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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.


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01 Jan 1966

60 citations

Posted Content
Maitreyi Bordia Das1
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a conceptual and analytical framework which adds to the existing body of labor market analysis on gender and caste in India and assesses the changes that have taken place over almost two decades.
Abstract: In India, caste and gender have historically been the two axes of stratification responsible for the major inequalities in access - in as diverse areas as education, health, technology, and jobs. Both axes of stratification are supported by a ritual ideology and a complex set of social norms. The aim of this chapter is to understand to what extent these axes have a bearing on employment. It is divided into two parts: Part I addresses why women's labor force participation rates have been falling in an era of rapid economic and educational growth. Part II addresses the issue of exclusion in the labor market based on traditional caste and tribal status and assesses the changes that have taken place over almost two decades. The two papers draw on the sociological literature on caste and the demographic, economic and feminist literature on women's employment. Data for the empirical analysis comes from four rounds of the employment modules of the National Sample Surveys from 1983 to 1999-2000. Using varied sociometric methods, the papers attempt to build a conceptual and analytical framework which adds to the existing body of labor market analysis on gender and caste in India. Results from the analysis in Part I indicate that for women, low opportunity structures are responsible for low labor force participations rates -- consistently under 40 percent. Analysis in Part II suggests that the effects of caste alone, controlling for a number of household, individual and regional characteristics, really plays out in the form of an increased likelihood of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes being in casual labor and their reduced chances of being in off-farm self-employment.

60 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Aug 1986-Ecology
TL;DR: 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.
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.

60 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It can be seen that the dowry system is more prevalent in developed regions, while bride-wealth is more common in backward regions and marriage payment is found to be less common in close kin marriages than in unrelated marriages.
Abstract: SummaryThe present study aims at understanding the interrelations between consanguineous marriages and marriage payment. The data are collected from three castes inhabiting two regions of Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, South India. It is evident from the study that the dowry system is more prevalent among higher castes, while the bride wealth system is more common among the lower castes in the hierarchy. Further, it can be seen that the dowry system is more prevalent in developed regions, while bride-wealth is more common in backward regions. Marriage payment is found to be less common in close kin marriages than in unrelated marriages. Most of the uncle-niece marriages are without any marriage payment, in all the castes. However, most of the matrilateral cross-cousin and patrilateral cross-cousin marriages are also without any marriage payment in the Devanga.

60 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparative analysis of crimes of "honour" in India and Pakistan and an examination of appellate judgments from the two countries is carried out to explore the complex nature of the interaction between modernity and tradition.
Abstract: Through a comparative analysis of crimes of ‘honour’ in India and Pakistan and an examination of appellate judgments from the two countries, we reflect upon how a rights-based discourse of modern nation-states forms a complex terrain where citizenship of the state and membership of communities are negotiated and contested through the unfolding of complex legal rituals in both sites. We identify two axes to explore the complex nature of the interaction between modernity and tradition. The first is that of governance of polities (state statutory governance bodies) and the second is the governance of communities (caste panchayats and jirgahs). We conclude that the diverse legacies of common law in India and Pakistan frame an anxious relationship with the categories of tradition and modernity, which inhabit spaces in between the governance of polities and the governance of communities, and constantly reconstitute the relationship between the local, national and the global.

60 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023585
20221,232
2021241
2020254
2019243
2018247