Showing papers in "Contributions to Indian Sociology in 1975"
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TL;DR: A considerable body of ethnographical material on the nature of affinity in societies characterized by descent-based groups was insightfully summed up by Radcliffe-Brown when he described marriage as "essentially a rearrangement of social structure".
Abstract: A considerable body of ethnographical material on the nature of affinity in societies characterized by descent-based groups was insightfully summed up by Radcliffe-Brown when he described marriage as ’essentially a rearrangement of social structure’ (1950 : 43). The implications of this proposition will of course vary from one society to another depending upon a variety of circumstances, including whether marriage is expected to take place between persons belonging to unrelated groups or to groups linked through previous marital unions. It is now generally recognized that in the past, prior to the important work of the so-called alliance theorists, anthropologists’ preoccupation with descent systems resulted in a grievous neglect of the structural implications of marriage. The particular significance of marriage in societies
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TL;DR: In this paper, a general study of the relation between caste and occupation according to the normative texts of ancient India is presented, where the authors distinguish between two sets of norms: the strict norm and the pliable norm.
Abstract: This is a general study of the relation between caste and occupation according to the normative texts of ancient India. The sources on which this study is based are not new. All Sanskrit texts that will be quoted in this paper are available in English translations which have been read —and relied on— by several generations of scholars. Yet, to understand fully the Sanskrit sources, existing translations not only often prove inadequate; they are in many cases misleading. I shall, therefore, present my own translations for all sources, and supplement them with a commentary whenever necessary. I shall throughout this paper use the word “caste” to translate the Sanskrit term varṇa . Even though this translation is inadequate, any other English equivalent —which would necessarily amount to a lengthy circumlocution— would make the translations from Sanskrit unnecessarily cumbersome. I shall distinguish between two sets of norms: the strict norm and the pliable norm. This distinction is not made by the texts, at least not explicitly. Yet, it is clear that the authors envisage a twofold situation: the normal situation, in which the strict norm applies, and the —less desirable— abnormal circumstance, which requires the replacement of the strict norm by the pliable norm. The Strict Norm Several texts describe the way in which the creator of the universe assigned different occupations to the members of the four castes. The Manusmṛti alone exhibits two similar passages on this subject: one in the first chapter, on creation (1.87–91), and one in the tenth chapter, on caste (10.74–131).
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TL;DR: In this paper, a structural or segmentary system of castes is defined, and the principle of hierarchy also enters into status gradations within castes, resulting in what Dumont (1957 : 3-4) has called a "structured" or "segmentary" system.
Abstract: rules of isogamous or hypergamous marriage the principle of hierarchy also enters into status gradations within castes. The result is what Dumont (1957 : 3-4) has called a structural or segmentary system. ’A caste is a shifting and elusive reality because its characteristics in each case depend upon the position it occupies in the whole system. Only the system is susceptible of definition, and that, not by the elements which might be said to enter into its composition, but by the principles of arrangement in the system., ... In brief, the caste system is a structural system. If this is so, important consequences follo~.~. There is no absolute difference between what happens inside and outside a caste group, and we may expect to find in its internal constitution something of the principles which govern its external relations. This
5 citations
TL;DR: The most promising theories to emerge from the study of voluntary associations have been either so particularistic as to be almost pure ethnographic descriptions or so abstract as to deal only with the very particularistic variables involved.
Abstract: to generalize from one situation to another because of the extremely large number of particularistic variables involved. Moreover, the few studies which have been done of voluntary associations in one place over extended periods of time have shown these groups to be ’extremely pliant’, ’easily founded’, and ’free to adjust with amoeba-like fluidity to a flood of problems beyond the scope of ken or other institutions or any combination of them’ (Anderson and Anderson, 1969: 272). Determined efforts by students of voluntary associations to make their work cumulative have consequently been unsuccessful, even in regard to research in the two most elaborately studied nations, Great Britain and the United States (Anderson 1971; Morris 1965). Not surprisingly, the most promising theories to emerge from the study of voluntary associations have been either so particularistic as to be almost pure ethnographic descriptions or so abstract as to deal only with the very
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TL;DR: In this article, the classic ascriptionachievement dichotomy in the context of elections in an Indian constituency was examined and the relationships between primary and secondary population characteristics and voting were analyzed over three elections in the 1960s, using as the unit of analysis the polling booth, an area comprising on the average about 900 voters.
Abstract: This paper has two purposes. The first is to examine the classic ascriptionachievement dichotomy in the context of elections in an Indian constituency. The relationships between primary and secondary population characteristics and voting are analyzed over three elections in the 1960s, using as the unit of analysis the polling booth, an area comprising on the average about 900 voters. The second purpose is to illustrate a number of methods of performing aggregate data analysis at the micro-level in the hope that they will be of interest to other scholars concerned with ecological analysis in South Asia and that they will invite others to offer alternate and more effective
TL;DR: In this article, the problem of multiple discriminant function analysis is approached from the ground up, as it were, using a descriptive statistical model, the Multiple Discriminant Function Analysis (MDF).
Abstract: encompasses a diversity of classes and organizational modes. The problem has been posed in the literature before by others (Gough 1956, Gough in Schneider and Gough 1961 : 545-76; Leach 1960, 1961; Pocock 1957, 1972; Yalman 1967) and various solutions to this problem have been advanced. In the following discussion the problem is approached from the ground up, as it were, using a descriptive statistical model, the multiple discriminant function analysis. The fact that within the Bant caste the remarkable contrasts in organizational forms are associated with different economic circum-