Adivasis and the Anthropological Gaze

Author(s): V SEBASTIAN
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 50, No. 40 (OCTOBER 3, 2015), pp. 35-43
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24482625
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 PERSPECTIVES

Adivasis and the

Adivasis and the government, the Saputara Tribal Muse
um "will give you an introduction to the

Anthropological Gaze
lifestyle, costumes, heritage and ecology
of the tribal Dangs." "Although the pres
entation lacks character," the website
goes on to tell, "it is worth visiting to
ν Sebastian learn about many major forms pf tribal
V SEBASTIAN

expression such as a stone funerary col

Through thedisplay
Through the display
of of material A η intriguing aspect of the ethno- umn, grass ornaments, stuffed birds,
material
culture museumsinvoke
culture, museums invoke
notnot A\ graphic displays in Indian muse- woodcarving, clay ritual objects, body
only an imagined Adivasi past, , . . , . , . .. „ ^ '
, . · j « j · · ι JL Xums is the fact that in spite of tattoos, and masks used in dance-dramas,
only an imagined Adivasi past,
J . the existence of immense number of and musical instruments. Tourist mfor
but also a fossilised vision of
but also a fossilised vision of ethnic groups in the country, there is an mation has the following recommenda
their culturalpresent.
their cultural present. WTlile overwhelming focus on the Adivasi tion to the museum visitor: "Use it (mus
While
these museums tend to fulfil a groups and their lifeworld in these ex- eum) as an opportunity to educate your

pedagogical function through hibits. The roots of this anthropological self about the local culture before ventu
the disDla of
the display of material
m terialcultural
ltural 8aze S° back to the rise of colonial ring into it in a less mediated way"1 (Italic
. , ethnography which functioned mainly added). Among other things, the expres
objects,
objects, the
the implicit
implicit ideology
ideology within the framework of cultural evolu- sion "venturing" into the local culture
behind these exhibits has not
behind these exhibits has not tionism and its ideological corollary of which has a connotation of "risky under
received
receivedthetheattention it deserves
attention it deserves cultural hierarchy. taking" and "involving danger," seems to
in India. Why do ethnographic Colonial ethnography which produced project, perhaps inadvertendy, the Adivasi
museums
museumschoose to to
choose Hi display
sola ν the image of the tribals as Primitive also culture as something strange and exotic.
laid the foundations for how the Adivasis The manner in which ethnographic
predominantly
predominantlyselect groups
select groups came t0 represented in ethnographic museums, many of which are specifically
like the tribals? Why not also museums. Through the display of mate- named "tribal" museums, mediate know
displayupper-caste
display upper-caste women
women andand
r'a' culture, museums invoke not only ledge about the Adivasis and represent
men
men and
andtheir
theirlifeworld? Here
lifeworld? is is fan ^ned Ad'Vasi. blf also a tbeir cultural heritage raises a number
Here
fossilised vision of their cultural present, of questions: Why do ethnographic
where
wherepolitics
politicsofof
representation
representation While ethnographic museums tend to museums choose to display predomi
becomes inextricably intertwined fulfil a pedagogical function through nantly select groups like the tribals and
with ethnographic
with ethnographic displays the display of material cultural objects, not others, in their exhibits? Why on
displays
in museums.
in museumsThis
Thisarticle
article the implicit idec>logy behind these earth display Adivasi women grinding
exhibits has not received the attention it grain or cooking or tribal couples sitting
explores
explores the
the dynamics
dynamics of
of the
the deserves in India. This article explores in front of a house through dioramas in
anthropological gaze and the dynamics of the anthropological the ethnographic museums? Why not
how it has contributed to the §aze and how it has contributed to the also display upper-caste women and men
construction
construction of
of the
the Adivasis
Adivasis as
as the
the coftruction of the Adivasis as the exotic and their lifeworld through dioramas in
cultural other. these ethnographic museums? How about
exotic cultural other.
exotic cultural other. The Saputara Tribal Museum in Guja- exhibiting urban people, let us say, fac
rat has a diorama in which human evo- tory workers and their lifeworld, or
lution is depicted through half a dozen people working in the information tech
life-size statues of semi-primate-like nology sectors, in these exhibits? Such
male figures representing various stages suggestions might look somewhat absurd
of evolutionary progression. At the end because unlike the Adivasis, the upper
of the evolutionary spectrum, a human castes or the urban India are not exotic
figure with a loin-cloth is kept near a enough to be displayed in ethnographic
circular hut resembling a tribal house, museums. Here is where politics of rep
Located at the northern end of the Sahy- resentation becomes inextricably inter
adri ranges, Saputara Hills are in the twined with ethnographic displays in
Dangs District, which has nearly 90% museums. Often, the aspects of con
Adivasi population. structed strangeness and otherness are
Gujarat Vidya Deep, Vadodara, Gujarat. . it, , , r
V Sebastian [saby_mz@yahoo.com) is with the According to the official website of integral to the production of the exotic
Gujarat tourism, owned by the state in ethnographic museums.

