19
The Kota craftsmen not only made household goods, they were
accomplished musicians. To obtain their meat, they played their tunes
at the rituals of their herdsmen neighbors--the Toda. In exchange for
music that soothed the gods, the Toda cattle-raisers gave the Kota
artisan/musicians meat from the sacrifice of a buffalo. So the Kota
lived in cozy economic interdependence with the Toda
livestock-breeders and Badaga farmers, swapping handicrafts and
music for steaks and bread.
But of all four tribes, the one with the greatest economic power
was the Kurumba. Living in the jungle, the Kurumba did not raise
wheat, did not make household utensils, and did not provide meat.
They never even set forth to sell their wares. Yet the work they offered
brought the Kota craft-folk trekking through the dense foliage to the
Kurumba village, begging for a service that was totally intangible, one
whose value cannot even be proven to exist. The Kurumba were
sorcerers.
The Kota utensil makers paid regular insurance to these forest
magicians. After all, the Kurumba spell-weavers controlled the dark
forces that could snatch you in the middle of the night and bring you
down with dropsy, epilepsy, or sleeping sickness. Says Melville J.
Herskovits, in his classic book Economic Anthropology:
The Kurumba exacted all the market would bear, and on
occasion their demands were anything but modest. When a Kota fell
ill, for example, his relatives, indicating how they had been regular and
generous in sending gifts to their Kurumba worker of magic, would
complain that he had not fulfilled his part of the agreement to keep
them from harm. The customary reply would be that some especially
powerful Kurumba sorcerer had been insulted by a Kota, or had
become envious of their good fortune, and was therefore sending
unusually strong magic against his victim. Only sustained effort, to be
called forth by the giving of extra gifts, might counteract this influence;
and since there was no other recourse, the Kota would have to give
more and more lavishly.25
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