IDNO

P.57769.HUT

Description

A man and a woman standing posed outside the two ends of the door to their thatch. Banana and palm trees in the foreground. Three (their?) children sit around them. Bare chests with cloth covering their lower bodies.
Ananthakrishna Iyer’s description of the Nayadi hut:
“They live in huts with small roofs, resting on four bamboo pillars connected by bamboo beams. A small bamboo work covered with straw or plamyra leaves takes the place of walls. The floor is slightly raised. They generally have their huts in sholas. They drag out a miserable existence in their wretched hovels...” (1905: 11)

Place

S Asia; India; South India; Cochin State

Cultural Affliation

Nayadi

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Hutton, John Henry; Ananthakrishna Iyer, L.K.

Date

Collection Name

Hutton Collection

Source

Ananthakrishna Iyer, L. K.Hutton, John Henry

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.57769.HUT to P. 57777.HUT were found inside the envelope now numbered CC291/1/2/. This came from C291/1/ which was found inside C291/. The latter was kept in from Wooden Drawer IV.

Expedition: The photographs were taken during Ananthakrishna Iyer’s ethnographical survey of the Cochin State.

Bibliography reference: He wrote on the caste Nayadis in Monograph 2 of the series that was published in 1902. See bibliographic reference.
Ananthakrishna Iyer quotes Buchanan in his description of the Nayadis: “This tribe as long as they continue in Malabar, will be useless to others and will exercise no influence in the country. They should be removed bodily to some place, where they would be compelled to work for their sustenance”. The photographs of the Nayadis are purely of the physical anthropology type- and do not reflect any sensitivity to the people portrayed.

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program One. [Sudeshna Guha, 2003]