Economic & Political weekly GQQ3 October 3, 2015 vol l no 40 35

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 Anthropologists have told us from the often by anthropological legitimacy, As Irvine and Gal (2009: 402) put it suc
19th century onwards that the tribal have not only gone uncontested in India, cinctly, "there is no 'view from nowhere,'
world belongs to a different time and but also not received the attention it no gaze that is not positioned." The no
different space: their time belongs to deserves in post-independence India, tion of "gaze" tells us that looking is not
"primitive" time and their space is con- As an investigative modality, colonial pure and innocent and what is made vis
stituted by "remoteness." While cultural anthropology played a crucial role in the ible through gaze is not a simple pre
differences can be constituted in differ- creation of questionable stereotypes existing reality "waiting to be seen" but
ent ways, when it comes to the "tribes," about the Adivasis. In the colonial as rather an epistemic and hermeneutic
spatio-temporal distance becomes an well as in the postcolonial period, domi- field which is constructed. In other
important ingredient in the construction nant society's attitudes towards the words, like language, our eyes are socially
of otherness. The ethnographic display Adivasis varied from as groups occupy- and culturally framed and there are
of the Adivasi lifeworld, restructured for ing the lower rungs of the evolutionary many ways of "seeing" and perceiving,
the gaze of cultural consumers, is large- spectrum, to as people requiring isola- What we see and perceive is filtered
ly based on an imagined perception tion and safeguard. Though ethno- through the mediation of our class posi
about the tribal traditions and their graphic museums are the sites of care- tion, ideas, desires, gender, nationality,
cultural artefacts as coming from a fully constructed cultural otherness, it is race and age. As a socially and culturally
remote past. not suggested here that museums are mediated reality, gazing is a performance
In his book The Second Sin, Thomas the cause for representing the Adivasis that orders, shapes and classifies, rather
Stephen Szasz wrote famously that "in as exotic. Such representations in the than merely reflects the world (Urry and
the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or museum exhibits are the result of a long Larson 2011: 1-2). Taken together, the
be eaten; in the human kingdom, define historical process and without paying at- act of gazing is not merely seeing what is
or be defined" (1974: 20). As the key tention to such developments it will not there, but as signifying practice, it filters
repository and adjudicator of ethno- be possible to recognise tribal imaginaries and frames representations of what is
graphic knowledge, anthropology, from reflected in ethnographic museums, seen through ideological mediation,
its inception as a disciplinary field, has This article explores the politics of rep- By drawing from the insights of
mediated the production of definitions, resentation of Adivasis in ethnographic Michel Foucault and Johannes Fabian, I
representations and taxonomies of indi- museums in the broader contexts such would like to explore the broad contours
genous people in various parts of the as the knowledge/power encoded in of anthropological gaze and the power/
world. While anthropology has done im- anthropology, the symbiotic relation- knowledge contained in this form of
mense service in generating knowledge ship between museums and anthropo- investigative modality. Foucault locates
about cultures around the world, it also logy, the production of ethnographic the linkages between disciplinary know
contributed to identity constructions objects and the cultural evolutionary ledge and power in the manner in which
and representations of certain cultural perspectives which frame the Adivasis specific regimes of knowledge focuses
groups which seem questionable. Ethno- in museum displays. its hegemonic gaze on people who are
graphic museums tend to embody many This article has five parts. Section 1 framed as subjects through the mediation
of the anthropological assumptions briefly explores some of the conceptual discourses and structures. For example,
about indigenous cultures. Through issues related to the idea of the anthro- in his The Birth of the Clinic, Foucault
their image as purveyors of objective pological gaze. The focus of Section 2 is speaks about the "medical gaze" in
truth, museums have considerable po- the symbiotic relationship between terms of the observation of the patient,
tential to influence perceptions and atti- museums and anthropology which be- medical diagnosis, power relation
tudes of people who visit these galleries gan to take shape in the 19th century in between doctor and patients and the
(MacDonald and Alsford 2007: 276). the West. Section 3 looks at the emer- hegemony contained in medical know
However, museums are not neutral gence of ethnographic museums in India ledge. When the new medical science
places and they do not exist in a state and their relationship to anthropology, emerged in the 19th century, the gaze
of political innocence but rather they Section 4 focuses on some of the theo- was organised in a new way. Doctors
embody typical views of who hold retical questions regarding ethnographic became the representatives of the larger
power and those who can make these objects. And Section 5 explores some of medical institution which seemed to
collections in museums happen. Since the representations of the Adivasis in wield a power of its own. As Foucault
museums are carefully and artificially ethnographic museums. (2003:109) noted, "it was no longer the
constructed repositories, we need to gaze of an observer, but that of a doctor
examine the ideology and cultural as- 1 The Anthropological Gaze supported and justified by an institu
sumptions which inform these collections I would like to locate the dynamics which tion, that of a doctor endowed with
(Cannizo 2005: 24). makes the Adivasis and their lifeworld as power of decision and intervention."
This article suggests that the identity ethnographic spectacles primarily, but There are anthropologists who use the
constructions about the Adivasis encoded not exclusively within the conceptual term "anthropological gaze" (or ethno
in ethnographic museums, supported framework of the anthropological gaze, graphic gaze) to mean anthropological/

