were colonial appointeesin newly settled areas as they migrated outwards. Theirreligion varies between family ancestral cults andindividual relationships with spirits, with no corporatereligious activities except for the necessities of rainmaking in an area with irregular and sporadic wetseasons.There is a simple form of age grading distinguishingyounger men from older ones but there are a numberA group of young Kachinsof social groupings crossing social boundaries mixingcult and social activities with economic benefits. Theydo not look different and have no distinctive styles ofclothing or hair arrangements.Here we have an enormous number of people whonow see themselves as distinct without much that isdistinct other than language. Where can this tribalismbe observed most clearly?First, there is a distinction in the ‘wet’ Sukuma livingalong Lake Victoria and the very ’dry’ majority livinginland on the cultivation steppe that correlates todifferent types of dominating spirits. To the west, theyare pushing into largely unoccupied areas belongingto the Bantu Zinza and to the south; they merge intothe Bantu Nyamwezi whose language they largelyshare. Only to the east is there a boundary clashbetween them and the Nilo-Hamitic cattle-keepingMaasai, with whom there have been centuries ofexpansionist and violent raiding clashes.So, it is only along this eastern fringe that it is possibleto see an end to one tribe and the beginning of anotherbut not a boundary as such. Everywhere else it wouldseem to be a matter of choice whether an individualTRIBAL CULTURES19

Courtesy: http://rosswarner.comregards himself as a Sukuma or not, according to theadvantages of tracing patrilineal, matrilineal or affinalconnections or just inventing an ancestral one.These people do not appear to have any concept ofhome other than a vague sense of ancestralneighbourhood because they have regularly moved tocope with field fertility and the needs of their cattle aswell as the sensible pattern of dispersing their herdsand rotating their crops.In the 1950s, a Sukuma customary law manual wasproduced (Cory 1953) which showed that they had asense of tribal identity but in practice such a book createda system of law rather than Sukuma custom throughwhich each case was settled according to particular localcircumstancesThe Sukuma cultureOld Maasai woman with her grandchildThis has none of the obvious material elements thatcontribute so much to tribal identifications such asthat of the Kachins and many other rich Asian cultures.They do not look different nor make any efforts to doso and the small facial markings that used to denotesocial group affiliations such as the Bugika and Bugaruare no longer made. They have no material art and thezigzag markings on their woven baskets are probablynow only to be seen in ethnographic collections. Theyclaim no tribal connection with the crude rock paintingand lithographic designs that are to be seen on manyrock faces.What is perhaps extraordinary is that if one can setaside that they are an East African people, their socialcharacteristics and culture are remarkably similar tothat of contemporary Europeans. Their attention tokinship is minimal as most families are well dispersedand their social life is confined to neighbourhoods andnetworks of reciprocities. Indeed, they mistrust anyform of authority that is not subject to reciprocalcontrols and they have yet to see any value in macrodemocraticsystems of voting.They have no regular religious rituals other than thewearing of amulets and a variety of personal taboos.Despite the presence of Muslim traders and Christianmissionaries for well over a century, only smallnumbers have joined these faiths. They have no tribalinitiation rituals but their cross-community associationsdo let them demonstrate their exclusivities. Thecostume of men is almost entirely of western designwhile their women combine the former with duallengths of highly coloured cloth of Swahili origin fromthe coast.They do not wish to live near anyone else if it can beavoided, although they did once live in closecommunities as a defence against Maasai raiding. Theirlives are very much based on quite accurate profit andloss balances in which it is sensible to live near theirfields. They do not see any particular value to living intowns where food has to be paid for and prefer tocome and go from their rural homes.This is not to suggest that they