Denise Nuttalleach groove in the finger beginning and ending with the smallest fin-
ger. Again, knowing here relies upon both seeing, feeling, and hearing
where the bol falls in relation to the time structure, to the tal. Gottlieb
( 1990 , 140 ) notes that the word tal comes from the practice of count-
ing time by clapping hands. There are many different tals, each hav-
ing a certain number of beats. For example, the most widely used tal
in Hindustani music is tin tal, which has sixteen beats. Others include
jhap ( 10 ),rupak ( 7 ),ek ( 12 ),dadra ( 6 ), and kherava ( 8 ).
Unlike in the Western music system, where musicians begin count-
ing with the first beat of the bar and end on the final beat (for exam-
ple in^4 /^4 time you begin with 1 and end with 4 ), in Hindustani music,
counting begins and ends with 1 , the sam. Tabla players, as the time-
keepers of the tal, use various thekas or rhythmic structures to keep
the beat in instrumental and vocal compositions. The theka outlines
the structural form and also provides the division of the tal. Each tal
has different thekhas and each thekha consists of a specified number
and arrangement of bols; however the structure of the thekha can and
is elaborated on in performance.
Along with learning a variety of rhythmic outlines, tabla players must
also learn to play a number of different compositional types. Students
usually start their talim, or learning, with a kaida composition, a type
of pattern that always has a theme of fixed bols followed by a num-
ber of variations based on those fixed bols ending with a tihai or bol
phrase that is repeated three times. The tihai pattern is also found in
other types of compositions, such as chakradhars (from Hindi, mean-
ing “wheel”), which can be a more complex rhythmic pattern with
fixed bols, and tukras (“a segment” or “part of a piece”), a type of
short composition in solo tabla playing and classical performance.
Apprenticeship and Anthropology: The MethodAn anthropology of apprenticeship necessitates theorizing and re-
flecting on ideas of experience. Jackson ( 1989 , 1996 ), Stoller ( 1995 ),
and Bourdieu ( 1970 , 1977 ) note the importance of adopting William
James’s essential idea of describing the other in a radically empiri-
cal way. Jackson stresses that the importance of radical empiricism is
that it highlights “the ethnographer’s interactions with those he/she