APPENDIX B

Pioneer Biographies
of the Indian Period from 1947

Zarine Cooper (*1953)

 

Zarine Cooper's book "Archaeology and History - Early Settlements in the Andaman Islands" is reviewed by George Weber on this web-site. Some Dr. Cooper's results are reproduced in Chapter 24 "Archaeology" and discussed in Chapter 25 "Prehistory and Theories"

Dr. Cooper is a senior figure with international status and one of an increasing number of women prominent in Indian science. She has conducted extensive archaeological excavations in the Andaman islands leading to the first reliable C14 dating of Andamanese kitchen midden. Her status as an Andamanese pioneer is amply deserved.

She was born 1953 in Pune (also spelt Poona) in Mahararashtra state where she made her BA in history and English literature in 1974 and her first-class MA in 1977 in archaeology. A PhD in archaeology from Deccan College, Poona University, followed in due course 1984 with the thesis Prehistoric Habitation Patterns around Chitrakot Falls, Bastar District, Madhya Pradesh. Today, Dr. Cooper lists her areas of specialization as prehistoric adaptation patterns in southeast Asia, ethno-archaeology, central Indian folk tales, coastal adaptations in the Andaman and Nicobar islands and memorial tradition among the tribes of India.

Rather unusual for an expert in Andamanese matters, Dr. Cooper's foreign contacts are wide-ranging and varied. Since the 1980s she has given lectures and conducted courses at the Australian National University Canberra, at Cambridge England and at Dresden Germany. She has also attended conferences in Australia, England and Thailand. The State Museum of Folk Culture at Dresden, then still East Germany, asked Dr. Cooper 1987 for help in the identification and organization of its major Andamanese and Nicobarese collection. Since 1992 she has been reviewer of research proposals to the Anthropology program of the National Science Foundation, Washington DC.

Her connections with the Andaman and Nicobar islands are underscored by her appointments to a number of advisory bodies: in 1991 she became advisor in anthropology to the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Trust and in 1992 advisor to the Department of Tribal Affairs. In 1993 she was asked to prepare a booklet on the preservation of kitchen midden for the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. Dr. Cooper is also a life member of the Indian Society for Prehistory and Quaternary Studies as well as of the Australia-based international Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association.

The most important archaeological sites in the Andamans are the kitchen midden: mounds consisting mostly of sea shells but also containing some bones, stone and other other artifacts and sometimes even human burals. The mounds grew up over centuries from a village's refuse tip. Properly excavated, they can a reveal a wealth of information about life in an Andamanese village over thousands of years. Dr. Cooper was not the first to investigate the midden, however. During the British period there had been a little amateurish poking around the midden but after Indian independence L. Cipriani (who very unfortunately published nothing on archaeology) and P.C. Dutta had looked at them more thoroughly. Dutta published the first modern scientific accounts on kitchen midden,

Dr. Cooper 's work was the first (and unfortunately last, so far) to produce useable C14 dating of an Andamanese site. She was also the first to have pot shards found in kitchen midden analyzed scienbtifically. Her results definitively confirmed what Cipriani had suspected earlier: the quality of Andamanese pottery had indeed slowly but steadily deteriorated over the past 2500 years. A most useful project was Dr. Cooper's 1994 study of how a contemporary Onge camp disposed of its rubbish and how this reflected on the process of kitchen midden accretion. The results were published under Abandoned Onge Encampments and their Relevance in Understanding the Archaeological Record in the Andaman Islands.

In 1985 and 1986 Dr. Cooper excavated the Chauldari and a few other kitchen midden as well as a cave site. Further work followed 1989 to 1991 and again after 1992 when a number of kitchen midden were discovered on Middle and South Great Andaman. Unfortunately, there have been no further excavations in the islands since then, either by Dr. Cooper or anyone else.

There are few other archaeologists as closely connected with the subject and the place. Working in the remote Andaman islands can be a lonely occupation. Too many people simply do not understand what all the poking around in piles of kitchen refuse is supposed to be good for and the "treasure-hunt school" of archaeology is still firmly entrenched in a lot of minds. What archaeologists like Zarine Cooper are looking for is a treasure far more valuable in the long run than any golden chalice. It is knowledge she is after, an answer to the question of where we all come from and, perhaps, where we are all going. A tiny contribution to the great puzzle might well be found in an Andamanese kitchen midden.

Behind Dr. Cooper's scientific accomplishments there are many unusual stories. As she has admitted herself "quite frankly, my adventures would fill up a book." For example, while investigating limestone shelters on Interview Island, she had to be protected by a dozen fully armed bush policemen against feral elephants, while during an excavation on Baratang island (between South and Middle Great Andaman) bush police had to guard her against hostile Jarawa. She also mentioned that, really, she was far more worried about the Bush police than the elephants. 

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