do not have a culturalidentity, which is now more prominent than it was incolonial times. Their tribal museum and cultural centreat Bujora near Mwanza is a matter of pride. It is hardto see in what ways there is a Sukuma culture since somuch is shared with surrounding tribal communitiesexcept possibly in their language with its complicatedtenses and its song and poetic forms. In the historicpast, there may not have been any corporate tribalidentity but it has been created, without overmuchtension, by the makers of administrative boundariesand by the rituals of voting. At the crudely materiallevel, they are no different to millions of others ineastern Africa.Some reflections on the nature of tribal culturesModern governments of large states like tribal cultureswhile being hostile to tribalism. Tribal costumes are tobe seen worn by contingents in Myanmar and Indiannational day parades, and representatives wear theirtribal costumes in meetings of the national assemblyof the Chinese Communist Party. The British Queen’srecent jubilee celebrations showed many forms ofBritish and Commonwealth tribal cultures in theirmodernised forms. Tribal costumes frequently appearon national stamps and in musical groups. To someextent, the Indonesian government subsidises andsupports the flamboyant public celebrations of BalineseHinduism that brings in much tourist money. At thesame time, governments suppress demands for tribalindependence in West Irian and Assam. So, tribalcultures testify to the range of national citizenship andliberalism; they are a modern, political ‘good’ and thusare often subsidised unless they go too far and claimseparation.20 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003

Courtesy: www.photo.netObviously, there is a conjunction between the conceptsof tribe and culture but there is a ‘them and us’ elementin their modern use which is both strident and new. Theincreasing pluralism of modern societies may well bemade more obvious as voting creates permanentminorities and, historically, the absence of formalboundaries may have made social adjustments easier, asin the Rajput community, which once had both Hinduand Muslim personal names. This type of statusambiguity would now no longer be possible.It is suggested that to use both these terms in anyrestricted and definitional sense is to impose on humanbehaviour forms of being and thought which are notpresent in fact, however much it is stated to be so bythose both inside and outside such communities. It is inline with Western post-Enlightenment thinking and quitealien to Asian philosophical thought.From the Kachin and Sukuma examples given, it wouldseem that membership of this or that tribe is oftennegotiable and thus at any one time a person would besocially more or less what he was when he last consideredthe issue of identity. Tribal commitment is not like thelegal status of citizenship.Thus, individual commitment to a tribe and its culture,not forgetting that a high proportion of people migrate inand out of their natal communities perhaps several timesin their lives and often use their natal cultures only forrites of passage, is often as much a combination ofcircumstances as inheritance.In looking towards any future understandings of tribalcultures, the Islamic concept of ‘tawhid’ or wholeness(Davies 1988) is a useful one to explore whether or not ithas its origins in the sanctity of the Koran. This holdsthat there are no predefineddivisions between andwithin communities andthat they should be seen intheir wholeness, withinwhich there are inevitablevariations. In theenormously varied Islamiccommunity, there is no ‘us’and ‘them’.The borders of Mishmi orMuria tribal cultures areporous, through which anenormous range ofbehaviour ebbs and flows,some of which can be heldon to as quite specificallybelonging to those people.On the other hand, much ofthe ideas that come fromliteracy and the surroundingdominant Hindu society may have been watered downor reinterpreted as part of their traditional culture. Sukumacontemporary dancing, which they claim is traditional,includes colours and designs that have never been seenbefore. A porous and imaginative understanding andsympathy for the dimensions of contemporary evolvingtribalism rather than one rooted in historical contrastsmight be worth considering.View of the grave site of the Sukuma chiefdom, Nyashigwe villageReferencesCory, H., 1953. Sukuma Law and Custom, London: OxfordUniversity Press.Davies, M.W., 1988. Knowing One Another: Shaping an IslamicAnthropology, London: Mansell.Leach, E.R., 1954. Political Systems of Highland Burma: A studyof Kachin Social Structure, London: Bell.Mawng, Kawlu Ma., 1944. The Kachins of the Hukawng Valley,Simla: Government of Burma.TRIBAL CULTURES21

