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Pulayer

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3 men with hip scarves and bare upper bodies sit on chairs in front of a makeshift screen. Two of them have wrapped their hair in scarves, the third man wears his hair loose over his upper body, matted into dreadlocks, while the man in the middle crosses his arms over his chest. The Pulaiyans are considered to be one of the earliest inhabitants of the Palni Mountains of South India, who once subsisted by gathering honey and tubers, and later also by cultivating millet. They were listed as Scheduled Tribes by the British colonial administration. Due to their activities as street sweepers and assistants in the cremation of corpses, they are considered untouchable (Dalits) by the Hindus. With the change from Scheduled Tribe to Scheduled Caste decreed by the Indian government, the Pulaiyans lost the "advantages" of the Scheduled Tribes, which manifested themselves in material favours.

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Cataloguing data

Cultural attribution
Pulayer
Object type
Photography
Dimensions
Height: 7,6 cm
Width: 11,7 cm
Height: 41,7 cm
Width: 29,8 cm
Material/Technique
Positive, black and white mounted on cardboard
Current location
Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Provenance and sources

  • Production
    where
    India
    South India
    Anamalli
    who
    Jagor, Fedor
    Pulayer
  • Assignment to a curated holding:
    South and Southeast Asia

Information about the record

Legal status metadata
CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED

Related objects

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