Showing papers on "Caste published in 1977"

The Anthropological Romance of Bali 1597–1972: Dynamic Perspectives in Marriage and Caste, Politics and Religion

Abstract: Preface Map of Bali Introduction: Beyond epic Part I. Temporal Perspectives: 1. Bali-tje: a discursive history of the earlier ethnology (post 1597) 2. Balipedia: concerted documentation (1880s-1920s) 3. Baliology: twentieth-century systems (1920s-1950s) 4. Bali now: an indigenous retrospect (pre-1906 to post-1971) Part II. Social and Cultural Dynamics: 5. The social matrix in place 6. The meaning of marriage and descent 7. Caste in retroflexion 8. Situational hierarchy 9. Images in action Conclusion: the end of romance? Notes Bibliography Index.

Caste in Africa

Abstract: Eminent Indologists have stated that it is inappropriate to use the word ‘caste’ in non-Hindu contexts. Despite such warnings numerous Africanists have used the term, with varying degrees of imprecision. In this paper I first outline different emphases which have appeared in the literature concerning caste in India; then discuss several examples of hierarchical systems in Africa which have been described as ‘caste’. Finally, I focus upon my own fieldwork data concerning the Dime of South-West Ethiopia, amongst whom there operates a system which can, I believe, be unequivocally labelled caste.

Indian businessmen in kenya during the twentieth century: a case study

Abstract: Despite a fairly extensive secondary literature on Indians in . East Africa, there remains a number of significant gaps in our knowledge of their activities. In the most studied field, the political arena, internal. Indian politics, especially on the . caste/community level, have been totally ignored. Similarly, the economic role of Indians in East Africa has been presented only in the most general terms and we still do not have a clear understanding of the actual activities of individuals and their firms. There is a pressing need for specific studies. One of the more interesting and impotant phenomena of Indian behavior in East Africa is the relationship between social networks, in' particular those of caste and kin, and economic activities. To grasp better the nature of these linkages, the dissertation focuses on one caste, the Visa Oshwal Community in Kenya (popularly known as "Shahs"), as a case study, and within this community on two family groups. Asa micro-analysis, it is very much concerned with the activities and motivations of specific individuals. Using these two families as a starting point, I was able to "work outward" along kinship lines, including marriage, and contact every major commercial and industrial firm of the caste. In addition, interviews were One of the more interesting and impotant phenomena of Indian behavior in East Africa is the relationship between social networks, in' particular those of caste and kin, and economic activities. To grasp better the nature of these linkages, the dissertation focuses on one caste, the Visa Oshwal Community in Kenya (popularly known as "Shahs"), as a case study, and within this community on two family groups. Asa micro-analysis, it is very much concerned with the activities and motivations of specific individuals. Using these two families as a starting point, I was able to "work outward" along kinship lines, including marriage, and contact every major commercial and industrial firm of the caste. In addition, interviews wereconducted with a number of other people, primarily Indians, from many communities and occupations

A Caste in a Changing World: The Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmans, 1700-1935

Abstract: JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES the Indian economy as it existed until independ- ence. Barun De's The Colonial Content of the Bengal Renaissance is an abstract of what could have been a major revisionist Marxist essay on Indian history. Alas, it seems that this very im- portant short piece was written during the long journey from Calcutta to London in between sips of gin-and-tonic. Many provocative ques- tions are ask~d and not answered. D . H . Kill- ingley's Vedanta and Modernity refers to in- teresting but already known views on the sub- ject. It is a pity, for the author is well acquainted with his subject and knows Sanskrit and Ben- gali. Kenneth Ballhatchet is a man of few words. His note on ''The Elphinscone Professors and Elphinscone College, 1827-1840 raises some important questions regarding the history of higher education in western India. It shows the difficulty, in the colonial context, of building up an institution of higher studies. There were In- dian patrons and sympathetic English educators, but no students. M. D. Wainwright's Continu- ity in Mysore is a competent, if dull, piece of research on British administration in Mysore. There are two papers on the missionary activi- ties and conversion: A. A. Powell's Muslim Re- action to Missionary Activity in Agra and Rob- ert Erik Frykenberg's The Impact of Con- version and Social Reform upon Society in South India during the Late Company Period: Questions Concerning Hindu-Christian E n- counters with Special Reference to Tinnevelly. The Germanic title and the formidable scholarly apparatus (202 footnotes) of Frykenberg's essay should not stop readers; this important work shows that conversion to Christianity was one tool of major social change in South India. But the government was not 3n agent in this process of modernization (if upward mobility can be considered a symptom of modernization). S. N. MUKHERJEE University of Sydney A Caste in a Changing World: The Chitra- pur Saraswat Brahmans, 1700-1935. BY FRANK F. CONLON. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977. xv, 255 pp. Maps, Tables, Glossary, Bibliography, In- dex. $15.00 The strengths of this book lie in Conlon's wide-ranging source materials, including inter- views and materials in vernacular languages, and in the questions it raises concerning the history of corporate groups in India. Conlon works with three major themes. First, he recognizes the im- portance to the Chitrapur Saraswats (who fall within the G aud Saraswat Brahman caste-cate- gory) of the political recognition of their swami (pp. 9 1 40) and hence, implicitly, the depen- dence of caste or sect boundaries on political l:oundaries. Material for this theme is found throughout the book. The Saraswats' successive employment with N ayaka rulers, Hyder Ali, the Marathas, and then the British resulted in shifts of caste centers of employment, residence, and matha establishment. But the reader must con- struct his/her own charts to make these con- nections over t ime. The second and very explicit theme is that of the Saraswats' Smarta sectarian affiliation, and their establishment of a line of swamis and ma- thas beginning in the eighteenth century. Here, too, the reader must chart out the succession of swamis, the changing location of the central matha, and the powers behind the swamis, and relate these factors to the changing political are- na. For example, the choice of successive swamis was controlled by the Shukla Bhat fam- ily, revenue accountants for the Nayaka rulers at Bednur, until British government employees in Mangalore displaced them in the 183os. Conlon shows that then, after the 1859 British division between north and south Kanara and the 1862 transfer of north Kanara to Bombay Presidency, the Saraswats moving into Bombay city were beyond the sphere of interest of the Shirali matha and swami; and he hints at disruption of marriage relationships between the northern and southern Saraswats as well (although this is unclear). He focuses on ideological issues (such as the swami's orthodox stance on widow mar- riage versus that of social reformers) rather than institutional ones (such as the same swami's at- tempted enforcement of the collection of annual tithes to support the matha- and perhaps to ex- tend its p11rohi1 services to the growing Bombay Saraswat community). The third theme is that of urbanization and the reconciliation of the sectarian authority with the Bombay Saraswat caste association mem- bers. Here Conlon does a very good job of showing the trade-offs involved, as the Bombay

