Home / 1.3: Ethno-Archeology in India

1.3: Ethno-Archeology in India

Ethno – Archaeology 

Definition : Ethno-Archaeology is  Ethnographic study of contemporary societies (especially preliterate) in order to better understand archaeological culture through analogous elements in cultures- like Survivals and Parallels, 

  • It is also defined as study of contemporary cultures & behaviour & practices of living people with a view in understanding the behavioural relationship & pratices which underlie the production of material culture in past. 
  • is a research technique that involves using information from living cultures—in the form of ethnology, ethnography, ethnohistory, and experimental archaeology—to understand patterns found at an archaeological site

Feature & History

  • it is combination of Archaeology & Ethnography
  • Term by Jesse Fawkes
  • 1950s development
  • Richard Gould, Lewis Binford– nunamuit eskimos- pioneers
  • It is not a theory or method- it is a research strategy
  • Helps identify the probably use of certain tools, their manufacturing processes, and reconstructing ancient way of life

Method of Study – 

  • It includes explaining past society on the basis of body of generalised knowledge constructed from ethnography of contemporary but simple societies. 
  • An ethnoarchaeologist acquires evidence about ongoing activities in any society and uses those studies to draw analogies from modern behavior to explain and better understand patterns seen in archaeological sites.

Development & Methodologies / Peerspectives – Old, archeology gave way to the emergence of New Archeology by incorporating 3 perspectives

  • Use of Quantitative Data
  • Logical Positivism  / logico-deductive Reasoning 
  • Hypothetico- Deductive Model 
  • Interpretative Analysis 

Component of Ethnoarcheology

  • Study of present day use & significance of artefacts, buildings & structures within the living societies in question 
  • Study of the way the material things become incorporated into the archeological records.  

Types of ethnoarchaeological approach

Main approach is Analogy– 2 types of analogy are 

  1. Direct Historical Analogy– when there is direct temporal continuity b/w archaeological & ethnographic culture- Survivals, culture elements that have lost their original utilitarian significance but have continued presence in societies- Eg: EB Tylor- Pottery
  2. General Comparative Analogy– based on similarities b/w contemporary culture & materials of archaeological culture. Parallels- similarities b/w ethnographic and archaelogical culture- Eg: Megaliths of Eastern India and Megaliths of Iron age in South India

Examples

  • Study Butchery Practices of Nunamuit Eskimo of Alaska hunting gathering society by Lewis Binford to better understand the periglacial environment that Mousterian hominins occupied
    • It gave him many ideas about the way the Archeological records may have been formed, allowing him to re-evaluate the bone remains of animals eaten by very early humans elsewhere in the world. 
  • Richard Gould among Australian Aborigines 
  • Richard less among Kung San of Souther Africa 

These above 3 work established it as one of most significant recent development in the whole disciple of Anthropology. 

  • Indian example: Carol Kramers ethnoaracheological study of Potters in Rajasthanand the related aspects of caste, residence

Significance of Ethnoarcheology – 

  • It sheds light on 2 questions regarding the use of technology
    1. At general level: Abundance of a type of tool in archeological records is not a guide to its importance in the culture. The tool frequently used may have been quickly made and discarded immediately after the use, while the rare implements were kept and reused several times before eventually being thrown away.
    2. At specific level: It helps in identifying the specific use of a particular artifact. 
  • It can provide insight to archeologists into how people in the past may have lived, especially with regard to their social structure, religious beliefs etc.
  • It can contribute towards filling gaps in history. For ex it has helped archeologists make inferences about women’s role in subsistence and craft related activities in early times.

Caution to be taken

  • Identification of tool forms through ethnographic analogy should be limited to cases where there is demonstrable continuity b/w archeological cultures with modern society. 

Criticism

  • Gould and Yellen demonstrates the unreliability of analogical inference by clearly showing that differential patterning of material culture occurs among similar societies
  • Been criticised as Conjecture
  • Mainly material culture

Conclusion

  • We can conclude by saying that ethnoarcheolgy is methodological manifestation of logico-deductive reasoning in archaeology & also the general discipline of Anthropology. Although According to D.K Bhattacharya   is the Not that accepted in Archaeology but greater acceptance in Anthropology

Concept of Survivals in Anthropology

Introduction – Survivals are Cultural phenomena that outlive the set of conditions under which they were developed. He formulated the doctrine of survivals in analysing the symbolic meaning of certain social customs.

Explanation : Meaningless customs must be survivals, they had a practical or at least a ceremonial intentions when and where they first arose but are now fallen into absurdity from having been carried on into a new state in society where the original sense has been discarded. In more advanced societies one would see proof of cultural evolution through what Tylor called survivals. I.e Traces of earlier customs that survive in present day cultures.

History & Development – The term was first employed by the British anthropologist E. B. Tylor in his ‘Primitive Culture’ (1871).

  • Tylor believed that seemingly irrational customs and beliefs such as peasant superstitions were vestiges of earlier rational practices.
  • He distinguished b/t continuing customs that maintained their function or meaning & those that had lost their utility and were poorly integrated with the rest of culture. The latter he termed survivals.
  • Tylor later expanded the notion of survivals to include material culture. 

Example

  • Among other exs he invoked men’s formal wear, specifically the styling of the tailcoat, as an example of vestiges of a past time.  In this case the greatcoat, with its waist length, front and split tail for ease in riding horses has survived into the present.
  • The making of pottery is an example of a survival in Tylor’s sense. Earlier people made their cooking pots out of clay. Today generally we make them out of metal because they are more durable. But we still prefer dishes made out of clay.

