Nose and Eyes for Identity

Abstract

Among the Muslim Jatha of Kachchh (western India), the differing practices of pastoral nomadism and settled agriculture create a division of the overall Jatha community into three subgroups. These differences are maintained and are projected within each subgroup of the community but find expression in its communal myths, history and ideology. Each subgroup symbolizes its identity, creating a non-verbal discourse made up of certain essential values. Within this discourse, the value of each subgroup’s individuality is important, but this individuality does not prohibit the integration of all the groups into one interdependent whole. For the Jatha, a material culture has been formed to sustain the cultural value, in relation to other communities, of being one distinct, ethnic group comprising separate subgroups. As an outcome of the Jatha interpretation of their history, mythology, and Islam, the whole community is bound together by the choice of dress, of ornament, and of each subgroup’s differing but interdependent economic practice. Through examining the ways in which subgroups within the Jatha community express their identities, and thereby contribute to the identity of the whole community, this article examines the forms and processes of materiality and the accoutrements of identity. It further considers the relationship between people and objects, and the connection between symbolism and materiality, which combine to construct a social entity.