Caste, Class and the Love-Marriage: Social Change in India.

Abstract: The present study of a small town in rural West Bengal, India, reveals a number of "love-marriages" involving individuals from castes of distinctly different ranks in the local caste hierarchy. Despite the prevailing rule of caste endogamy, inter-caste couples appear to face little difficulty living in a very small town in which one-third of the households are of recent village origin. The data suggest that such inter-caste marriages are tolerated because they are not inconsistent with the system of social ranking operating in both the town and the surrounding rural microregion. This system is class-like and an individual's social status in the social hierarchy is based on the evaluation of multiple ranking-gradients, of which caste is one.

Varṇas in Angkor and the Indian Caste System

Abstract: “In order to decide whether one can speak of a caste system in a society, one must ask: are status and power completely dissociated, can one find the equivalent of a Brahman/Ksatriya relationship? This question, though it may appear improper, has the virtue of immediately fixing a limit to Indian influence in South-East Asia. Important as this influence has been from the cultural and even social point of view, it would seem, roughly speaking, that nowhere in Indochina and Indonesia has the king been dispossessed of his religious prerogatives.”This claim concerns the important question of the degree to which the Indian caste system can be, or has been, exported—a question that elicits deep-rooted and contentious problems inhering in our understanding of the nature of the caste system itself. Two propositions may here be identified and distinguished. The first is that, in India, kings—however powerful politically—did not formally possess religious or ritual authority; whereas in Indochina, however weak they were, kings formally possessed religious as well as political prerogatives. This is the contention cited above. The second is that, the first being true, it is also true that in Indochina kings possessed and exercised a degree of real control over social organization, by virtue of their ritual position (which was foreign to India): they were social engineers. In brief, they were oriental despots. The first proposition does not entail the second, but the two tend to go together; many writers have shown an inclination to accept the second, sometimes on the evidence of the first, sometimes on the evidence of facts about Indochinese kingdoms.

The Retention of Caste Notions Among the Indian Immigrants in British Guiana During the Nineteenth Century

Abstract: Indian immigration into the West Indies generally during the nineteenthcentury, and in particular to British Guiana, forms a small portion of migrationmovements from one area to another in the world during thatperiod. But in terms of West Indian societies, this immigration representeda major influx and so had significant social effects, especially inBritish Guiana and in Trinidad. By 1917 when the system was terminated some 429,286 Indians had been introduced into the West Indies since 1838, of which 238,909 went to British Guiana, and 143,939 to Trinidad.

