Hakkipikki Trapper and Seller

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In the vastness of tribal India, there live a variety of ethnic groups. Amongst the least known are more primitive and numerically smaller groups. Far less, in the latter category, is the number of trappers, and anthropological studies on them are rare.

Hakkipikki, a tribe of trappers, has been studied in detail, and the explanations provide an elaborate account of the socio-economic and cultural life of the people. In ethnographic literature, the study of a tribe of trappers has its own importance because there is extreme paucity of such material. An added attraction to this academic exercise is the increasing stress on the socio-economic dynamics. Part of explanations provides the picture of Hakkipikki society in transition. However, simultaneously highlighted are the fixity to and persistence of traditional matrix of Hakkipikki designs for living.

At the same time the claim of this book as a unique addition to the existing anthropological works on seminomads cannot be undermined.

Dr. R. S. Mann obtained his Master's and Doctorate degrees in Social Anthropology from the University of Delhi. He has devoted to social anthropological researches and teaching for over nineteen years with a wide experience of conducting research in various parts of village India. His anthropological investigations pertain to I caste as well as the tribal society. His fields of interest and specialisation include ethnography, social/cultural change, applied and theoretical anthropology.

Dr. Mann's research contribution is reflected through his numerous publications. He has about fifty-six scientific papers and three books, viz., Social Structure, Social Change and Future Trends, The Bay Islander, and Rajasthan Bhils (ed.), to his credit. Among his forthcoming publications are several papers and two books. He is also associated, as member, with a few professional organizations. Dr. Mann is now Superintending Anthropologist in Anthropological Survey of India.

In the evolutionary perspective, the rise of production economy, including domestication of plants and animals and exploitation of other resources with the use of metal, is of comparatively late origin. Prior to that, some 10,000 years ago, prevailed the gathering economy, including fishing, collection and hunting. But even after many developments in science and technology, the gathering economy continues to find a place. Certain communities of collectors and hunters have been reported living almost simultaneously with the technologically advanced groups of people. For North and South America, mention has been made of Eskimos, Algonkians, Athapaskans, Plateau Indians, California Indians, Gulf Indians, Apache, Seri Indians, Warrau, Onas, Fuegians, Gran Chaco, Amazonian hunters. Further mentioned in this category are Australian Aboriginese, Bushmen, Koroco, Pygmies, Dorobo, Hazda, Fuga, Shimkin, Vedda, Sakai, Negritos, etc. Among the Indian gathering and hunting communities, a mention is usually made of Chenchu, Birhor, Irula, Kurumba, Andamanese, Kadar, Malapandaram, Paliyan, Yanadi, Aranadan, Mula Vedan and Vettuvan, Onge, Sentinele and Shompen. It may, however, be mentioned that some of the above communities have lately been in the away of change. Among them the characteristics of transitional phase are not ruled out.

In the list of the Scheduled Tribes compiled by the Social Welfare Department of Mysore State, the Hakkipikki has been classified as a Scheduled Tribe, but excluded from the category of nomadic and seminomadic groups. However, within the conceptual framework, especially as and when it is fitted into the discipline boundaries, the Hakkipikki tribe with its structural, functional and organizational margins, as observed by me, did appear to be a seminomadic group. This is not to involve into any controversy with the existing classification, but to safeguard the interest of academic compulsives. For my purpose, therefore, the Hakkipikkis would be largely dealt as semi-nomadic at all stages of analysis.

Further, the Hakkipikki group can be closely affiliated with the folk or rural side of the rural urban continuum. The 'less physical mobility' as a trait of rural community. however, is not applicable to Hakkipikkis because they are mobile for a large part of the year. By now, the Hakkipikkis do not find place with the peasant community under its characteristic frame given by Eric Kloff (1955), Robert Redfield (1956) and Raymond Firth (1956). To call Hakkipikki a caste-group would also not be very justified. The concepts of caste as taken in the social science disciplines by Dutt (1931); Ghurye (1950); Hutton (1946); Irawati Karve (1953) and Srinivas (1952-62) do not provide an adequate coverage of a caste-frame to the group of Hakkipikkis. On the other hand the characteristics of a tribe are by and large represented by the Hakkipikki group. Requirement of a 'common general territory' as a feature to define any tribe, is the only trait not so applicable to the Hakkipikkis, especially when they lead a nomadic life as trappers and sellers. A common dialect 'Vahgri' is used by the Hakkipikkis while speaking among themselves. But with an outsider, most of them can talk in more than one language. Common territory' apart, the rest of the characteristics given by Gillin (1950); Majumdar (1958); Mukherjee (1960) and Piddington, to define any social group as a tribe, are rightly applicable to the Hakkipikkis.

**Contents and Sample Pages**