Showing papers on "Caste published in 1986"

The economic emergence of women

Abstract: The Break-up of the Sex Role Caste System Why Did Women Emerge? The Social Factors: Births, Schools, Divorces, Ideas 'Women's Place' in the Labour Market Occupational Segregation by Sex: The Root of Women's Disadvantage Setting the Pay for the Jobs Women Hold Government Action against Discrimination Affirmative Action and Pay Equity The Occupation of Housewife Lone Parents and their Poverty Keeping House: The Economics and Politics of Family Care 'Industrializing' Housework and Child Care A Policy Agenda for the Sex Role Revolution

Developmental and Physiological Determinants of Caste in Social Hymenoptera: Evolutionary Implications

Abstract: Ants, bees, and wasps form societies made up almost entirely of females. The societies are structured by differences among female members; these may be subtle, involving only physiology, or profound, involving gross size differences and hundreds of morphological characters. Since adult morphology is the product of development, the developmental systems that generate different female forms must be fundamental to social structure. Increased complexity of social organization requires changes in the underlying developmental programs that produce the members of a society. In this paper, I present a developmental view of the evolution of societies. These insights serve as a bridge between theories focused on the initial stages of the evolution of sociality in Hymenoptera (Hamilton 1964; Lin and Michener 1972; West-Eberhard 1975) and theories focused on the evolution of insect societies as superorganisms (Oster and Wilson 1978). In simple social systems, the struggle for control of the reproductive physiology of nest mates is resolved entirely in the adult stage; all females are potential queens. The evolution of higher sociality involves an enhancement of the differences between nonreproductive workers and reproductive queens. In what are termed primitively eusocial species, queens and workers cannot be distinguished on the basis of external structure. Size differences, however, often do exist. By contrast, queens and workers differ morphologically in the highly eusocial species (Michener 1974). (A eusocial society must, by definition, have both reproductive division of labor [reproductive castes] and overlap between generations, so that offspring assist parents in brood care [Wilson 1971].) The evolutionary divergence of queen and worker morphology raises two complementary questions regarding the relationship between social structure and the factors that determine physical or physiological differences among females. How far can the physiological and morphological gap between workers and queens be widened in simple systems

Daughters of Independence: Gender, Caste, and Class in India

Abstract: Joanna Liddle and Rama Joshi explore the connection in India between gender and caste, and gender and class. They ask whether the subordination of women has diminished as India moves from a caste to a class structure, and what effect colonization had on the status of women in India. Focusing on educated, professional women, the authors look at the particular experiences of 120 women they interviewed, and also interpret the larger patterns of social relations that emerge from the interviews. These sensitive stories are told with an eloquence that is often moving and inspiring For thousands of years Indian women have had a cultural tradition of resisting male domination. At the same time, the control of female sexuality has always been central to social hierarchies in India. Women are constrained in both class and caste hierarchies, to help distinguish the men at the top of the hierarchy from men at the bottom, where women are less constrained. In class society the seclusion of women allowed men to have sexual control over women and to retain the property that was transferred in marriage. In contemporary India, professional women have had success entering the professions as the social groups to which they belong move increasingly to class rather than caste structures. But men continue to control the type of education they receive and the type of employment open to them, and to participate in the sexual harassment of women in the workplace. The concept that women are inferior to men--a concept that is not part of the Indian cultural heritage-is growing. In a sense, working professional women strengthen male control. The class structure is no more egalitarian than the caste structure, as oppression simply takes other forms.

A Test of Optimal Caste Ratio Theory Using the Ant Camponotus (Colobopsis) Impressus

Abstract: Oster and Wilson developed theoretical models predicting optimal caste ratios for social insects. We have tested some of these predictions in the field using an ant species that fits the relevant assumptions of their models. The ant Camponotus (Colobopsis) impresses has two worker castes: major workers (=soldiers), which guard the nests and may also store food, and minor workers (=work- ers), which are responsible for foraging. For such a species, Oster and Wilson predicted a concave relationship between the number of soldiers and the number of workers in the breeding season, and a convex relationship in the nonbreeding season. These predictions were supported by field censuses of C. impresses colonies. Also, increased proportions of soldiers (number of soldiers per worker) were found in the breeding versus the nonbreeding season, as predicted by the models. However, although the models predicted that breeding caste ratios should be optimal from the point of view of reproductive success, in C. impresses the production of alates was positively correlated with the number of soldiers, implying that the population had not reached the optimal caste ratio functions predicted by theory. Data on colony growth patterns and ecological variables suggested that the lack of a complete fit between theory and results was due to several oversimplified assumptions about the proximal mech- anisms of caste ratio regulation. C. impresses actively altered caste ratios on a seasonal basis and on an ontogenetic basis, but there was no evidence of any adjustments to annual or spatial variations in resources, competitors or predators. Moreover, laboratory experiments in which different proportions of soldiers were removed revealed that the ability of C. impresses to regulate caste ratios was severely constrained by a low, constant production ratio of new soldiers to new workers. The existence of physiological and temporal constraints to caste ratio adjustments should be taken into account in studies of caste ratios for social insects.