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 ε PERSPECTIVES

ethnographic observation, scrutiny, in- the shape and size of the skull, the face, who argues that the modern anthropo
quiry and investigation. This form of the nasal index, the relation of head size logists, through their fieldwork and writ
gaze is usually understood as benign to body size and height and weight. On ings, create their subjects as the "other."
and divested of power and control. For the basis of nasal index measurements According to Fabian, temporal dimen
instance, Blasco and Wardle (2007: 1) Thurston even came to the conclusion sion is significant in the anthropological
point out the need of "submitting ethno- that "intelligence is in inverse propor- construction of the other. The constitu
graphic texts to the anthropological gaze tion to the breadth of the nose" (Dirks tion of the other begins as a synchronic
and unpacking them as... any other cul- 2003:183-85). Given the cultural evolu- exercise in which anthropologists and
tural product." Perhaps anthropological tionist assumptions with which the colo- the people under study occupy a shared
gaze involves something more than niai anthropologists functioned, it is not historic time during fieldwork. But in
mere fieldwork, observation and investi- entirely surprising to see racist over- the fieldwork notes and ethnographic
gation. Though anthropology is very dif- tones in their ethnographic narratives. analysis, the observed subject is framed
ferent from the medical science in terms Historical evidences testify the imm- through a diachronic structure, gener
of orientation and method, it does hold ense power of anthropology to impose ating a wedge between the observed
certain forms of power. Anthropology, toxic identities on communities and and the observer,
which focuses its gaze on the cultural groups. During the colonial period, the This temporal distance, according to
body, wields the power to name, to label anthropological gaze often turned into a Fabian, makes the observed people as
and to confer identities and it derives its disciplinary gaze, acting as a template of people occupying an earlier, primal
power through the mediation of taxono- containment. For example, at the tail- time, which seem irreconcilable with
mies, discourses, institutions and the end of the 19th century identity markers the time occupied by the anthropologist,
structures. The power which anthro- like the "criminal tribes" were imposed In other words, in the new time frame,
pology exercises has its origins not so on certain groups who remained outside the subjects appear as "primitives," "sav
much in a given discursive template, but the colonial control, in order to disci- ages," "static," who inhabit a very differ
rather in the institutional and structural pline and to punish. It has been pointed ent time compared to that of the anthro
arrangements which surround that dis- that in the 19th century, the emerging pologist, who obviously belong to the
course. Similarly, the power does not disciplines of anthropometry and an- modern time. Thus, in anthropology, the
belong to individual anthropologists as thropology contributed to the idea of creation of the other involves an epis
such, but to the structures and institu- hereditary criminality. According to temic process in which the temporal rel
iions which lend legitimacy to the Radhakrishna (2001: 3-4), anthropo- egation of the "primitive," to a distant
anthropological episteme. metry and anthropology "in India ad- past, relative to the "civilised" society,
I would like to indicate very briefly the dressed themselves to the study of par- becomes a key distancing device which
nexus between knowledge/power and ticular sections of the Indian population, he terms as the "denial of coevalness."
anthropology which began to crystallise mostly indigenous 'tribal' communities According to Fabian, the denial of coe
in an unprecedented way in colonial India, and itinerant groups, and contributed in valness is "a persistent and systematic
By mid-i9th century anthropology/ a very substantial way to the conceptual tendency to place the referent(s) of
ethnography had become part and par- outline of a criminal in the popular anthropology in a Time other than
eel of the colonial statecraft and it was mind." Many of these groups still carry the present of the producer of anthropo
deeply implicated in governing, contro- the stigma, even long after that label logical discourse" (1983: 31). By refr
lling, disciplining and even punishing was abolished. Colonial anthropologi- acting Time into primitive time ("their
the subject population. If there was a cal/ethnographic investigations were time") the modernist bias in anthro
unifying thread in colonial anthro- neither disinterested nor dispassionate pological gaze relegates its referents into
pology, it was the construction of the pursuits, but these knowledge produc- frozen temporality and to the margins
non-Europeans as the cultural other. tions were part and parcel of the intri- of history.
The colonial anthropologists of cul- cate power structures which mediated
tural evolutionary persuasion employed the governance and containment of the 2 Museum Anthropology
"scientific" methods in their ethnogra- subject population. In the context of Adivasi representa
phic pursuits and transposed cultural Fabian (2001: 104) has pointed out tions, it is important to explore the sym
differences into cultural hierarchies. For that an anthropologist's encounter with biotic relationship between museums
instance, Edgar Thurston (1855-1935), other cultures "has always been deter- and anthropology because ethnography
the superintendent of ethnography for mined by relations of power." Often the is a complex "mode of thinking that has
Madras Presidency, began using anthro- anthropological gaze entails power dis- proven difficult to shake off and contin
pometry and nasal index by collecting parity when it frames its subject, who ues to influence how indigenous peoples
the physical measurement of selected stands outside its episteme, through tax- are represented in museums and related
casts and tribes with a view of classify- onomies, classificatory schemes and rep- cultural institutions" (Silverman 2009: 9).
ing and cataloguing them. Anthropome- resentations. The creation of this power The emergence of museums is very
try included detailed measurements of differential has been explored by Fabian much linked to colonial expansion by

