Baiga Tattoos

Tattoos as ritual in Indian Baiga communities, January 2023

Transcript

In January, I attended a tattoo convention in Mumbai. There, I had the chance to talk to Mangla Bai Maravi, who learnt tattooing from her mother when she was 7, and is trying to preserve this tradition. As tattooing is considered ‘dirty’ due to its association with blood and piercing, it is historically the work of the lower caste. Mangla is a badnin, part of this caste in the Madhya Pradesh region, who would travel to tattoo nearby tribes.

Godna tattoos traditionally use a mixture called Kajal, which is inserted into the skin using a single needle created using thorns or cut pieces of bamboo. During the healing process, a mixture of the Raijal herb or turmeric paste is applied on the tattoo.

• Text on screen: 

  • “KAJAL - oil & soot collected from sesame oil lamp”

  • “NEEDLE - bamboo”

  • “RAIJAL - herb, turmeric”

This particular tattoo, a forehead tattoo, is given to Baiga girls upon entering puberty. It marks the end of their childhood and the beginning of their adulthood. The motifs in Baiga tattoos come primarily from nature, as they are a forest-dwelling tribe. In this one, we can see the triangular shapes which depict the nearby mountains. There are many tattoos symbolising different stages of life, such as marriage, childbirth, and different social ranks. The variations in designs of the tattoos also serve to distinguish different groups from one another. 

Tattooing performs a ritualistic function for the Baiga people as they believe the ink integrates with the body and is the only thing carried into the next life. It is a rite of passage through which girls gain entry into womanhood in the eyes of their tribe. Van Gennep, the European anthropologist is credited for establishing the study of rites of passage. He distinguishes between preliminal rites, liminal rites, and postliminal rites. British anthropologist, Turner, writes that through a ritual composed of these three parts, “an individual passes from one culturally defined state or status to another”. 

• Text on screen: 

  • “Van Gennep - Les Rites de Passage”

  •  “PRELIMINAL (separation)”

  • “LIMINAL (transition)”

  • “POST LIMINAL (aggregation)”

  • “An individual passes from one culturally defined state or status to another one - TURNER”

The act of receiving a forehead tattoo can be understood as a rite of passage, enabling a girl to transition from her original state as a child, to her new identity and associated social status as a woman. Mapping these three stages onto this rite, therefore, we can present the act of tattooing itself as the liminal stage – as the person being tattooed is no longer without tattoos which denotes childhood, but also not yet with the complete tattoo which signifies womanhood. She is firmly in this state of liminality, passing through the threshold of the two social states.

•  Text on screen: 

  • “PRELIMINAL (separation) ← CHILDHOOD”

  • “LIMINAL (transition) ← TATTOOING”

  • “POST LIMINAL (aggregation) ← ADULTHOOD”

This element of ritual in Baiga tattooing is also emphasised in Navajo aesthetics, as described by Witherspoon, albeit in a different artform. He suggests that Navajo sandpaintings become a part of everyday life, a dynamic experience expressed throughout the society. Tattoos too, are characterised by being inextricably woven into the fabric of a society by their very medium; the human skin. They evolve with the person, not only in added designs throughout one’s life, but in the way their bodies change as they grow. Witherspoon writes that “art is a symbolic transformation of experience”, another quality embodied by Baiga tattoos, which are created to make into visible, known symbols, the experience of growing up. 

• Text on screen: 

  • “Gary Witherspoon - NAVAJO AESTHETICS”

  • “Art is a symbolic transformation of experience. (pg. 737)”

  • “The designs are rigidly established and must be created without significant change or alteration if they are to be an effective part of the particular ritual for which they are used. (pg. 739)”

This ritual characterisation also surfaces in Witherspoon’s description of the rigid designs of sandpaintings. Similarly, Baiga tattoo designs are passed down through generations in order to preserve their association with a certain ritual. The aesthetic purpose, therefore, is connected to its ritual purpose. 

