Showing papers on "Caste published in 1991"

The Developmental Basis of Worker Caste Polymorphism in Ants

Abstract: Among social Hymenoptera, the evolution of the worker caste has reached its apex in the ants, in which some taxa have evolved complex physical worker caste systems. Diverse worker caste systems can be generated through regulation of three aspects of larval growth: critical size, growth parameters, and reprogramming of these factors. Even the most complex caste systems could have evolved simply by the addition of revised programs to the end of an ancestral developmental pathway for workers. Worker castes in ants provide a system in which to study the evolution of reaction norms and developmental switches. In ants, the simplest developmental switch, revision of critical size alone, does not lead to discontinuous phenotypes. Only when changes in growth rules are tied to the decision to revise critical size are distinct phenotypes produced from the alternative developmental programs. The addition of ever more physical castes may be limited by both developmental and ecological factors.

The Poison in the Gift: Ritual, Prestation, and the Dominant Caste in a North Indian Village

Abstract: \"The Poison in the Gift\" is a detailed ethnography of gift-giving in a North Indian village that powerfully demonstrates a new theoretical interpretation of caste. Introducing the concept of \"ritual centrality,\" Raheja shows that the position of the dominant landholding caste in the village is grounded in a central-peripheral configuration of castes rather than a hierarchical ordering. She advances a view of caste as semiotically constituted of contextually shifting sets of meanings, rather than one overarching ideological feature. This new understanding undermines the controversial interpretation advanced by Louis Dumont in his 1966 book, \"Homo Hierarchicus,\" in which he proposed a disjunction between the ideology of hierarchy based on the \"purity\" of the Brahman priest and the \"temporal power\" of the dominant caste or the king.

The Development of Caste Systems in West Africa

Abstract: Endogamous artisan and musician groups are characteristic of over fifteen West African peoples, including the Manding, Soninke, Wolof, Serer, Fulani, Tukulor, Songhay, Dogon, Senufo, Minianka, Moors, and Tuareg. Castes appeared among the Malinke no later than 1300, and were present among the Wolof and Soninke, as well as some Songhay and Fulani populations, no later than 1500. All the West African castes ultimately developed from at most three centers, located among the Manding, Soninke, and/or Wolof. Migration is the key process explaining the current distribution of caste people. Formation of blacksmith and bard castes among the Manding may be related to the Sosso–Malinke war, described in the Sunjata epic, which led to the founding of the Mali empire. As they evolved over time, castes acquired secondary specializations or changed occupations, and moved up or down in rank relative to other social groups. Although marriage alliances took place within a caste or among a limited number of castes, castes did not form demographic isolates. Children of caste men and slave concubines had caste status, while free persons taken captive in war sometimes claimed to be caste members. Assimilation of local artisans to a caste may have occurred when caste institutions were first introduced into a given area.

Dominance and state power in modern India : decline of a social order

Abstract: Iqbal Marain & P.C. Mathur: The thousand year Raj: Regional isolation and Rajput Hinduism in Rajasthan before and after 1947 Ghanshyam Shah: Caste sentiments, class formation and dominance in Gujarat Jayant Lele: Caste, class and dominance: Political mobilization in Maharashtra Jayshree B. Gokhale: The evolution of a counter-ideology: Dalit consciousness in Maharashtra Sachchidananda: Pattern of politico-economic change among tribals in Middle India Manoranjan Mohanty: Class, caste and dominance in a backward state: Orissa Atul Kohli: From elite activism to democratic consolidation: The rise of reform communism in West Bengal Paul Wallace: Religious and ethnic politics: Political mobilization in Punjab Santosh Goyal: Appendix I: Note on the class and caste structure of India's agricultural economy Appendix II: Social background of Indian corporate executives.

Colonizing and transforming the criminal tribesman: the Salvation Army in British India

Abstract: Under colonial rule, the constitution of the notion of a criminal caste drew on prevailing discourses about crime, class, and work, as well as on British notions about the nature of Indian society. Transforming Indian communities into criminal castes involved the construction of a body of knowledge defining the nature, habits, and characteristics of criminal castes. Through the inculcation of habits of discipline, Salvation Army reformatories sought to reform criminal tribespeople into subjected and productive bodies. Processes of reform were linked to the spatiotemporal expansion of the British Empire and the constitution of new forms of productive relations.

Society and Politics in India: Essays in a Comparative Perspective

Abstract: Race, caste and gender race, caste and ethnic identity the concept of tribe with special reference to India caste and politics in Tamilnadu the politics of "non-antagonistic strata" networks in Indian social structure the future of the backward classes equality as a right and as a policy individualism and equality - on "individualism and equality", reply to Dumont individualism and person as subjects for sociology.

