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Pragmatic Meanings of Possession in Paliyan Shamanism

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Pragmatic Meanings of Possession in Paliyan Shamanism Anthropos 86.1991: 367-384 Pragmatic Meanings of Possession in Paliyan Shamanism Peter M. Gardner Abstract. - Shamanistic beliefs and practices of Paliyans, an several quite different facets of their meaning. This enclaved foraging people of south India, are described then aspect of the paper will be introduced in due analyzed on the basis of observational and interview data from course. eight bands, and limited comparison is undertaken with shamanism of other south Indian foragers. Interaction with the A second way in which they prove useful is gods is shown to have manysided significance to Paliyans. that they help fill a gap in the literature. With the Five practical meanings of the gods and their visits are exception of a single paper on structural and examined closely. Although visiting gods figure in Paliyan functional implications of Mala Pandaram (Mala decision making, shamans are found to be prevented from attaining social prominence. [South India, Paliyans, Pandāram) shamanism (Morris 1981), a paragraph shamanism, pragmatics of religion, tropical foragers, on a brief episode of Irula (Irula) possession anthropology of knowledge] (Zvelebil 1988: 146), and a five sentence report on the "nervous attacks" of two participants in an Peter M. Gardner, Ph. D. (1965, Anthropology, University of annual Kadar (Kādar) ritual of offering (Ehrenfels Pennsylvania). - Field research among Paliyans of south India 1952: 159 f.), the major ethnographic studies of (1962-64, 1978); Mackenzie drainage Dene, N. W. T., Canada (1973, 1974-1975); sculptors of Tamil Nadu, south India south Indian foragers (e.g., Fürer-Haimendorf (1978). From 1977, Professor of Anthropology at University 1943; Ehrenfels 1952; Morris 1976, 1977, 1981, of Missouri-Columbia. - Publications: coauthor of "The 1982; Zvelebi1 1988) have yielded no apparent Individual in Northern Dene Thought and Communication" observational data on shamanism. Morris' excep- (Ottawa 1977) and author of 24 articles. tional 1981 report and the body of Paliyan data to be presented here, each of which is derived from a combination of repeated observation and interviews, give us our first real detail on the functioning institutions.2 Parallels between these two accounts are numerous, but there are some 1. Introduction informative differences. And the Paliyan data will be found to contradict at least one recent gener- There are many senses in which an anthropologist alization about tropical (as against circumpolar) might use the word "meanings" and a number of shamanism of Old World foragers. those are intended by the title of this paper. Following a four-part, descriptive review of the 1 shamanic possession of Paliyan foragers in south 1 Hereafter, their name will be rendered without diacritics, as India, we will examine five very different kinds of Paliyan; Paliyan is a singular or adjectival form and its meaning of the material, using variously combined plural (properly Paliyar or Paliyarhal) will be indicated by addition of English "s", The names of the state (Tamir semeiotic, functional, and adaptational approaches. Nādu) and its language (Tamir) will appear here only in The descriptive account will open with a look at familiar anglicized versions. Because the Paliyan dialect of the helpful spirits or deities toward whom much Tamil is purely colloquial, Paliyan words will be written as Paliyan ritual is directed. Then, a number of pages spoken, rather than in accordance with Tamil literary will be devoted to accounts of three diverse sha- convention. As regards the terms "shaman" and "shaman- ism," types and boundaries are not a concern, so I find manic events. Third, examples of shamans' prayers Wolf's recent, inclusive approach (1990: 429) preeminently will be given. Finally, four mock rituals will be suitable. described, representative of frequently occurring 2 Morris witnessed three cases of possession (1981: 234); the rituals which stand in playful emulation of the present report is based on observation of 10 cases. The Paliyan data have, previously, only been summarized briefly customary ones. in print (Gardner 1972). The Paliyan materials are useful in more than Originally published in Anthropos 1991 vol. 86: 367-384 and one way. For one thing, they are sufficiently de- scanned for the Peaceful Societies website with the tailed for us to undertake the promised study of permission of The Anthropos Institute. 