From photography to ethnography: Andamanese documents and documentation

The paper examines the role of visualization in communicating the image of the Andamanese hunters and gatherers. Applying semiotic system to derive “Photemes,” the analysis presents a process of what should be depicted and how it is depicted for the signified Andamanese image. Considering the range of documents, and the political process of documentation, including photography, the paper focuses on why there was a conscious effort to create an illusion between linguistically and visually conveyed realities of Andamanese through various phases of history.     

Rathwa Pithoro: Writing about Writing and Reading Painted Ethnography

Based on fieldwork among the Rathwa tribal community of Gujarat, this article is an analysis of the ritual and installation of wall painting known as Pithoro. The analysis of the culture's own construct of what constitutes writing and reading is considered to bring out the magical power in interpreting that which is written and/or drawn. As the reading capacity is more significant, especially the one undertaken by the ritual specialist, the ethnographic account treats the paintings installed not only for the sake of ritual but to alter politicoeconomic situations of the Rathwa tribals in the course of history. This article presents the paintings as a total communication system, which is not just the work of art drawn but also written within the culture, as their own ethnography for the culture itself.     

Time to move: winds and the political economy of space in Andamanese culture

Seasons, or temporal duration, for Andamanese are created by the flow of winds through the Andamanese cultural construct of space, which is neither fixed nor constant. In order to organize the space for society, Andaman islanders have to move constantly out from the place where the winds are. Winds associated with temperamental spirits are powerful aspects of nature that culture has to negotiate. Within this worldview where winds affect individual body condition and the capacity to continue hunting and gathering, Andaman islanders negotiate space by creating conditions that invite winds to structure and sustain life. For this purpose, smells are ritualized and wind movements are manipulated. As a result, seasons are distinguished either by winds that are spirit-given, or by a lack of winds caused by islanders' actions. Based on ethnographic data from the Ongees and Jarwas, this analysis will focus on how various forms of movement in Andamanese culture are negotiated according to a political economy of winds and smells. The worldview of the Andaman islanders, within which winds are so central, has major implications for government authorities, who are keen to confine the translocating Jarwas to a specific and permanent location. But is this possible for the Andamanese, for whom space, like time, changes by the presence and absence of winds?