The kinship system is one ofthe oldest and most importantelements in the study of socialorganisation. It includes sociallyrecognised relationships based ongenealogical ties. These ties orbonds are of three kinds: relationof affinity (relation betweenspouses), relation of consanguinity(relation between siblings), andrelation of descent (relationbetween parent and child). Theprimitive and irreducible characterof the basic unit of kinship isactually a direct result of theuniversal presence of incest taboo.(Levi-Strauss, 1973: 46). In humansociety, a man must obtain a womanfrom another man, who gives hima daughter or sister. Thus, in akinship structure, a kind of role isassociated with his or her status.(Levi-Strauss: ibid). Each person isreckoned by a particular term andhas a particular place in the kinshipstructure. And each one has to docertain duties or obligations to therelated members of that society.This study tries to understand therole and the nature of relationshipbetween the primary kins 1 such ashusband-wife and brother-sister, inone of the Scheduled Tribalcommunities of Kerala, thePathinaicken.Folklore in any society reflects theway of life of the people in thatsociety. “Tribal ways of life lie inthe state of verbal communicationand here, the folklore reflects theirecological and cultural setting morefaithfully” (Vidhyarthi, 1976: 311).The folklore of tribal people reflectsthe unwritten record of their socioculturallife. It explains people’ssocio-cultural system, values,beliefs and attitude through itsvarious genres viz., riddles,proverbs, legends, myths etc.Myths are often tales dealing withthe supernatural and explainingKinship and Tribal LoreSeetha Kakkoth is Research Officer (Anthropology),Kerala Institute for Research, Training andDevelopment Studies of Scheduled Castes &Scheduled Tribes (KIRTADS), Chevayur, Kozhikode.Email: ammusagarika@sancharnet.inphenomena such as seasonalchange, day and night, life anddeath (Kesseler, 1974: 152). Theyoften have some serious underlyingpurpose beyond that of telling astory (Kirk, 1970: 41). Thus, thisstudy examines the nature of therelationship between the primarykins both in society as well as inmythical life by studying the mythof the Pathinaicken community. Itplaces the informant as Ego (aperson who is the basic point ofreference) for drawing agenealogical tree, including theascending and descendinggenerations.The Pathinaicken myth of lunareclipse collected from secondarysources is analysed in this study inLevi-Straussian terms. Though thismyth might contain severalinterpretations, this study focusesonly on the relationship betweenconsanguineal and the affinal kinsin the myth.The Pathinaicken tribeThe Pathinaicken is a diminutivetribal community numbering 440persons, living in the semideciduousforest areas of NilamburValley, Malappuram district, Kerala.This community is considered to bean offshoot of the major tribe calledKattunaicken and is not listedseparately in Census records. Theylive in settlements and eachsettlement consists of 30-60 people,who are related to each other eitherthrough marriage or by blood. Eachsettlement has a headman knownas Chemmakkaran, who acts as thesocio-political head. A nuclearfamily is the basic economic unit.The people subsist on foodgathering,hunting, small-scalehunting, non-wood forest producecollection, forest labour and wagelabour.Kin relationship in social lifeThe kinship system of thePathinaicken community allows aman (see Figure-1) to marry hisfather’s sister’s daughter i.e.,parallel cousin (A), mother’sbrother’s daughter i.e., cross cousin(B), brother’s widow (C), hisdeceased wife’s sister i.e., levirate(D) and marriage by exchange (E).Among the Pathinaicken, the samekinship term, Chinnappan, is usedby Ego to denote his father’s youngerbrother, mother’s younger sister’shusband and step-father andsimilarly Chinnaive is used to denotehis mother’s younger sister, father’syounger brother’s wife and stepmother.A man is allowed to havemore than one wife, but a womanis prohibited to marry more thanone man at a time. Marriage