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PERSPECTIVES

European nations in the 18th and 19th support social evolutionary and diffu- sociocultural locations and power stru
centuries which facilitated the tradition sionist theories of human development, ctures of the ethnographic practitioners,
of collecting materials deemed exotic. Museums were spaces in which anthro- they are not wholly neutral. Social rep
Moreover, the "history of ethnographic pologists could engage and educate the resentations become the "institutiona
museum collections must be seen in the general public, yet they also frequently lised instruments for maintenance of the
context of the natural history tradition functioned as sites for the ideological symbolic order, and hence among the
that included the study not only of legitimisation of colonial enterprises mechanisms of the reproduction of the
plants, animals, rocks and minerals, but and civilising missions. Moreover, the social order whose very functioning
also of exotic peoples" (Mehos 2008: material cultures of "savage" societies serves the interests of those occupying a
173). Early ethnographic museums and which exhibited graphically the cross- dominant position on the social struc
natural history museums often com- cultural differences could be used to tures" (Gonzalez et al 2001: 165). As
bined as one institution and these were illustrate the supposed backwardness of mediators of anthropological knowledge,
the result of colonial overseas activities non-European subjects (Gonzalez et al ethnographic museums can be seen as
rather than purely of academic interest 2001:106-07). one of the "institutionalised instru
(Mehos 2008). In the context of emer- In the history of anthropology, the ments" in contributing to the tribal
gent colonialism, "the material proper- "period from 1840s to 1890s is known as identity construction in various parts of
ties of the tribal peoples were classed the 'museum period" because museums the world,
with strange flora and fauna, as objects were the most important institutional
of wonder and delight, to be collected as base for anthropologists at that point in 3 Ethnographic Museums in India
trophies, souvenirs, or amusing curiosi- time. During this period, anthropology Compared to the West, there are some
ties during one's travels to far and dis- had not yet been introduced in the West- significant differences in the relationship
tant lands" (Ames 1992: 50). In the 19th ern universities. Museums not only pro- between museums and anthropology in
century, the inclusion of indigenous peo- vided jobs and funding for research and the Indian context. In colonial India
pies wjio were deemed "primitive" in publications, but their collections also anthropology emerged not primarily
museums and exhibitions were seen as served as data sources for research pro- through museums, but out of the practi
the extension as well as specimens of jects (Gonzalez et al 2001: 108). In the cal exigencies of governing Indians,
"nature." In the early years of museums, mid-i9th century, since ethnology was Social and cultural knowledge of Indians
both objects of natural history and cul- deeply implicated in the study and com- was crucial for the maintenance of their
tural artefacts were kept and displayed parison of material cultures, museums increasing territories and by the end of
together. The main objective of early emerged as the key site for the visual the 18th century information gathering
anthropological display was to present display of material culture (Penny 2002: began to be institutionalised. The British
artefacts from "primitive societies" as if 26). Anthropology started out in muse- conquest of India, as Cohn (1997: 5) has
they were specimen similar to those of ums in the 19th century, but it evolved pointed out, was a conquest of knowl
natural history (Ames 1992). itself into an academic discipline in the edge through various investigative mo
Since the emergence of anthropology universities in Europe and in the us only dalities, in which history-writing played
as a discipline in the 19th century, muse- after the fieldwork revolution at the be- a crucial role. However, after the revolt
ums have been important sites of rese- ginning of the 20th century. As anthropo- of 1857, anthropology supplanted history
arch. For Franz Boas, who is considered logy moved away from museums to the as the principal colonial modality of
as the founder of professional anthro- universities, starting from the 1890s into knowledge. By late 19th century the co
pology in the United States (us), muse- the 1920s, the role of museums as the lonial state in India had become what
ums are not only the storehouses where source for anthropology declined. Dirks (2003: 43-44) called an "ethno
objects are preserved and scrutinised It would be somewhat simplistic to graphic state" and it functioned with the
scientifically, but assume that museum anthropology belief that India could be understood,
they are also the place where scientific ma- merely displays and represents cultural controlled and ruled through anthropo
terials from distant countries, vanishing objects and traditions of people. As logical knowledge. In the beginning,
species, paleontological remains, and ob- Gonzalez et al (2001: 97) noted, anthro- Indian anthropologists concentrated a

^served KSure dÎ'and may thus PoloSical Perceptions and cognitions great deal on the study of the "primitive
be made the basis of studies which, with- tend to function beyond their bounda- or "tribal" communities, but before long
out them, would be impossible (quoted by ries and become crystallised in taxono- they expanded their range of observa
Brown 2014: 64). mies, identity constructs and structures, tion and enquiry (Béteille 2010: 374).
For Boas, vanishing species and ob- These perceptions and taxonomies also Colonial anthropology contributed
jects used by vanishing tribes belong to tend to reproduce themselves through substantially to the production of the
the same continuum of the natural the mediation of hierarchies and sym- tribe as the cultural other. As Béteille
world. From the mid-i9th century, mu- bolic structural relations. Since the (1998: 187) notes the 19th century "an
seum collections provided anthropolo- supposed "objective" anthropological thropological view was that the tribe
gists with artefacts that could be used to representations come from the specific represented not only a particular type of

