Smelly sounds: Intestine material,gendered labour,and infrastructures of craft in south India

Abstract

This article deals with bovine-intestine material that female artisans use in crafting musical instruments in contemporary South India. It explores the material and how different people come closer to or keep distance from the bodily substance and the final artifact. Comparing urban and rural drum-making practices and use, the article moves beyond caste-centered narratives and analysis, and demonstrates how making and using of the drum and attitude toward the material entangled with multiple social and religious groups in the Tamil-speaking region of India. I use fieldwork and oral history interviews to enrich the very little documented drum-making practice. Drawing my analytical framework from the history of science and technology, science and technology studies, and sound studies the paper moves between the slaughterhouse, the makers’ workshop, and the users of the drum, the article reveals the material and spatial complexities involved in working with and understanding bodily substances.