Lower-Caste Peasants and Upper-Caste Zamindars in Bihar (1921-1925): An Analysis of Sanskritization and Contradiction between the Two Groups

Abstract: This paper is based mainly on some government reports on peasants’ retaliation against zamindars’ oppression from 1921 to 1925 in Bihar. These reports are to be found in File No. 171 of 1925, Political (Special), Government of Bihar. They narrate instances of encounter (both violent and nonviolent) between peasants of the Yadava, Kurmi, and Koiri castes and their zamindars who were upper-caste Hindus and Muslims. They describe who were the parties, along with their socio-economic background, and what were the manifest and latent causes that triggered off these confrontations. Hence they deserve attention even though the period covered is brief and the instances

Psychology of Inequality

Abstract: This paper reviews researches on the psycho-social aspects of inequality under four specific areas: physical setting; religion race and caste; disability; sex. The review follows a proposed model which considers social inequality as a function of social structuring. Through a process of differentiation, stratification and hierarchisation, inequality emerges. It then influences individuals, groups, organizations and community. As a result this affects their basic psychological processes and quality of living which determine ultimately their quality of life. The physical setting effecting inequality has been subdivided into a number of micro settings, and the scope of researches in this micro settings has been indicated. Another important dimension concerns stereotypes, prejudices, religion and caste, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The area of inequality in relation to sex includes women and marital status, women and work, sex and teaching roles, students and sex differences, sex differences and personality variables and the study of women in India. Almost all the studies reviewed are micro studies and lack an attempt to arrive at a consensus. Differences have been shown statistically but the attempts to go beyond it and to propound meaningful constructs are not visible. A good picture of the psychology of inequality is difficult to obtain from intramural studies with students as subjects. There is complete absence of activistic action research in this area. The researches reviewed did not indicate any intimate, committed association of Indian Psychologists with the contemporary social realities of inequality.

Half-caste, out-caste: An ethnographic analysis of the processes underlying adaptation among Aboriginal people in Rural Town, South-West Queensland

Abstract: This thesis examines the adequacy of the assimilation/culture - contact/culture – continuum framework on which much research into urban/ rural Aboriginal groups has been based. Chapters I and II outline the concepts underlying this approach and propose that a theoretical orientation amalgamating the principles of cultural ecology, cognitive and psychiatric anthropology within a framework of distal and proximal environmental, personal and behavioural attributes would prove a more fruitful and comprehensive theoretical orientation. Inherent in such an approach is the concept of adaptation. Delineation of the processes of adaptation in terms of such a framework is based on qualitative rather than quantitative methods of data collection. Consequently Chapter III carefully examines the strengths and weaknesses of participant observation as well as the whole qualitative method. It indicates that, although this method of data collection has many strengths, particularly in relation to cognitive and psychiatric anthropology, it would be misleading to attempt to evaluate it according to purely scientific principles.Chapter IV begins evaluation of ethnographic data about Aboriginal people in Rural Town in terms of the proposed adaptive theoretical framework by examining the history of settlement, the nature and changes of land use, the development of European society, the conflict between European and Aboriginal groups in the area and the latter's resultant decimation and subjugation.Chapter V delineates the present Aboriginal population in Rural Town, their interrelationships, permanency of residence, patterns of movement and the housing situation. Results indicate that the present organization within the Aboriginal minority is related to its economic situation, the history of contact and settlement in the region and present relationships with the dominant European majority. This theme is elaborated in Chapters VI and VII which present data on interactions between Europeans and Aborigines as well as in-group activity among the dark people in Rural Town. Evidence again suggests that present patterns result from historical developments as well as European perceptions of Aborigines which have helped to shape Aboriginal perceptions of themselves as second-class people.Thus, in terms of Myrdal's (1965) concept of cumulative causation, data collected in Rural Town indicate that the Aboriginal community is operating within a "vicious circle" of prejudice, segregation and discrimination involving cultural exclusion and social disintegration.Chapters VIII and IX, concerning societal pressures on the Aboriginal community, such as social class and economic position, examine the way in which these have shaped the Aboriginal household, relationships within the household, concepts underlying socialization, education and employment patterns. Again, data suggest that the principles and processes underlying these patterns arise out of Myrdal's second "vicious circle" determined by poverty, low social status, poor housing and lack of employment possibilities.The cumulative effects of these two "vicious circles" have resulted in tensions and pressures with which many Aboriginal people of Rural Town cannot cope. The factors underlying this inability to cope or adapt successfully are not related to any misunderstanding of European values or to existence in a culture-contact / culture-vacuum situation. Rather, they are a product of chronic poverty and Aboriginal people's frustrations in trying to establish their worth and equality in a white society from which they have been excluded since first European settlement in South West Queensland.

Dominant Caste and Political Process

Abstract: M.N. Srinivas, V.S. Parthasarathy and S. Soshiah(eds), Dimensions of Social Change in India, Delhi: Allied Publishers, pp. 297-319

The Jajmani System: A Nepalese Example

Abstract: Although considerable research has been devoted to the customary system of labor relations found in South Asia, very little has been written about precisely how the annual jajmani payments are determined. This essay, based on data from East Nepal, indicates that customary labor payments, although often based on averages and prorated over a person's lifetime, are still proportional to the services provided. It is suggested that the system of relatively fixed rates of exchange not only provides economic security for the lower castes, but also serves to reinforce the traditional, hierarchial social order by clearly distinguishing one caste from another.