tiesare very fragile: a man can deserthis wife if she is a barren andremarry another. Frequentdesertions and remarriages arecommon and a kind of serialmonogamy is the result. A man orwoman in his/her life-time can maketwo or three alliances.The brother has an important rolein his sister’s life. He is supposedto look after his sister if she becomea widow or divorcee. He also takescare of his sister’s children if shedies earlier. He takes the initiativein conducting the marriage of hissister’s son. He also names thechild of his sister’s son/daughter.In turn, the sister plays animportant role in the life-cycle ritesof her brother’s daughter. She givesa helping hand to her brother’sdaughter at the time ofmenstruation and confinement. Atthe rice feeding ceremony, it is thesister who first feeds her brother’sdaughter’s child. A girl at the timeof marriage wears the new dressgiven by her father’s sister. Sevendays after marriage, the bride’sfather visits the groom’s house andtakes both of them to the bride’snatal home. The couple spends anight there and before leaving, thegroom puts some money under thepillow. This amount belongs to thebride’s father’s sister.22 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003

Kin relationship in mythThe myth of the Pathinaicken relatedto lunar eclipse is as follows:Once upon a time there lived sevenPathinaicken brothers and theirwives. The brothers had a youngsister. One day, the sister asked thewives of her brothers for a handfulof water to drink. One woman said.“Oh, dear, the water is spoilt becauseI put my hand in.” Another womansaid, “See, the water is full of mucusthat fell from the children’s nose.”And, finally, none of them gave herwater. The girl went to the water tankwith a vessel to drink water. Whenshe dipped the vessel into the water,she heard a voice say, “Do not takethe water.” She again dipped thevessel. Again the voice was heard.Dejected and disgusted, she dippedthe vessel in the water a third time.This time she saw a huge serpent,which asked her, “What will you callme?” She said, “I’ll call you anna,elder brother.” The serpent refusedto give her water. He again asked herthe same question. She answered thatshe would call him maamma, thematernal uncle. The serpent did notgive her water. She said, “I’ll call youtintapaa, father’s younger brother. Theserpent did not agree again. Finally,frustrated and helpless, she askedhim, “Tell me, what should I callyou?” The serpent answered “Callme aalen, the husband. She had toagree because her tongue and throatwere parched with thirst. Theserpent allowed her to drink thewater. After drinking, he asked herto sit on top of him. They crossedthe seven hills and he took her to abig stone cave. When they reachedthe cave, the snake remembered thatthere was nothing for his wife to eat.Then, he brought a sack of rice andasked her what else she wanted. Shewanted copper vessels and ladles.Whatever she asked was brought toher. Like any ideal husband, helooked after her properly with careand love.After a week, not seeing the sister,the brothers went in search of her.After a long search, they found herin a serpent’s cave. When the serpentwas away, they took the sister backhome. The brothers planted sicklesall over the seven paths to preventthe serpent from coming in search ofthe girl.The girl was pregnant. As soon asthey reached home, the brothersmade a fire and she gave birth to herchildren into the fire. The young oneswere multi-coloured little serpents.Among them, one serpent childescaped from the fire and climbed upa jack fruit tree, waited to grow upand join his mother.In the meantime, the serpent cameback and found that his wife was notin the cave. At once he set out insearch of her. On the way his bodywas being cut into pieces by thesickles that the brothers had plantedon the way. The lovelorn husband,longing to see his wife, never realisedthat his body was being cut. Finally,his whole body was cut into shredsand his head fell into his wife’s lap.Time passed. The serpent child grewup on the jack fruit tree. The brotherscame to know that the young snakewas waiting there to get his motherback. They thought of a plan to cheatthe serpent. They brought a rabbitand dressed it up like a woman. Theserpent child thought that the rabbitwas its mother. As the rabbit hopped,the serpent child followed it. Therabbit climbed a tree and jumpedfrom branch to branch until it reachedthe