Gene differentiation among ten endogamous groups of West Bengal, India.

Abstract: Ten endogamous populations of West Bengal, India have been surveyed for genetic variation in 12 systems. These populations encompass all social ranks in the caste hierarchy and cover almost the entire geographic area of the state. Gene diversity analysis suggests that these groups exhibit significant allele frequency variation at all but three loci. The overall genetic difference is not, however, in accord with the classification based on caste. Two low-ranking scheduled caste groups are, in fact, in close proximity with the high-caste ones, suggesting evidence of past generations of gene flow among them. Three different clusters of groups emerge from the present data, providing support for the anthropologic assertion that in Bengal Proto-Australoid, Caucasoid, and Mongoloid racial elements generally coexist. However, these three components are not uniformly present in all groups. Geographic separation of the groups is a strong determinant of the gene differentiation that exists among these populations.

Anthropological studies in Assam, India.

Abstract: Four Assamese caste groups--Jogis, Hiras, Kumars and Kaibartas--have been analysed for the distribution of anthropometric and dermatoglyphic traits as well as for the distribution of ABO blood groups and PTC taste sensitivity. The differences among these four caste groups are statistically mostly significant, which can be connected with the history of these groups and their genetic isolation from each other.

Family change, caste, and the elderly in a rural locale in Nepal

Abstract: This study reports research conducted in a rural Nepalese Hindu Community to examine three questions: (1) the nature of family structure of the elderly roughly 4 decades ago; (2) whether the family structure at that time was the same for high and low castes; and (3) whether the past situation differs from that today. Four decades ago 78% of elderly high caste males were living in the ideal Hindu joint family structure compared with only 24% of the low castes. Today just 50% of the high castes and 42% of the low castes live in joint families. The difference in the past derives from access to and control over economic resources. Economic changes since 1950 have increased access to economic resources and altered the family structure of the high castes but not the low castes.

Reproducing Inequality: Spirit Cults and Labor Relations in Colonial Eastern India

Abstract: UNDERSTANDING how unequal relations are reproduced over time is as significant as comprehending inequality itself. For unequal relations exist only in human practices that reproduce them. More than a play on words, the coupling of production with reproduction in recent anthropological studies highlights processes that provide the basis for production.1 The necessity of reconstructing practices that reproduce social relations is perhaps nowhere more neglected than in the study of South Asian history. When it comes to explaining how unequal relations between social groups were maintained, the caste system is the perennial favorite. This is particularly so where relations between landlords and landless laborers are concerned. Thus, evenJan Breman's sophisticated and rich study of dependent laborers in South Gujarat points to the jajmani system, the institutional form of caste relations in the agrarian context, as the basis for relations between laborers and landlords in the past.2 While his study illuminates how bonded labor relations can be This essay draws heavily from my unpublished dissertation entitled 'Production and the Reproduction of Bondage: Kamias and Maliks in South Bihar, c. 1300 to I930s.' University of Pennsylvania, I984. The research was carried out in 1981-82 and was supported by grants from the American Institute of Indian Studies and the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies. Discussions with David Ludden, Arjun Appadurai, Carol A. Breckenridge, David Rudner, and Lee Cassanelli have helped greatly in clarifying my arguments. 1 Claude Meillasoux, in particular, has stressed the pivotal role of reproduction in production. See his 'From reproduction to production,' Economy and Society, I, I (I972). Jack Goody's Production and Reproduction: A Comparative Study of the Domestic Domain (Cambridge, I976) draws correlations between the organization of domestic units and mode of agriculture without drawing the tight relationship that Meillasoux develops between the social reproduction of the production unit and the production organization. While these anthropologists tend to deal with those strategies of reproduction that relate to kin relations, this essay is concerned with the reproduction of relations between classes.