Other Approaches 

  • The Scottish revolutionist John Ferguson McLennan used the term (survivals) to denote symbolic forms of earlier customs.
    • Ex – For instance mock battles in nupital rituals were said to be survivals of an earlier stage, when marriage putatively involved the capture or kidnapping of women.
  • Other writers, Like Malinowski, emphasized concrete functionality rather than symbolic meaning. They held that an item or behavior would result in change in function and there by remain integrated with rest of the culture.
    • Bronislaw Malinowski, entirely rejected the suggestion that any part of culture would have no culture or could be disconnected from the rest of the cultural system. 

The term survivals continued to be used in discussion of cultural change, cultural stability and the reconstruction of historical sequences.

Concept of Cultural Parallels : Cultural Parallelism 

In anthropology, the development of analogous cultural patterns in geographically separate groups assumed to have had no communication with each other.

Example

  • Sun worship in geographically separate groups 

Survivals & Parallels : Ethno-archaeological Analysis 

Hunting Gatherer Community

Introduction – Although such tribes are no more isolated but in some respect, especially in case of settlement & subsistence, they are yet in backward stage. / their conventional ways. By studying them we will be able to understand the cultural practices of prehistoric sites

Survivals and Paralles– in tools- Digging stick, gathering basket, Bow and arrow, spears, Settlements

Some Studies

  • Lewis Binford study of hunting &  meat practices among Nunamiut Eskimos of Alaska (North America, 1969) –  in order to better understand the periglacial env that Mousterian hominins occupied, and to see first hand how hunter-gatherer behavior is reflected in material remains.
  • John Yellen study of bushmen of Kalahari, about evolution of human behaviour and environment influence on it

Indian Studies

  • Juangs– Mandaghar youth dormitory has constant auspicious fire burning. This is considered as a survival by Mahapatra
  • Onge– decorate houses with microliths although they do not have temporal connect to mesolithic culture- Parallel

Ethno-archeological Analysis of Contemporary Tribals

Some imp H&G tribes like the Birhor ,the Chenchu, The Maller, The Korwa, The Hill Kharia, the Mankadia, etc provide insight into our past.

  • They live in small huts and leaf-shelters.
  • Main economy – hunting and gathering with the males hunting and female gathering roots and tubers from the near by forests.
  • The limited resources and the nature of food supply keep them in small bands.
  • Traditional Economy of the Birhor Is hunting and gathering and they are the best rope makers.
    • They not only work hard for their food, but often go hungry in spite of their hard labour. 
    • They Exchange rope as well as the hunted animals and collected forest produces for rice ,salt, oil and some other essential materials with their neighbours
  • As They are living close to the natural water sources, they collect different varieties of fishes from the ponds and rivers.
  • During the monsoon they collect fishes and dry them in sun and fresh and keep in for summer, when the fishes are usually not available to them. In summer, they cook these dried fishes either with the green vegetables or roast them

Fishing Community

  • SP- arrows, harpoons, spears, Fish traps, fish bones, canoes
  • Study of canoes in Polynesian islands- Malinowski

Pastoralist 

  • Milking equipment, pouches of skin, bucket, leather straps
  • Current transhumance by gaddis, bakarwals, buffalo herding toda (study rivers)

Agriculture 

  • Plough, spade, sickle, irrigation practices
  • Settlement and Slash and Burn agriculture
  • Kind of food, volume, consumption pattern

Art & Craft Tradition’s Relevance : Ethno Archaeological Approach to Study indigenous Craft 

  • Carnelian bead industry of Khambat, Gurjarat– study helps about bead industry trade and commerce activity of IVC
  • Lee Home study of brass cutting community of Bengal, Jharkhand help correlate with art and craft of Neolithic culture
  • Carol Kramer ethnoarchaeological study on Pottery in Rajasthan- and all related aspects like caste, marriage, patron client relationship
  • Indira Gandhi Manav Sangralaya studying art around bhimbetka communities to better understand prehistoric bhimbetka art.

Industrial Society 

  • Study of terracotta ringwells, in Odisha, to understand urbanisation of NBPW culture- Gopinath Jena

Other importance Examples

  • Oral tradition and folklore- of Khasis- origin of Khasi society
  • Study of living megaliths of east india tribes- gonds, munda- to understand south indian iron age megaliths

Significance: Ethno-Archeological Analysis of Contemporary tribals Socities

  • The process of cultural development is thus keenly visible among the cultures of Indian tribes; most of them in some form or the other do retain some fabric of pre-historic life ways.
  • A record of this surviving process can be of great use for extracting information about the past ways of life, even extending to very remote times.
  • In the context of tribes, ethnoarchaeology has ample scope as its application expands beyond the understanding of material culture alone.
  • The multiplicity and varietyof preserved traditions among these society render it tobe a storehouse of preliterate cultures.

Conclusion – Thus, if ethnoarchaeology stresses on observing the ways of the pre-literate people, the traditional practices and belief systems which the tribes in this part of the world have carried with them from generations to generations, it can unfold valuable information about the past and act as an aid to archaeological recourse.

Case Study

  • Thunder axes of North East
    • Neolithic stone tools considered to have magical & medicinal properties – belief in North east tribes
    • This belief is retained in the form of tradition in almost all tribes there ex – Karbi, Garo, Angami Nagas and Khasis
    • This concept – is one of the many distinctive aspects of ancient belief system which probably dates back to very remote period. 
    • also By apply general comparative analogy for the concept – Helps in archaelogical study (cultural & cognitive Patterns) of neolithic cultures of the region ;(prehistoric life)