feet of the moon. The serpentcaught hold of the rabbit. Since therabbit was at the feet of the moon,the serpent bit the moon too. This isthe lunar eclipse.As pointed out earlier, this studyfocuses only on the relationshipbetween the consanguineal andaffinal kins in this myth.1. Sisters- in-lawrefused to give water - AffinalFig: 1F M=== ==FZ FBMB MZFZD MBDZHZ ZH Z B== W WB WZEgoSDF - Father FB - Father’s brotherFZ - Father’s sister FZD - Father’s sister’s daughterM - Mother MB - Mother’s brotherMZ - Mother’s sister MBD - Mother’s brother’s daughterB - Brother BW - Brother’s wifeZ - Sister ZH - Sister’s husbandWZ - Wife’s sister ZH - Sister’s husband sisterW - Wife WB - Wife’s brotherS - Son D - DaughterMale Female Male dead descend== Marital bondMarital ties allowed by the kinship system to EgoKINSHIP AND TRIBAL LORE23

Indian Folklife Regd. No. R.N. TNENG / 2001 / 5251ISSN 0972-64702. Water is not givento bloodrelatives - Affinal3. Snake gives waterin the name ofmarriage- Affinal4. Brothers took theirsister back home - Consanguineal5. The snake (husband)was killed- Victimised6. Children born areput into fire - Victimised7. One snake escaped - Life8. The snake was killed - VictimisedConsanguineal Affinal Life Victimised4 1, 2, 3 7 5, 6, 8Thus,Consanguineal : Affinal : : Life : VictimisedIt is seen that in this myth, a thirstyPathinaicken woman is not givenwater by her sisters-in-law. Later,a snake gives her water in the nameof marriage. The snake takes her toa distant place and they start livingas husband and wife. But when herbrothers came in search of her, sheleaves her husband and returns toher natal home with them. She evenstands alongside her brothers to killher husband. This myth itselfshows that the relationship betweenhusband and wife is negative andbetween brother and sister ispositive.When we go through this myth, thereis no place to wonder why a womanleaves her husband when herbrothers come to take her. This isbecause of the kinship system of thePathinaicken that makes this loreunique to that community.ReferencesFuchs, Stephen, 1973. The AboriginalTribes of India, New Delhi: Macmillan.Kakkoth, Seetha, 2001. Three Tribes ofNilambur Valley: A Study inInterrelationship Between Habitat,Economy, Society and Culture,(Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis) Kerala:University of Calicut.Kessler, E.S., 1974. Anthropology: TheHumanising Process. London: Allyn &Bacon, Inc.Levi-Strauss, Claude, 1973. StructuralAnthropology, (vol 11). England: PenguinBooks.Kirk, G.S., 1970. Myth: Its Meaning andFunctions in Ancient and Other Cultures,Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.Nambuthiripad, Usha (ed), 1993. Originof the Lunar Eclipse: A Pathinaicken Mythin Tribal Folklore, Occasional Newsletterof the Project of the Tribal Folklore ofKerala, Thiruvananthapuram.Payyanad, Raghavan, 1986. Folklore. (InMalayalam) Thiruvanathapuaram: KeralaBhasha Institute.Vidhyarthi, L.P and B.K. Rai, 1976. TribalTransformations in India, New Delhi:Concept Publishing House.Velappan. K., 1994. AdivasikalumAdivasibhashakalum. (In Malayalam)Trivandrum: Kerala Bhasha Instittute.Notes1. A person’s very close relatives suchas father (F), mother (M), brother (B),sister (Z), son (S), daughter (D),husband (H) and wife (W).Review BooksKa Mer Ka Sdad: Conference, Confluence(The Role of Rivers and Waters in Khasi Culture and Vision)Edited by Desmond L. Kharmawphlang & Sujit SomBhopal: Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav SangrahalayaRs. 200Folktales of MizoramBy Laltluangliana KhiangteMizoram: LTL PublicationRs. 150Narratives of North East IndiaEdited byDesmond L. KharmawphlangShillong: PROFRA PublicationsRs. 150Narratives of Northeast India-IIEdited byDesmond L. KharmawphlangShillong: PROFRA PublicationsRs. 150Mizo Songs and Folk TalesEdited byLaltluangliana KhiangteNew Delhi: Sahitya AkademiRs. 130To review the above titles the potential reviewers can contact the editorPublished by M.D. Muthukumaraswamy for National Folklore Support Centre, No.7, Fifth Cross Street, Rajalakshmi Nagar,Velachery, Chennai - 600 042 (India), and printed by M.S. Raju Seshadrinathan at Nagaraj and Company Pvt. Ltd., # 22 (153-A),Kalki Krishnamurthy Salai, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai 600 041, (For free private circulation only). Editor: M.D. Muthukumaraswamy24 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 JANUARY - MARCH 2003