Why don't all termite species have a sterile worker caste?

Abstract: No general theory explains why a sterile worker caste is not found in all species of both Hymenoptera and Isoptera (Insecta). Recent empirical findings show that, in the termites (Isoptera), feeding outside the nest correlates well with the evolution of the sterile (true) worker caste from the non-sterile (false) worker caste. Here we explain the connection between food--nest separation and true worker evolution in termites, providing a general theory on the restricted distribution of the sterile worker caste in the Isoptera. A cost--benefit model suggests that there is a critical level of nest stability above which natural selection favours true workers over false workers, irrespective of genetical relatedness. Because food--nest separation tends to increase nest stability, this theoretical result implies that the less a termite species consumes its nest as food, the more likely is its nest stability to fall above the critical level and a true worker caste will evolve.

‘The Habitual Nobility of Being’: British Officers and the Social Construction of the Bengal Army in the Early Nineteenth Century

Abstract: The ethnocentric and racialist overtones of the Victorian empire have long been acknowledged. Most work in this field has generally centred on the mid to late nineteenth century and, by emphasizing the intellectual and cultural currents in domestic society, has focused our attention on the metropole. This reveals only part of the equation; British attitudes towards the outside world arose from a complex matrix of ideas, assumptions and contacts that linked the metropole and colonial environments. In order to understand more fully British responses to non-European societies, and the impact these had on imperial developments, this paper will examine the Bengal army in the 1820s and demonstrate that it was during this period, and under this institution, that many of the assumptions were established under which the later Raj would operate. Of great importance were experiences in the Burma War (1824–26) and the simultaneous mutiny at Barrackpore which, by bringing to the surface doubts about the loyalty and reliability of the Bengal army, hastened a transition from an army modelled on caste lines to one that rested principally on race. This transformation from a caste-based army to an army of martial races was not fully completed, although the foundations were laid, in the years before the Indian Mutiny of 1857, largely because even those who rejected Bengal's dependence upon the highest castes could not bring themselves to argue for the recruitment of the lowest castes no matter what ‘race’ they were drawn from.

Gender and Caste in the Mandara Highlands: Northeastern Nigeria and Northern Cameroon

Abstract: The status of artisans, particularly iron workers, in African societies has long been the subject of ethnological inquiry and dispute (e.g., Cline 1937:114-140; Clement 1948; de Heusch 1956; Dieterlen 1965; Vaughan 1970; de Maret 1980). We will not review here a debate that, in tune with trends in anthropological explanation, has invoked a great variety of factors in order to place smiths in African society at scales ranging from the continental to the local: conquest, societal economic adaptation, the smiths' integration into local economies, their access to wealth and dependence on others for foodstuffs, the nature of indigenous siderological technology and specialization, smiths' symbolic and mythical attributes and structural roles, and so on. Our modest aim is to demonstrate, by reference to the ethnography of small scale Chadic-speaking societies in the northern Mandara highlands of Cameroon (Boutrais 1984) and neighboring Nigeria, that gender, a variable previously ignored, is in this region of fundamental relevance to the question.2 We will focus upon the rural southern Mafa, numbering about 67,000 inhabitants in some twenty settlements, and Sirak, a single settlement of about 1,900 (part of the so-called Bulahay group consisting of four settlements of mefele-speakers [Barreteau 1987]), amongst whom our primarily ethnoarchaeological fieldwork has been concentrated over ten months between 1986 and 1990. Statements made

The Female Bridegroom: A Comparative Study of Life-Crisis Rituals in South India and Sri Lanka

Abstract: Life-crisis cycles in South India and Sri Lanka three villages caste, agriculture, and the local economy inter-caste presentations relationship terminologies marriage rules and behaviour puberty rites in the three villages the local wedding ceremony rituals of birth and infancy death ritual other ethnographic examples modes of interpretation an analysis of the ritual cycle in Terku Vandanam the social identities of ritual participants the overall pattern divine marriage.