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 ; PERSPECTIVES

society, but also a particular stage of evo- known initially as the Imperial Museum, objects. Some of the anthropological
luùon." As Rycroft and Dasgupta (2011: 4) had two main sections: archaeological- departments of Indian universities have
observe, in contrast to "the close inter- ethnological and geological-zoological organised ethnographic museums as
face between Hindu society and colonial (Sen 2011: 38). In 1865, most of the col- part of academic pursuits. The anthro
modernity, the 'tribe' typified geogra- lections of the Asiatic Society were pology department of the Delhi Univer
phical, cultural and economic separate- transferred to the Imperial Museum and sity began an anthropological museum
ness, and hence, resonated with notions in 1892 it was renamed as Indian Muse- in 1947 and has more than 3,000 cultur
of'the primitive'." Moreover, in "colonial um. Lahore Museum which came into al objects in its collection. The Govern
records, ethnologies and many Indian existence in 1856 had ethnographic ment of India has set up 18 Tribal
regional-language texts, a typical char- specimens in its huge collection and this Research Institutes in different states
acterisation was that, being'primitive,'a museum benefited from the contribu- and some of these institutes have
'tribe' was necessarily body-centric, tions made by the departments of antiq- established ethnographic museums,
unthinking, extravagant, even violent" uities, natural history and ethnography Apart from the museums owned by the
(Bannerjee 2010: 126). Colonial ethno- (Bhatti 2012: 58-9). Tribal Research Institutes, the Anthro
graphy, which was deeply rooted in cul- Madras Central Museum was estab- pological Survey of India has the central
tural evolutionism, provided the justifi- lished in 1851 in the College of Fort museum located in Kolkata. The Anthro
cation not only to subjugate the Adiva- St George and this museum began collect- pological Survey of India has set up zon
sis, but also to "civilise" them, who were ing ethnographic objects in 1878 under al anthropological museums at six re
deemed primitive. The views of nation- the directorship of Surgeon General Dr Ε gional and one subregional centres.2
alist politicians, most of whom belonged George Bidie. However, the ethnology There are several ethnographic muse
to the upper caste, were quite similar to section of this museum got a boost un- urns owned by state governments which
British officials in perceiving "tribals" as der Edgar Thurston, who was appointed focus on the tribal world and their
"savages" or "primitives," people far as the head of the government museum material culture,
removed from the civilised and modern in Madras in 1885 (Prakash 1999: 22). In It would not be far from the truth
state. The civilising mission of the his capacity as the superintendent of in suggesting that independent India
nationalist politicians "was if anything, ethnography, Thurston conducted the inherited many of the colonial anthro
more urgent because the Indian nation survey of castes and tribes of Madras pological taxonomies and identity con
could not become truly modern until the Presidency and during this period he structions. Much of anthropological re
backwardness of 'tribals' was removed, collected ethnographic materials for the search regarding Indian tribes are being
Adivasis had to be 'developed,' they had museum. Soon he set up an anthropo- carried out by major government institu
to join the 'mainstream,' they were to metric laboratory in the museum tions like the Anthropological Survey of
assimilate" (van Schendel 2011: 22). (McGowan 2003: 602). Lucknow State India and the Tribal Research Centres
Colonial ethnography which produced Museum and Nagpur Central Museum located in various Indian states. Karlsson
the image of the tribals as primitive not which came into existence in 1863 and (2013: 27), commenting on the anthro
only influenced administrative policies 1864, respectively, had ethnographic ob- pological literature produced by these
about them, but also laid the foun- jects in their collections. The first muse- institutions, points out that "most accounts
dations for how India's Adivasis came um in Gujarat, the Kutch Museum, was on tribal communities are written in a
to be represented in the ethnographic established in 1877 by the princely state functionalist, or even evolutionist style,
museums. " rulers of Kutch and it has ethnographic not very different from that of the British
The emergence of museums in India exhibits. Baroda Museum which was administrators."
goes back to the establishment of the started in 1894 by Maharaja Sayajirao In the postcolonial period, constitu
Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 by Gaekwad has paleontology and ethno- tional provisions have led to the Indian
William Jones. In his memorandum for logy sections. The Andhra Historical Re- government getting deeply involved in
an Indian museum at the East India search Society started a museum which framing Adivasi identity: the state has
House (1799), Charles Wilkins, a mem- had ethnographic collection in 1928. the prerogative to decide which groups
ber of the Asiatic Society, argued that Since the remuneration prospects were should be included in the list of
the museum would be "very desirable to very limited in Indian museums, not Scheduled Tribes. In India, till recently
the lovers and promoters of Eastern many were willing to take up jobs in many tribal groups were called "primi
learning..." (quoted by Nayar 2012: 215). these institutions (Sarkar 2005:15-16). tive" and they were listed in a special
But the concrete proposal for establish- government schedule. But now, the
ment of the museum came from Nathan- After Independence Ministry of Tribal Affairs has changed
iel Wallich, a Danish botanist and the The number of ethnographic museums the name of primitive tribal groups
member of the Asiatic Society. The mu- began increasing after Indian independ- into "Particularly Vulnerable Tribal
seum came into existence in 1814, which ence. National Museum (Delhi), which be- Groups".3 Some of these anthropological
became the first museum in British gan in 1949 and inaugurated in i960, has perspectives seem to have percolated
India. Society's museum, which was a separate galleiy of the ethnographic into the ethnographic displays in
