Ethnoarchaeology in India
Traditional Hereditary Bronze Casters in Tamil Nadu
This project represents a long-term study of the social context of traditional metal casters in the village of Swamimalai, located ca. 275 km southwest of Chennai (Madras), in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu was home to the Chola Empire. The Cholas came to power in the late 9th century A.D., and until the late 13th century A.D., they ruled most of South India, Sri Lanka, the Maldive Islands, and even parts of the Indonesian island of Java from their homeland near Thanjavur (Tanjore) around 30 km from the Swamimalai study area. Specifically, we are interested in the social organization of traditional metal production and the patterns of consumption of the bronze statuary produced by the workshops in Swamimalai. As such, this project is an ethnoarchaeological study of contemporary craft production. Ethnoarchaeology refers to the study of contemporary cultures with the aim of understanding the behavioral relationships that underlie the production of material culture. Using the observational methods of cultural anthropologists, archaeologists conduct ethnoarchaeological research with the aim of producing models (based on observations of contemporary societies) that are applicable to the archaeological record. This study is an outgrowth of our long-term interest in the role of metallurgy in the social evolution of societies in the Near East. As such this ethnoarchaeological research of traditional bronze casters has important processual implications for research concerning the historical Iron Age (ca. 1200 500 B.C.) metal production in southern Jordan that forms the main research activities of the Levantine archaeology lab.
A book summarizing our work has been published by the German Mining Museum
Levy, T. E., A. Levy, R. Sthapathy, S. Sthapathy, and S. Sthapathy. 2008. Masters of Fire - Hereditary Bronze Casters of South India. Bochum: German Mining Museum.
Ethnoarchaeology team member Alina Levy arrives by auto-rickshaw at one of the bronze workshops.
Village children share a laugh with the ethnoarchaeology team.
The Study Area and Research Design
Ethnoarchaeology fieldwork was carried out in the village of Swamimalai, in 2003 , 2005, and 2007 and forms the main dataset used in our book – Masters of Fire: Hereditary Bronze Casters of South India. The village and its long tradition of bronze casting, offers a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between material culture, social organization and exchange as this is one of the few places in the world which preserves the lost-wax method of metal production that was perfected around 1000 AD during the Chola Empire. The lost-wax method is known in Sanskrit as madhuchchishtavidhana. With some 200 traditional bronze casting workshops of differing size and scales of organization, our team continues the study of these workshops with the aim of collecting data on the degree to which the bronze casters are hereditary (sthapathis) and how metal production varies with regard to the production of metal statuary for the sacred (Hindu temples) and profane (tourist industry). A large part of our research has focused on the organization of metal production in the village. Over the course of this study, it was realized that this ethnoarchaeology project was truly a collaborative work with the local craftsmen. Consequently, the book, Masters of Fire, has been published as a joint work with the UCSD ethnoarchaeology team (Tom and Alina Levy) and the three S. Devasenapathy Sthapathy Sons hereditary bronze casters that we worked most closely with – Radhakrishna, Srikanda and Swaminatha.
While our book research summarizing the 2004-2007 field work succeeded in acquiring detailed genealogical information about the craftsmen, the women who married into the hereditary bronze casting community are missing from the genealogical tree. To fully understand the organization of traditional metal production, it is essential to identify the role of women in forming the invisible bonds that maintain this special social group of metal workers. Thus, in 2008, Levantine archaeology lab affiliate Adolfo Muniz spent two months in Swamimalai carrying out research that focused on the role of women in Sthapathi village society as well as the inventorying all the workshops in the village. This field research was greatly assisted by the National Folklore Support Centre of India and Sowparnika Balaswaminathan.
Making a wax model of the goddess Parvati in one of the village workshops.
Master craftsman, Radakrishna Stahpathy, one of the sons of the great bronze craftsman S. Devasenapathy engraving a bronze icon.
Collection of superb bronze icons for sale in the Swamimalai village cooperative shop.
ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY NEWS FROM THE FIELD AND LAB
Some New Discoveries: Metal Recycling in a Traditional Bronze Casting Workshop
An important component of the chaîne opératoire of metal production in any society is the supply of metal. Copper and brass are the most important metals used in the bronze casting workshops of Swamimalai, and for the past 50 years the workshops have obtained their supplies in the form of used copper and brass metal-ware as well as old copper coil wire from automobiles from the city of Kumbakonam and neighboring towns and villages. The production of icons has stimulated a kind of re-cycling business aimed at procuring copper and brass for the workshops. In addition to this metal source, our ethnoarchaeological research amongst the hereditary bronze casters in Swamimalai has revealed an important and previously unreported phenomenon related to the chaîne opératoire of traditional metal workshops in south India – the “Mud cleaner” (Tamil = Manalasubhavar) who serves as an ‘on-site’ re-cycler of left over metal in the major workshops. The “discovery” of this individual and the tasks he performs in the hereditary Sthapati manufactory provides a set of important analogues for archaeological research.
For more information and bibliographic citation, read - Levy, T. E., A. Levy, R. Sthapathy, S. Sthapathy, and S. Sthapathy. 2008. Masters of Fire - Hereditary Bronze Casters of South India. Bochum: German Mining Museum.
The Mud cleaner carries out other re-cycling tasks during his ca. 10-day stay at the bronze icon manufactory. This includes removal of slag from workshop crucibles. Here he uses a hammer and chisel to clean a 60 kg crucible (© Photo by T.E. Levy).