However, though there might be illuminating connections to ritual in both Navajo and Baiga artforms, their surface similarities might mask important differences in motivation and structure. Despite both having gendered conceptions of art, the different beliefs behind this distinction are important to acknowledge. It is true, for example, that there is the adherence to symbolic designs in both. However, in sandpainting, this rigidity comes from its association with male linked endeavours. In Baiga culture, it is women who are primarily the Badnin and for whom tattoos mark their stage of life. However, women do not hold this societal role due to their association with rigidity; rather, because it is considered unclean work. Furthermore, there is the important distinction of the observed role of caste in the tattooing tradition in Baiga society. Thus, the implications of comparing these two artforms might be to oversimplify the role of tattooing in everyday life for the Baiga - it was not the domain of everyone equally; in fact, it carries certain class and gender divisions. 

• Text on screen: 

  • “RIGIDITY”

  • “Male linked endeavour”

  • “Gender + caste subjugation”

Nevertheless, this comparison is still useful as it also illuminates the blurred line between craft and art in societies upon which the term ‘art’ has been transplanted. Rather than getting into the weeds of the definition of art, however, I simply wish to highlight the potential implications for framing tattoos as art - namely, the loss of emphasis on the process rather than the product.

This is particularly relevant when discussing how we might be able to share these tattoos in cultures beyond the Baiga tribe– even how I discuss them in this video. 

In traditional western art museums, the emphasis on product in the display does not seem suitable to capture the purpose of these tattoos, given their attachment to cultural meaning. 

Yet, there is an interesting parallel between the liminal stage in tattoos as a rite of passage, and in the curated experience in an art gallery. According to Duncan, museums provide a ritual space to focus one’s attention on the detached appreciation of art. She suggests that this attentiveness to the aesthetic quality of a work demonstrates the category of liminal experience, in which ‘Time seems suspended’, and viewers seek a state of ‘detached, timeless, and exalted contemplation’.

Perhaps in the identification of the role of ritual in both, there lies the opportunity to translate the spiritual elements of art from one setting to another. 

However, I am cautious to not homogenise vastly different arts - and potential non-arts. One is a ritual grounded in its original context, the other is a ritual created by separating it from context. 

• Text on screen: 

  • “Ritual grounded in its original context”

  • “Ritual created by separating it from any context”

Moreover, the existence of three stages does not guarantee that the stages share any similarities. For tattooing, the liminal stage surrounds the process, yet for objects displayed in a museum, the liminal stage is centred around the product. We can nuance this even further by distinguishing between how in Baiga tattooing, it is the art which sparks the liminal state, whereas for this conception of museums, it is the liminal state which enables the appreciation of the artwork. 

• Text on screen: 

  • “Liminal stage ⇒ PROCESS”

  • “Liminal stage ⇒ PRODUCT”

Additionally, there is the concern of medium - the importance of the human body in tattooing is, as mentioned, in its dynamic, living nature. That is very different from a canvas, or even a sculpture or a moving installation, disrupting other traditional features of artworks, most notably the conventional relationships between artist and artwork, owner and artwork, and viewer and artwork.

Lastly, I am fully aware that this is not a conclusion I can make as I am in a liminal state of my own, separated from my own culture and assumptions in my analysis of this unfamiliar art form, yet not even close to being incorporated into the host culture. 

Although there are still many obstacles, this parallel emergence of ritual is nonetheless fascinating. At the very least, it suggests that there is a transformative quality in art, recognised across societies. 

• Text on screen: 

  • “The researcher is… in a liminal state, separated from his own culture, yet not incorporated into the host culture. – Van Gennep”

Bibliography

Chakrabarti, S. (2018). Traditions on Skin: Baiga Women and their Tattoos. Sahapedia. Available at https://www.sahapedia.org/traditions-skin-baiga-women-and-their-tattoos#:~:text=Traditionally%2C%20Baiga%20women%20made%20elaborate,integrates%20with%20the%20body%20itself 

Duncan, C. (2009). The art museum as ritual [1995]. In D. Preziosi (Ed.), The art of art history: A critical anthology (2nd ed., pp. 424–434). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Turner, V. (1964). “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage”. The Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society (pp. 4–20). 

Van Gennep, A. (1909). The Rites of Passage. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Witherspoon, G. (1977). Beautifying the world through art. In Language and art in the Navajo universe (pp. 151-78). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.