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Indian museums in the context of collected and displayed ethnographic It would appear that a sense of cultural
representing the Adivasis and their objects are never meant to be displayed otherness and strangeness that are fra
material culture. in the first place. Ethnographic objects med through the display of objects related
are objects of ethnography because to the Adivasis in Indian ethnographic
4 Construction of "they are artefacts created by ethnogra- museums, shares the assumptions of
Ethnographic Objects phers when they define, segment, detach cultural evolutionism propounded by
The epistemic basis of the ethnographic and carry them away. Such fragments be- Victorian anthropologists. There are
museums is anthropologically derived in come ethnographic objects by virtue of several non-tribal groups in India who
the sense that the objects displayed in the manner in which, they have been deta- also use the same or similar objects and
these museums are collected through ched" (Kirschenblatt-Gimblett 1998: 2). tools but their artefacts are not deemed
fieldwork and involve documentation Moreover, museums are spaces of abs- interesting enough to be displayed in
and cataloguing. Objects and artefacts tractions because in their fresh display ethnographic museums. According to
displayed in ethnographic museums be- locations, the objects are invested with a Shelton (2006: 484), "because material
long chiefly to what is usually termed new ethnographic meaning, detached culture is usually embodied with mean
the material culture of people. Ethno- from their original location and signifi- ing retrospectively, and reanimated
graphic objects in Indian museums cance. Thus the value and meaning of through its role within particular exhibi
include, among other things, a large ethnographic objects have specific con- tions, displays are often infused with the
variety of items such as agricultural im- texts in which they originated and their 'air' of an 'other,' expired time." Because
plements, fish traps, bird cages, bamboo dislocated display in museums truncates of this reason, museums conjure up not
baskets, drums, musical instruments, the complexity and meaning. If this is only an imagined Adivasi past, but also a
hairpins, combs, masks, arrows, spears, true, then, the cultural encounter invol- fossilised vision of their cultural present,
knives, memorial-pillars, sacred objects, ved in the anthropological gaze becomes In the context of the material culture
objects of art, ornaments, male and necessarily fragmented. associated with museums, it is impor
female dresses, utensils, pots, earthen In the context of material culture an- tant to note that there is a tendency to
granaries, and grinding stones. In the thropologists like Fabian (2007: 52) have focus on the Adivasis as a "purely cul
history of anthropology, the study of focused on "the construction of other- tural entity" to the exclusion of them as
material culture had been associated ness in objects." The fact that most of the historical and political subjects. Much of
with the cultural materials of non- cultural objects displayed in ethnographic the materials that are available about
literate people aqd groups who func- museums are collected from non-literate "tribes" and their pasts are of the nature
tioned mainly within the framework of societies may tell us something about of "cultural" forms, framed in oral tradi
oral tradition (Stahl 2010: 154). In the the perception of cultural otherness ex- tions which are not quite amenable to
absence of written documents, the study emplified in these exhibits. More or less usual type of history-writing through
of material culture provided anthropo- from the 16th century, writing had come the staging of evidence and counter
logists with evidences about how non- to be seen as a sign of "being civilised" evidence about the past. Against the
literate groups lived and organised their and until recently, there was a tendency backdrop of modern history, "Adivasi
cultures. The study of these cultural to mark the absence of writing as the cri- self-representations, as opposed to offi
artefacts of the non-literate groups were terion to distinguish the primitive from cial and intellectual representations of
supplemented through the investigation the civilised (van der Veer 1999: 140). them, inevitably come across as myths,
of myths and legends contained in their Moreover, the adoption of "evolution as poetry and song"· (Bannerjee 2010:134).
oral traditions. the dominant paradigm for anthropo
In spite of the supposed objectivity as- logy in the late 18th and 19th centuries 5 Museum Representations
sociated with museums, it is important transformed the theoretical basis for ex- In recent years, scholars have focused on
to pay attention to the paradox involved plaining cultural differences and, in par- the role of museums in constructing
in objects deemed ethnographic which ticular, the existence of savage societies" identities and their representational
are displayed therein. Cultural objects (Winthrop 1991: 219). In evolutionary practices. Against the backdrop of what
have a history before they enter ethno- perspective the savages and the primi- we have seen so far, it is fruitful to ex
graphic museums. Kirschenblatt-Gimblett tives did not possess "history" and in the plore the visual images, representational
(1998: 3) has argued that ethnographic absence of the textual matrix of history, idioms, and the anthropological assum
objects are made, not found, despite the primitives need to be studied ptions about the Adivasis which circu
claims to the contrary: "They (ethno- through their material culture. Thus, for late in the tribal museums and how they
graphic objects) did not begin their lives Edmé François Jomard, a French archaeo- encode cultural differences, making them
as ethnographic objects. They became logist and cartographer of the 19th cen- into spectacles. As pointed out before, in
ethnographic through process of detach- tury, "ethnography meant the collection the production of the cultural other, the
ment and contextualisation." In other of artefacts of "savage" peoples which anthropological gaze is intimately linked
words, there is a paradox involved in the would explain the history of race" (Rony to the notion of the exotic. But it must be
museum exhibits in the sense that the 2001: 38). noted that the museum representations
40 October 3, 2015 vol l no 40 0EE3 Economic & Political weekly