Clan, Kinship, and Panchayat Justice among the Jats of Western Uttar Pradesh

Abstract: The Jats see themselves as an egalitarian people. The caste consists of exogamous clans settled in separate villages forming a clan territory. Whereas a marriage creates a ranked relation between two families or local descent groups, it is supposed to have no effect on the status of the clans which are equal in rank. A conflict ensues if a clan considers its status lowered as a result of a marriage. In the case analysed traditional councils or panchayats were unable to harmonize the principles of hierarchy and equality. Yet, the same panchayats have succeeded in mobilizing farmers demanding economic benefits from the state, revising the agenda of the panchayats in the process (India, Jats, caste, clan, hierarchy, equality, political mobilization) Stig Toft Madsen, Mag. Scient. (1980), M. A. (1976), studied Anthropology in Copenhagen and Sociology in Meerut, India; fieldwork in Uttar Pradesh in 1981-82; Socio-Economist on a fisheries project in South India in 1987-89 and a consultant

Mass Movement, Famine and Epidemic A Study in Interrelationship

Abstract: Meenakshipuram is a small, dusty village in Tamilnadu's Tinnevelly (Tirunelveli) district, very close to the south Kerala border. In 1981 this inconspicuous place, and several other villages in its immediate vicinity, made big headlines in the Indian daily papers when thousands of harijans or ex-untouchables decided to leave Hinduism and to embrace Islam. This spectacular case of mass conversion created a terrible shock among caste Hindus and threatened to upset the always precarious communal balance. Rumours circulated about Arabian sheikhs who had come to give tangible expression to the immense richness of Islamic belief by handsome distributions of oildollars. More serious investigation, however, showed that the harijans in this region had been suffering from oppression by aggressive landlords, harassment by police authorities and acute prejudices by caste Hindus for a very long time. A growing awareness of this social degradation has led many of these harijans to convert to Islam.

Society from the Inside Out: Anthropological Perspectives on the South Asian Household.

Abstract: Foreword - T N Madan Introduction Household and Domestic Group - Society from the Inside Out Studying the Household - Ursula Sharma Individuation and Values The 'Joint Family' Household in Rural Rajasthan - Pauline Kolenda Ecological, Cultural and Demographic Conditions for its Occurrence Household Form and Formation - Sylvia Vatuk Variability and Social Change Among South Indian Muslims The Household in Nepal - John N Gray Social and Experiential Crucible of Society Subjection and the Domicile - Vivienne Kondos Some Problematic Issues Relating to High Caste Nepalese Women Households in Akkaraiputtu - Dennis McGilvray Dowry and Domestic Organization Among the Matrilineal Tamils and Moors of Sri Lanka Households and Social Identity - David J Mearns Domestic Group, Domestic Space and Ritual Contexts Amongst Indians in Malaysia

Gender and Tribal Identity in Western India

Abstract: Maya Unnithan-Kumar The paper uses both contemporary and historical material on the Girasia 'tribals' of Sirohi in south Rajasthan, i) to understand the disjunction between the insider and outsider views of their "tribal' identity, ii) to discuss the extent of the freedom' of Girasia women through an analysis of their symbolic and economic roles, and iii) following from the above two points, to question the use of caste and tribe as analytical categories in south Rajasthan.

The medieval Deccan : peasants, social systems and states : sixteenth to eighteenth centuries

Abstract: This volume of eight essays deals with local administration in the medieval Deccan, and caste, slavery, village structure and community in the Maratha kingdom of the eighteenth century.

Elite and social change : a study of elite formation in India

Abstract: The Inquiry and Its Context Traditional Social Structure and the Rise of the Educated, Professional Strata The Design of the Survey Religion, Language and Caste Rural-Urban Distinctions Income and Occupational Backgrounds Educational Backgrounds Education in the Making of the Elite Elite Career and Family Background Elite Formation and Structural Change Summary and Conclusions

Becoming a Possession‐Medium in South India: A Psychocultural Account

Abstract: Possession-mediumship, the expected possession of a specialist by a spirit for the purpose of soliciting knowledge and assistance, is a form of divination which occupies an important place in the ethnomedical traditions of village South Asia. This article examines the institution and practitioners of possession-mediumship in the vicinity of a Jalari (Telugu fishing caste) village in coastal southeastern India. The practitioners include two Jalari women and two non-Jalari men. All four practice on behalf of Jalari patients. Although they employ similar diagnostic repertoires and mediumistic techniques, they vary considerably in their recruitment to and experience of possession-mediumship. Following a description of divinatory practices, the analysis focuses on ambivalence in the motherson relationship, arguing that, in some circumstances, its resolution may encourage development as a possession-medium.

Indians in South Africa: tradition vs. westernization.