368 Peter M. Gardner Because general and specialized sketches of relevant Hindu deities having shrines in or near the Paliyan culture are readily available (Gardner forest).3 In any given band, one finds consensual 1972, 1982, 1985, 1988), only a few essential recognition of about two to five such samis, with background facts need be offered here. Paliyans, some individuals being able to name two or three when studied in 1962-64 and 1978, were found to others. Commonly one hears it said of the live an elusive existence in the lower hill slopes of protecting samis that they are seven in number, a southwestern Tamil Nadu, on the north and south formalism repeated in other realms, e.g., the seven faces of the Parani hills and on the dry, eastern side once-existent hills on which seven groups of Pa- of the ranges which extend down into the very tip liyans lived, or the seven portions of an offering in of India (8°30’ to 10°30’ N.lat). Most of their set- a ceremony (cf. Eliade's comparative findings on tlements are near the margin of the forest. Groups number seven in Asian shamanism, 1951: 121 f., or individuals oscillate between (1) combining 239, 248-260). But it is not an empty formalism; part-time contract labor for their Tamil neighbors during one observed possession ceremony, at a with foraging for Dioscorea yams not far from the time of crisis, participants deemed it important to forest’s edge and (2) engaging in more aloof, ascertain that all seven samis had visited. nomadic, subsistence foraging. This double life is Gamekeeping samis are specialized in main- thought to represent an ancient adaptation (Gardner taining and providing certain distinctly Paliyan 1985). Paliyans speak a dialect of Tamil forest resources. Because they are generally men- intelligible to their cultivating neighbors, yet tioned only in prayer, their existence is rarely even exhibit similarities with other Indian foragers, such known to the outsiders who employ Paliyans. They as the adjacent Mala Pandaram and Kadar of differ from the protecting samis in another way Kerala, the Irula, Kurumba, and Naiken of the also — they constitute a tidily structured, closed Nilgiris, and the more distant Chenchu of set. Hyderabad. A few comparative observations will Characteristics of the two sets can be made be provided. clearer with the help of examples from three re- gions. From north to south these are the north slope 2. Kinds of Sami of the Parani hills (i.e., Palni hills in colloquial English), southwestern Madurai district, and west- Some deities and ancestral spirits play central roles ern Ramanadapuram. In all three areas the set of in day-to-day Paliyan life. The main term Paliyans protecting samis is headed up by ancestral spirits. use for them, sāmi (plural, sāmihal), is a broad For one group in the Parani hills the protecting term which refers to other deities and to the samis include: ascetics Paliyans encounter in the forest as well. 1) Valangeyappan / Valangan Appan / Valayāngā- But, the spirits and deities which respond to ran, an especially powerful ancestral spirit who Paliyan needs are those to whom it makes primary can be enlisted to help call the others (compare - reference. On rare occasions one also hears them āngāran with Tamil ānkāram "conception of indi- called vanadēvādaihal, a more specific and appro- viduality, arrogance, haughtiness; kindness, love," priate term meaning “forest deities.” In accordance Emeneau and Burrow 1962: entry 1) — he has a with their functions, two quite different kinds are small shrine in the forest, recognized. If Paliyans chose to label them by their 2) Mandu Māvili Sāmi/Kalunjittu Pāre Dēvam, a distinctive features they might call them “protect- female ancestral spirit, resident at a small shrine in ing samis” and “gamekeeping samis.” the forest at Kalunjittu Rock, Those which protect are more immediate. 3) Vandi(mā)kāli(ammā) "great goddess of the They are approached several times a month with cart" (a Paliyan puranic tale about the slaying of direct requests for help and a day seldom passes this ogress echoes a chapter of the Hindu epic, the without their being at least mentioned. Besides be- "Mahabharata"; Paliyans have their own tiny ing called sami or samihal, they are referred to by shrine for her under a bush 1 kilometer outside kin terms and by their individual names. The kin the edge of the forest, and Tamils have erected terms most often used for them are tātā and pāttan, both of which, in Paliyan usage, mean grandfather, grandparent, or ancestor. This underlines the fact 3 These sound virtually identical with the three classes of that spirits of particular, long-deceased Paliyans spirit or deity reported for Mala Pandarams (Morris 1981), but the precise cultural definitions and significance of the usually head the somewhat open set of protectors three classes are quite dissimilar from one culture to the (which is likely also to include one or more spirits other. For one thing, Mala Pandarams treat the spirits of or deities of mountains and one or more locally each class very differently. Anthropos 86.1991 Pragmatic Meanings of Possession in Paliyan Shamanism 369 a substantial shrine for her 80 kilometers to the 1) (Manjana) Pēci(ammā)/Vana Pēci, powerful east), spirit of a Paliyan woman who fell from a tree 4) Periya Pāttan "senior ancestor," while collecting honey, 5) Cinna Pāttan "junior ancestor," 2) (Pēymalai) Rākkāci, powerful spirit of a Pa- 6) Vasōppan, a male, hill top sami residing at a liyan woman (when Paliyans of the seven moun- rock in the forest.
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