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 PERSPECTIVES

of the Adivasis as exotic are present Adivasis have simple needs have rather "noble savage." Several dioramas in eth
mainly as underlying assumptions medi- simple brains" (Steur 2010: 234). nographic museums locate the Adivasis
ated through the display of ethnographic Some Indian museologists tend to and their lifeworld as embedded in
objects and dioramas. The ethnological believe that the Adivasis have not at- nature. For example, in the National
museum which is a part of the Kerala In- tained sufficient degree of differentia- Museum in Kolkata, there is a long room
stitute for Research, Training and Devel- tion in their material culture. By this which has glass cabinets on either side
opment Studies of Scheduled Castes and they mean that the tribal life, art, reli- with life-sized dioramas of tribal groups
Tribes (kirtads), houses a large collec- gion and artefacts constitute an undif- from the North East. Each of the major
tion of objects pertaining to various ferentiated continuum of their lifeworld. tribal groups has a cabinet. The back
tribes of Kerala. We are informed that These assumptions are based on an imp- grounds of these dioramas "are painted
the museum has been shifted to a new licit comparison with the dominant soci- with forest or mountain views, depend
building in 2000 and the "new Museum ety, which is supposed to have achieved ing on the ethnic group being depicted,
is spacious with exotic artefacts on a relatively high degree of differentia- suggesting an intimate connection to
display.'1· It is important to note that the tion. Often the non-differentiation in the nature" (McDuie-Ra 2012: 92).
"exotic" is not an inherent property of an tribal world is located in the area of art This notion of "close to nature" is
object or people, but rather the result of and craft. Thus, according to Soni and linked to the idea that the tribals had
a particular form of perception and Soni (2005: 110), "virtually most tribal been always forest-dwellers. Historian
interpretation (Huggan 2001:13). People art are, in a sense, a craft and it can be Archana Prasad has interrogated the no
and objects do not radiate exoticism but said that their craft is an expression of tion that the Adivasis have always lived
rather they are made exotic through the their art." Similarly, the website of the in the forests and engaged in shifting
ideology of cultural otherness. In other Madhya Pradesh Tribal Museum states cultivation from time immemorial. In
words, the exotic is not something that that "there is no such thing as art sepa- some parts of Chhattisgarh region, the
exists prior to and independent of its rately in tribal life. But if looked inversely, Gond tribals who were the cultivators in
"discovery," but rather, it is the very act of not even simplest of things like broom or the plains have been forced to settle in
discovery that produces the exotic sil-batta (grinding stone) are not un- forests because of colonial policies. Spe
(Mason 1998:1-2). It is precisely through touched by aesthetics."6 cifically, the British policy of the perma
the process of representational ideology To put it differently, unlike the main- nent settlement of agriculture and the
that the Adivasis and their material stream society, the tribals have not yet introduction of the zamindari system
culture are made to appear exotic. achieved a state where art can have an forced the tribals to settle in the remote
The presumed Adivasi cultural other- independent existence and hence, Adi- forests. The Adivasis deciding to settle in
ness frequently represented in ethno- vasi aesthetics reside in artefacts of daily forests, at least in some regions of the
graphic museums through artefacts and usage. In the words of Mohanti (nd: 35), country, has to do with the early capita
social structures consists in the view tribal art "is a manifestation of creative listic formation in colonial India (Prasad
that they belong to "simple" people, genius of people in a simple communi- 2003: 1-72). Thus, as Virginius Xaxa
Anthropologists of the late 19th century cable form, by using such materials as points out, the idea of the Adivasis as the
were interested in primitive societies are available readily at hand." For Sarkar "original people" has nothing to do with
because it was held that they displayed (nd: 40), "tribal art is not 'art for art's living in the forest. In other words,
institutions in their simplest forms sake'" in the modern sense because though forests have played an important
(Evans-Pritchard 1982: 8). Often, the so- there is hardly "any object, which is part in their economic and social life,
cial organisation of the Adivasis is also exclusively prepared for the sake of art tribal identity cannot be tied exclusively
represented as simple. Andhra Tribal appreciation." The distinction between to the forests. This might explain, at
Museum, which exhibits Lambada, art and craft which originated in Europe least in part, why there is a difference in
Yanadi, Yerukula and Chenchu tribes, was then applied globally in the context the way the tribal identity is articulated
has this to say: "The social organisation of the European colonial expansion by the Adivasis themselves and by right
and recreation of these simpler folk (M'Closkey 2001: 113). When the tribal wing political discourse. The tribals call
societies scattered in the hills and for- world is looked through the prism of themselves Adivasis and the right-wing
ests present a whole gamut of human non-tribal categories, the resulting ideology who deny them this status, "de
behavior."5 The attribute of being simple conclusions can be somewhat different scribe them as vanvasis, a term which
locates the Adivasis in the lower rungs of from the understandings of Adivasis the former take as derogatory" (Xaxa
the evolutionary hierarchy, who are themselves. 2004:1473). Just as anthropological gaze
qualitatively different from the main- relegates Adivasis to a different "time," the
stream society. As a response to the The Noble Savage idea of the Adivasis as "forest-dwellers"
notion that the Adivasis have only simple Another common representation in eth- and vanvasis, tends to consign them to a
needs and they lack the desires of the nographic museum consists in the depic- different "space," namely, forest-space
middle class, C Κ Janu, a tribal activist tion of the tribals as people close to "na- characterised by wilderness, remote
from Kerala, remarked: "Those who say ture," implicitly evoking the idea of the ness, inaccessibility and isolation.