A Comparative Study of Mate Selection Criteria among Indians in India and the United States

Abstract: This study investigated the effects of the modernization process upon the mate selection criteria used by a sample of Indian immigrants in the U.S.A. and a sample of their counterparts in India. The research was based upon a content analysis of matrimonial advertisements in India Abroad, an English weekly newspaper published in New York City, and in four major daily English newspapers published in India, each representing a major region of that country. The major findings were that occupation was not an important criterion in mate selection in either of the two samples and that personal income, religion and caste were more significant in mate selection in India than in the U.S.A.

Social and economic development in India : a reassessment

Abstract: Preface - Dilip K Basu Introduction - Richard Sisson and Dilip K Basu Dimensions of Development How is India Doing? - Amartya Sen Regime Types and Economic Performance - Lloyd I Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph Journey to the East - Barnett R Rubin Industrialization in India and the Chinese Experience Stratification of Women's Work in Rural India - Kalpana Bardhan Determinants, Effects and Strategies Caste in India Since Independence - Pauline Kolenda Pursuing Equality - Marc Galanter An Assessment of India's Policy of Compensatory Discrimination for Disadvantaged Groups The Consciousness of Freedom Among India's Untouchables - James M Freeman Problems of Integration in the Indian Political Community - Gopal Krishna Muslims and the Political Process From Satyartha Prakash to Manushi - Suresht Renjen Bald An Overview of the 'Women's Movement' in India The 'Draupadi' of Mahasveta Devi - Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak A Translation and Interpretation

Hiérarchie sociale et mouvements de réformes chez les Musulmans du sous-continent Indien

Abstract: The object of this paper is to analyze the ideas and criteria on which the status hierarchy among South Asian Muslims is founded. This question is a hotly debated one in Western acade mic circles as well as among Muslims themselves. Both tend, for ideological reasons, to build sharply contrasted models: equalita rian Islam opposed to hierarchical Hinduism. The contention of this paper is that both Muslim and Hindu society share basic pre conceptions about social hierarchy; it is erroneous and misleading to contrast them on this point. It is more rewarding to start from this basic homology in the social structure, and then to search for differences; such differences are to be found only at the top of the social hierarchy. As a consequence there is no reason to avoid the word «caste»: the Muslim society appears as a truncated caste system. The ethnographic material used in this paper is reinterpre ted in the light of medieval jurisprudence and of its reformula tions by modern reformers; it is contented that...

Defining Division: An Historical Overview of Jain Social Organization

Abstract: This paper briefly charts the progress and findings of European scholars approaching the issues of caste and sect in the Jain community over the last two centuries. Other authors have already discussed the European interest in Jain textual and philosophical issues, and while I touch on these briefly, my main concern is to outline Jain social organization, with particular reference to Swetambar communities in the north.

Les angles de l'Inde

Abstract: Geometries of India J-C Galey ; ; This article's backdrop is India's civilization and contemporary situation, as well as the present state of Indian Studies It takes upfacts considered peripheral by various disciplines, and combines an ethnology of history with a history of ethnology in a critical approach The following five points are developed : 1 In trying to understand religions and castes, Western orientalists and nineteenth century evolutionist rationalists viewed India as an object constructed with motives and categories foreign to Indian self-representations 2 The relationship between Brahman thought and Hindu society reveals internal transformation within certain limits 3 The complex interactions between "castes" and "tribes" legitimate a thorough reconceptualization of their postulated independence 4 A comparison of different regional caste system configurations and of Hindu values in societies without caste organizations points out the variable forms a cultural order can assume as well as its methodological limits 5 India's former relations with neighboring countries account for many of the borrowings whichplay a significant part in its make-up; India's exported elements reflect important features of its specificity

Islam, minority status and citizenship: Muslim experience in India

Abstract: Indian muslims have been a large and an active constituent of Indian politics and society for a very long time. Throughout the twentieth century their political endeavours have been directed towards achieving communal autonomy in a plural society. The aspiration to autonomy has been sufficiently strong to unite an otherwise extremely heterogeneous population, divided by language, class, caste and sect. Muslim politics were never monolithic but the dominant tendency was wedded to the cause of autonomy, which entailed a substantial struggle to determine the character and the scope of the state's jurisdiction.

Or I Wol Caste a Ston

Abstract: Alison's empty th

Arockyai Mary, gardienne du village chez les Parayars de l'Inde du Sud

Abstract: In India, Christianity does not theoretically acknowledge untouchability. In actual fact, it has however made use of the caste system to establish itself. The Church structures quickly reflected this and the discrimination between Catholic castes was identical to that between Hindu classes. Consequently, the untouchables were marginalized within the Church.