Indian Antiquary Vol 54

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 65

MARCH, 1925] REMARKS ON THE ANDAMAN ISLANDERS AND THEIR COUNTRY
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"(1) Any object that contributes to the well-being of the society is believed to afford protection against evil.
(2) The degree of protective power it is believed to possess depends on the importance of the services it actually renders to the society.
(3) The kind of special service it does actually render."
Mr. Brown commences by the consideration of the use of odu clay, (1) in mourning, (2) at initiation, (3) in the crapuli design. Here he disagrees with Mr. Man (pp. 265-268), especially as to the meaning of the term 'hot' to an Andamanese. So we are not on firm ground as to the interpretation of language. Mr. Brown's explanation (p. 268) is Mr. Man's second explanation, the Andamanese paint themselves for protection against being smelt by the spirits. This leads Mr. Brown to an interesting observation (p. 268) that the Andamanese "identify the smell of an object with its active magical principle." They also think that if they do not destroy the smell by painting themselves after eating certain objects they will become ill.
Dangerous Foods.
This argument leads to that of certain foods being dangerous in association with sickness and the Spirits. The danger of foods is not equal, and Mr. Brown gives a sort of gradation (p. 269) from dugong to vegetables: the most difficult to possess is the most highly prized and dangerous. Hence Mr. Brown puts forward (p. 270) a proposition, "that the custom of painting the body after eating food is an expression of the social value of food." What the Andamanese feels, therefore, is (p. 272) "not a fear of food, but a sense of the social value of food."
This interpretation brings Mr. Brown into a difficulty, which he thus expresses (pp. 272273): "the sense of the social value of such things as fire and the materials used for weapons translates itself into the belief that these things afford protection against danger. This would seem at first sight to be contradicted by the explanation that I have just given of the belief in the danger of food." He proceeds to face the difficulty and to show that the materials of food that are dangerous (i.e., cause harm) in themselves are a protection when used "according to custom": e.g., (p. 273) "wearing ornaments of the bones of animals that have been eaten," and thus expressing the social value of the animals. He believes that the preservation of the skulls of animals difficult to kill is regarded (p. 274) "as a means of ensuring success in hunting as well as a protection for the hunters."
Initiation Ceremonies.
Mr. Brown then embarks on the initiation ceremonies, (p. 276): "I hope to show that these ceremonies are the means by which the society powerfully impresses upon the initiate the sense of the social value of food, and keeps the sense alive in the minds of the spectators of the ceremony." He holds that they are the means "by which the child is made an independent member of the society," and he takes them into consideration from the point of the whole society and of the initiate. They form the child's (youth or girl) moral education by a "long series of abstentions and ceremonies,"-abstention from favoured articles of food and social functions: ceremonies creating "intense emotional experience" and sense of personal social value.
As regards the foods eaten at initiation ceremonies, Mr. Brown explains (p. 283) the purpose of the ceremonies to be "to endow the initiate with the power to eat the dangerous foods with comparative safety," and (p. 284) " to endow the individual with a social personality."
Sickness.
The danger from eating food is sickness, which is caused by an attack of the spirits of the dead (p. 285). Mr. Brown explains the Andamanese notions about the Spirits by consider. ing the customs as to death and burial.