Ethnoarchaeology

in India
ANTHROPOLOGY

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Ethnoarchaeology in India
Ethnoarchaeology is application of ethnological knowledge into archaeological studies.

According to Jesse Fewkes, who first used the term in 1900, ethnoarchaeology is the study of contemporary
communities with the goal of reconstructing ancient cultures in conjunction with surviving archaeological
artifacts.

 Ethno-archaeology is similar to ethnography but with the specific purpose of understanding how such
societies use material culture.

Background And Scope

Ethnographic evidence was not given much consideration by archaeologists until the 1950s when
determining the chronologies and importance of artifacts. However, since the 1950s, archaeologists have
been researching how communities functioned in particular locations. They are better able to comprehend
the prehistoric cultures of that area by fusing the ethnographic information with the discovered
archaeological relics.

Archaeological sites

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS

ETHNO-ARCHAEOLOGY ARCHAEOLOGY

HUMAN ACTIVITY AND

CULTURE
Living sites

Development In India
The Deccan College carried out some of the first investigations at a few Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites. To
better understand India's prehistoric era, Indian archaeologists have more recently started studying the
tribes of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand.

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flowchart- Process of Ethno-archaeology

History Of Ethnoarchaeology
 Ethnographic data was used by some late 19th century archaeologists to understand archaeological
sites.

 Today ethnoarchaeology is accepted and perhaps standard practice for most archaeological studies.

KRAMER, a lady anthropologist from the university of Arizona has done important work on ethno-
archaeology of India.

 Her major contributions to ethnoarchaeology includes-

1. Village ethno-archaeology (1982)

2. Pottery in rajasthan (1977)

3. Ethno-achaeology in action ‘ jointly with Nicholas David published in 2001.

According to KRAMER, ethnographic fieldwork was carried out with the purpose of enhancing archaeological
research by documenting aspects of sociocultural behavior likely to leave identifiable residue in the
archaeological record.

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Ethno-Archaeology As A Research Strategy

 Ethno-archaeology 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.

 An ethno archaeologist 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.

 In order to understand the material culture preserved in traditional practices, ethnoarchaeology tries to
study the possible correlation between the material culture of the people on one side and the
unobservable social relation or spiritual life on the other.

Thus material data can be used to integrate knowledge to other non-material facets of society which are
reflected and embedded in tradition.

Significance Of Ethnoarchaeology
1. Ethnoarchaeology improves in understanding archaeological records.

 Archaeology records can only be understood if we know how it came and how it formed.

2. A comparison of cultures objects, and also of associated finds, enables us to draw conclusions about
handicrafts, hunting, gathering and fishing.

Ethnoarchaeology In India
Study of analogy derived from present observation to aid interpretation of the past event was utilized in
Indian archaeology too.

 JH MACKAY largely depended on modern ethnographic analogies to interpret the excavated evidence
of Mohenjodaro and Chanudaro.

 John Marshall attempted to avail existing evidence quite extensively to interpret the excavated
materials of Mohenjodaro.

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Sources Of Ethno Archaeological Data

Ethnographic data can answer many difficult or unsolved questions of archaeologists.

Following ethnographic data are used for solving archaeological problems.

1. Settlement patterns.

2. Site structure and activities.

3. Burial practices.

 Material culture.

1. Settlement and subsistence system

Settlement and Subsistence systems of different tribes residing in different regions could help in the study
of primitive settlement and subsistence systems of the region. It could also provide data in relation to the
primitive ecology, environment, climate, flora and fauna etc.

E.g. The shifting cultivation and terrace cultivation practiced by different tribal groups of Orissa and
Jharkhand make available evidence to the subsistence strategies of early Neolithic culture of the region.

2. Site structure and Activities

Ethnography of crafts like

 Traditional method of iron smelting craft of the Asuras and Kolhas,

 The pottery and terracotta manufacturing technique,

 Dokra craft of Mayurbhanj and Dhenkanal districts of Orissa as well as other brassware, bamboo and
other wooden crafts

Shows technological continuity from the remote past.

3. Burial practices
Ethnographic study of burial practices is very useful for interpretation of burial sites of archaeological
context.

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4. Material Culture.
Material culture comprises any house, building or structure, tools and other artifacts that include any
material item that has had cultural meaning ascribed to it in past and present.

Survivals And Parallels

Survivals, in anthropology, cultural phenomena that outlive the set of conditions under which they
developed. The term was first employed by the British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor in his Primitive
Culture (1871). Tylor thought that supposedly illogical traditions and ideas, like folk superstitions, were
actually relics of past rational habits.

Continuing customs that maintained their function or meaning are called parallels and those that had lost
their utility and were poorly integrated with the rest of culture as survivors.

Tylor later expanded the notion of survivals to include material culture.

Some of the hunting and gathering, foraging communities reflect the idea of survival and parallel

Juang tribe of Keonjhar district of Odisha

Their economy revolves around hunting and gathering and shifting cultivation. For hunting , they go in bands
of kin members.

There is a Youth Dormitory or a separate hut for boys locally known as “Majang” at the entrance of the
village. At the center of Majang , a huge wooden log is kept burning. This is regarded as sacred fire. On
important ritual occasions the members from every household would take fire from the wooden log. On the
occasions of marriage, ancestor worship etc, taking fire from this wooden log is a ritual practice.

Juangs believed that this fire was an important possession of the community.

Their folk tales, folk songs and myths revolve around this fire. Archaeologists conclude that this practice of
maintaining fire at Majang is an example of cultural survival that continued from the initial days of the
discovery of fire.

Among of tribes of Andaman

In the tribal communities in Andaman Islands like Sentinelese of Sentinel Island and the neighboring
communities like Shompen and Onges, there is a practice of decorating the body. Different forms of body art
are made by using a very fine variety of stones which are Microliths. The Sentinelese have been isolated
for 60,000 years, which is why they are often given the nickname "Stone Age" for their island way of life. In

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this way, they are related to their pre-Neolithic forebears directly. So the use of microliths in body art may be
compared, but it is also possible that pre-Neolithic people carried on this tradition.

Some of the fishing communities from Andhra Pradesh and Odisha like
Nolia community studied by Surya Narayana
The Nolia are fishermen and carry out deep sea fishing. They worshiped the Bay of Bengal as their mother.
The popular term they used to refer to the sea is Ganga Matha. Their huts are built in a circular manner with
burnt bricks, Thatched roofs and they used to burn the floor to make it tough. They use wooden boats or
canoes. Interestingly no iron is used to make the boat. They believe it to be inauspicious if the boat or
Teppa have at least some iron nails in it.

Role in ethnoarchaeology of survival and parallel

Ethnoarchaeology focuses on studying contemporary communities in order to reconstruct ancient cultures
using still-existing archaeological artifacts. Hence Archaeologists look for parallels and survival elements in
modern society to further their knowledge of the artifacts they find.

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