Sensuality and Consciousness:Psychosexual Transformation in the Eastern Andaman

Abstract

Field/work still underway in the eastern Sea of Andaman shows that direct sensual experience of exotic cultures is sometimes needed to grasp central aspects of the way of life. A brief ethnographic sketch of the region precedes a discussion of how alien intrusion catastrophicaUy transforms the aboriginal consciousness. The spectrum of consciousness across the region is then analyzed. Two critical crosscultural sensual events essential to the study are detailed. Without the experiences these conferred, core features of the original way‐of'tife (and its transformation) would have remained unknown. Two Western cultural restraints on this type offieldwork are considered: that of Western ethicality and that of Western epistemology.