Economic & Political weekly E3333 October 3, 2015 vol l no 40 41

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perspectives;

The overwhelming presence of the primeval objects and traditional mode of domination, which find no place in the
tribal material culture in ethnographic living." Thus, "to represent the real fea- representations of the tribal past in eth
museums is linked to the notion of the ture of tribal life and culture it is high nographic museums. The Adivasi ethno
Adivasi as the "vanishing tribe." One of the time to collect and to preserve the tangi- graphic past cannot be reduced merely
objectives in collecting and preserving ble objects in the ethnographic muse- to the display of their material culture
Adivasi material culture in India is urns." The idea behind "salvage ethnog- and this past needs to be expanded to
exemplified in the perspective known as raphy" consists in the view that the Adi- include a broader view of Adivasi history,
"salvage ethnography." In North America, vasis belong to another time and space, The anthropological gaze that locates
towards the end of the 19th century "the and therefore, we must collect their the Adivasis in a different spatio-tempo
idea of the 'vanishing Indian' took hold material culture before they "vanish." ral framework not only constructs them
in anthropology—leading to a specia- as the cultural other, but also relegates
lised field known as "salvage ethno- Conclusions them to the margins of history,
graphy," which sought to save tradition- Ethnographic museums need to rethink Moreover, ethnographic displays entail
al knowledge, life ways and material the representational processes involved asymmetrical power relations between
culture" (Neptune 2011: 344). about tribal communities. By their very those who have the authority to control
Institutional collecting in Indian mu- nature, museums tend to be highly representations and those who do not
seums is stimulated, among other selective in representing the past of a possess such power. From the 1960s on
things, by concerns that the Adivasis are given culture. As Shelton (2006: 487) has wards in some Western countries, where
abandoning their cultural practices and observed, encoding memory "in museums museums have undergone significant
that soon there would be nothing left to is always selective and necessarily acco- changes, new perspectives and methods
collect. Some feel that rapid industriali- mpanied by amnesia." According to Stock- have been introduced. Museums have
sation and modernisation have brought ing (1985: 4) museums are "institutions sought to empower indigenous people
about considerable changes in the life- in which the forces of historical inertia and have begun to introduce the display
style of the tribals and as a result, their (or "cultural lag") are profoundly, per- of historical events along with material
traditional arts and artefacts are gradu- haps inescapably, implicated." By over- culture (Gonzalez et al 2001:108). More
ally disappearing. Das (nd: 47) writes: looking historical contexts which have and more museums in North America
"At the critical juncture of time, a mas- contributed to the fragmentation of Adi- are getting the indigenous populations
sive salvage programme, to collect and vasi culture, tribal museums in India involved in organising and running
retrieve the vestiges and record the tend to encode selective memories in these institutions. In Canada there is a
already disappeared forms, is to be museums. There are several historical recognition that indigenous communi
launched." Similarly, for Bhowmick memories of the Adivasis like the loss of ties whose cultures are represented in
(2005: 70) the tribals who are now living forests due to colonial policies, massive museums, ought to have their views
in the industrial-belts and urban areas displacement because of development taken in to account. In India, where the
"show a tendency to shed off their projects and numerous struggles against majority of ethnographic museums are

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managed by central and state govern
ments, the new notions of community
involvement and giving control of muse
ums to the communities are yet to
evolve. Meanwhile, there is a serious
need to rethink about the representa
tional practices of museum anthropolo
gy which see the Adivasis merely as cul
tural subjects to the exclusion of them as
historical agents.
NOTES
Gujarat Tourism, viewed on 7 May 2014, http://
www.gujarattourism.com/showpage.aspx7con
tentid=297&webpartid=56o
Anthropological Survey of India, available at:
http://www.ansi.gov.in/museum_l.htm;
viewed on 19 May 2014.
http://tribal.nic.in/C0ntent/Particularly%20
Vulnerable%2oTribal%2oGroup.aspx; Ministry
of Tribal Affairs, viewed on 25 May 2014.
K1RTADS, viewed on 12 June 2014, http://
www.kirtads.kerala. gov.in/index.php? option
= com_ content&view=article&id=46&Item
id—54
Andhra Tribal'Museum, viewed on 20 April
2014, http://aptribes.gov.in/html/tcr-musium.
htm
Madhya Pradesh Tribal Museum, viewed on
20 April 2014, http://mptribalmuseum.com/
tribal-esthetic.html
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