Abstract: Indian (Hindu) social structure and caste and change is examined in the Durban community of Indians in South Africa. The joint family structure is discussed as well as the role of Indian women in the family and society. Historical background of the study area and Indians in Durban is provided. 1 major effect on Indian families was a result of the Group Areas Act of 1950 which restricted ownership of land and established segregation by group and expropriated property inequitably. Indians (Hindus Tamil and Telegu from south India and Hindi from north India) were imported to South Africa in the 1860s as indentured laborers for the sugar industry. Muslims and Gugerati-speaking Hindus came after 1974 as free Indians to engage in trade and commerce. The concept of the joint family is defined as dynamic but involving the relationship between 2 or more genealogically related families which can be coresidential and not commensal or coparcenary; or coresidential coparcenary but not commensal; or dispersed but still coparcenary but not coresidential and not commensal. The complexity of the joint family is further discussed based on an earlier study of 100 households is 1978 Durban and pertains to the nuclear family and segmentation. Caste endogamy varies within Hindu groups i.e. 96% marrying within the Gujerati 11% within the Hindi 31% within the Tamil and 57% within the Telegu. Status is based on achievement rather than ascription. Very few hereditary occupations prevail and occupation is based on education technical skills and business acumen. The concept of purity and pollution is nonexistent. Education and independence of women has lead to changing womens roles and the breakup of the joint family. Socioreligious obligations have a diminished impact. Western-oriented life styles are adopted. The nuclear family provides an opportunity for family progress vertically in terms of status and prosperity and freedom from Hindu social norms. Kinship patterns become more egalitarian.

Religion caste/tribe and marriage age of females in India: a study based on recent census data.

Abstract: The present paper makes an attempt to study the influence of religion and caste/tribe status on the age at marriage for females [in India] in the light of recent data available from the 1981 census The positive impact of economic and educational investments on raising marriage age is noted (EXCERPT)

Caste and gender disparities in literacy in urban India: some developmental implications.

Abstract: A demographer used 1981 and 1991 census data to look at different features of inequalities in literacy between males and females and between nonscheduled and scheduled castes in cities of more than 1 million people in India. During the 1980s the gap between male and female literacy rates fell significantly in the cities of Bihar Madhya Pradesh Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan while in other northern Indian cities the gap did not change. There was a tendency for male/female disparities in literacy to decline as per capita income increased but this association did not exist with caste disparities. For example Haryana Punjab and Gujarat had the highest incomes but they had greater caste disparities than the very low income states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The regions with highest female literacy rates were basically the same regions with the highest rates since 1901. Likewise the cities with lowest female literacy rates were basically the same regions with the lowest rates since 1901. Caste disparities had a clear north/south pattern. The disparity between nonscheduled and scheduled castes was greater than was the disparity between males and females of each caste. The disparity between nonscheduled and scheduled castes was not as great in regions where social reforms which aimed to improve the condition of scheduled castes had a strong influence (e.g. Maharashtra).

Caste and Bihar Politics

Abstract: Ravindra Kumar Verma Though the backward castes constitute nearly 60 per cent of Bihar's electoratejill the early years of the 1970s these castes were politically not significant. 1977 was the turning point in their political organisation when reservation for backward castes in government service was introduced.

Some Thoughts about Class, Caste, and the Canon.

Abstract: As a young man I worked on the production line in automobile factories in Detroit, Michigan. It was a time in the early 1950s of full production with plants operating on three eight-hour shifts-the full capacity of the Cadillac automobile production line. On the line, men and some women, mostly white workers largely recruited from border states -Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia-stamped out the parts, which, when assembled, brought forth an eighteen-foot long, five-and-a-half-foot wide, gleaming, finned, garishly colored Cadillac automobile. The proper number of parts to be stamped, formed, and shaped on two-hundred ton presses by a single worker or small groups working as teams was established through union-management negotiations and coordinated with each and every other activity in the factory. Thus, if one line produced too few of one part, the entire assembly line would be required to slow down until the recalcitrant producers of the absent part caught up to the required level of production. The role of the foreman who exercised control over a group of workers was defined exclusively by his ability to guarantee that his unit was not responsible for holding up the entire line of production. Control, therefore, was exercised in a negative way. The foreman cared, as did the floor manager under whom groups of foremen were organized, little about other considerations. Often, farm boys from Appalachian hills in mute rebellion against the tyranny of the line cursed and insulted the foreman sotto voce, deliberately sabotaged machines in ways difficult to discover, purposely injured themselves to gain an hour’s visit to the first-aid facility, appeared from time to time under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and routinely filed frivolous grievances with the shop steward. But so long as workers responded to machine pacing and so long as the foremen ended the shift with the right number of parts produced and accounted for, he cared little about the idiosyncracies of the individual worker. In fact, workers could be and were interchanged from one set of tasks to another, from one part of the factory to another, since the skills required were, for the most part, so simplified that nothing more than a nor-