Caste

About: Caste is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5681 publications have been published within this topic receiving 91330 citations. The topic is also known as: caste system.

The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism: Mournings

Abstract: This article maps the incursion of Hindu nationalism in Orissa, eastern India. It interrogates Hindu cultural dominance and nationalist mobilization as it gains momentum in the state. It speaks to majoritarianism in the context of liberal development, the related apparatus of nation making, mediated by issues of religion, caste, class, culture, tribe and gender. The text, as history of a discontinuous present, offers counter-narratives of lives often reduced to ‘lack’ or ‘spectacle’, reciting minority-subaltern claims in rethinking nation, rights and difference.

Reproductive skew and the origin of sterile castes.

Abstract: Reproductive skew theory has not heretofore formally addressed one of the most important questions in evolutionary biology: How can whole‐life sterile castes evolve? We construct a transactional skew model investigating under what conditions a subordinate in a multimember group is favored to develop into a morphologically specialized worker caste. Our model demonstrates that, contrary to former expectations, the ecological and genetic conditions favoring caste differentiation are far more restrictive than those favoring high skew. Caste differentiation cannot be selected in saturated, symmetrical relatedness groups unless the genetic relatedness among group members is extremely high. In contrast, it can be selected in the saturated, asymmetrical relatedness (parent‐offspring) groups with complete skew. If we also consider the future reproduction of subordinates, caste differentiation is possible only after the group size reaches a certain critical point. Most importantly, caste differentiation i...

Kinship and ritual in a South Indian micro-region

Abstract: Fieldwork carried out in the Tirunelvell District of Tamil Nadu, South India, has led to the delineation of a 'micro-region’ of three agricultural villages This micro-region acquires its sociological unity by virtue of a system of inter-caste relationships and prestations which embraces all these villages and which manifests itself equally in the religious, economic, political and administrative spheres In particular, the various specialist caste-groups perform their respective services for clienteles made-up of all or part of the population of the micro-region concerned One aspect of each specialist's duty is his role in the life-crisis rituals of his clients These rituals are themselves subsequently re-examined from the opposite perspective, namely with reference to the intra-caste relationships which they bring into play Particular attention is paid to female puberty rites and to marriage; these are considered as a single ritual complex, concerned with caste purity and the legitimation of off-spring The phenomenon of marriage between a man and his elder sister’s daughter is examined There is a discussion of the problems which this practice raises for the conventional view of the 'Dravidian' marriage system, and an alternative structure is suggested for the kinship terminology in the present case It is argued throughout that the problems being considered are best approached from a sociological, structural perspective, and a three-level model of social reality is adapted for this purpose As a complement to this, the study concludes with a critique of the recently-advanced 'cultural' and 'ethnosociological' approaches in South Asian anthropology

Caste, kinship and the realisation of ‘American Dream’: high-skilled Telugu migrants in the U.S.A.

Abstract: Literature on the Indian diaspora domiciled in the U.S.A. largely portrays the group as educated, highly skilled migrants in pursuit of their American Dream, without critically engaging with the regionally particularised migration trajectories that predispose only certain groups to become skilled migrants from the global South to the North. Migration studies bracket skilled migrants as those who make rational choices and choose formal routes to migrate whereas unskilled migrants often rely on informal channels of kinship or ethnicity to migrate. Unsettling this proposition, in this article, based on an ethnographic study of the high-skilled Telugu professionals in the U.S.A. and their families living in Coastal Andhra, India, I show how aspirational and topographical migration pathways from Coastal Andhra to the U.S.A. are created and sustained through networks of kinship, caste and endogamous transnational marriage alliances. These high-skilled migrants (doctors, engineers and scientists) from th...

Discrimination and Children's Nutritional Status in India

Abstract: This article explores the differing health status of lower caste social groups in India, analyses the reasons for the differences and discusses some of the implications for policy. National Family Planning and Health Survey (NFH‐3) data shows that children belonging to lower castes have worse nutrition, health and mortality indicators and poorer access to health services and nutrition schemes than children from higher castes, even after other socioeconomic factors are considered. The article suggests that this points towards the possible role of discrimination and exclusion associated with caste and ‘untouchability’ and outlines some policy recommendations that are proactively inclusive, specifically in the nutrition domain.