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ANTHROGURU
ANTHROPOLOGY

IGNOU-MA (ANTHROPOLOGY)

SOCIO-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

TOPICS ARE ARRANGED

ACCORDING TO THE NEEDS OF
CIVILS SYLLABUS

TOPICS:
PAPER-1 : 1.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 .

CONTACT:

anthroguru@gmail.com

telegram: anthroguru
 ANTHROGURU

ANTHROGURU

ANTHROPOLOGY

1.1 Meaning, scope and development of Anthropology.

1.2 Relationships with other disciplines: Social Sciences,

Behavioural Sciences, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences,
Earth Sciences and Humanities.

1.3 Main branches of Anthropology, their scope and

relevance:

(a) Social- cultural Anthropology.

(b) Biological Anthropology.

(c) Archaeological Anthropology.

(d) Linguistic Anthropology.

CONTACT:
anthroguru@gmail.com
telegram: anthroguru
 MAN-001
Social Anthropology
Indira Gandhi
National Open University
School of Social Sciences

Block

1
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY
UNIT 1
Social Anthropology: Nature and Scope 5
UNIT 2
Philosophical and Historical Foundations of Social
Anthropology 20
UNIT 3
Relationship of Social Anthropology with Allied
Disciplines 30
Expert Committee
Professor I J S Bansal
Retired, Department of
Human Biology
Punjabi University, Patiala
Professor K K Misra
Director
Indira Gandhi Rashtriya
Manav Sangrahalaya
Bhopal
Professor Ranjana Ray
Retired, Department of
Anthropology
Calcutta University, Kolkata
Professor P. Chengal Reddy
Retired, Department of
Anthropology
S V University, Tirupati
Professor V.K.Srivastava
Principal, Hindu College
University of Delhi
Delhi
Professor Sudhakar Rao
Department of Anthropology
University of Hyderabad
Hyderabad
Professor. Subhadra M.
Channa
Department of Anthropology
University of Delhi
Delhi
Professor P Vijay Prakash
Department of Anthropology
Andhra University
Visakhapatnam
Dr. S.M. Patnaik
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Delhi
Delhi
Dr. Manoj Kumar Singh
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Delhi
Delhi
Faculty of Anthropology
SOSS, IGNOU
Dr. Rashmi Sinha
Reader
Dr. Mitoo Das
Assistant Professor

Professor R. K. Pathak Dr. Nita Mathur Dr. Rukshana Zaman

Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Assistant Professor
Panjab University Faculty of Sociology Dr. P. Venkatrama
Chandigarh School of Social Sciences Assistant Professor
Indira Gandhi National Open
Professor A K Kapoor Dr. K. Anil Kumar
University, New Delhi
Department of Anthropology Assistant Professor
University of Delhi, Delhi
Programme Coordinator: Dr. Rashmi Sinha, IGNOU, New Delhi
Course Coordinator : Dr. Rukshana Zaman, IGNOU, New Delhi

Block Preparation Team

Unit Writers Unit 3 Content Editor
Unit 1 Dr. Sudeep Kumar Professor Nadeem Hasnain
Dr. S.M. Patnaik Assistant Professor Department of Anthropology
Associate Professor Xavier Institute of Social University of Lucknow
Department of Anthropology Service, Ranchi Lucknow
University of Delhi, Delhi Language Editor
Unit 2 Dr. Parmod Kumar
Professor Subhadra M. Assistant Professor
Channa, Department of Discipline of English
Anthropology School of Humanities
University of Delhi, Delhi IGNOU, New Delhi
Authors are responsible for the academic content of this course as far as the copyright issues are concerned.

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BLOCK 1 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
Introduction
This block consists of three units-dealing with nature, meaning and scope of social
anthropology, philosophical and historical foundations of social anthropology, and
relationship of social anthropology with other disciplines.
Social anthropology had a systematic beginning in the late 19th century. Inspired by the
increasing popularity of the idea of evolution after the publication of Darwins’ The
Origin of Species, a few scholars belonging to different academic fields engaged
themselves in exploring the possibility of a similar process of evolution in the field of
society and culture. As a corollary of this interest, they got themselves interested in the
study of primitive societies in the conviction that these represented the earliest conditions
of human society and cultures. All of them who got involved in the comparative study of
primitive societies and cultures at that time with the intention of studying the origin and
evolution of culture preferred the use of ‘ethnologists’ for themselves. Ethnology may
therefore be defined as the comparative study of primitive cultures in historical
perspectives. Gradually, when the study of society and culture became systematic and
took the form of a discipline, social/cultural anthropology emerged and named as such
in British and American traditions respectively.
The second unit in the block introduces the philosophical and historical roots of
anthropology especially social anthropology. It discusses several important aspects of
the problem foremost of which was the beginning of the possibility of a scientific study
of society providing you, in a summarised form, the thoughts of philosophers and scholars
such as David Hume, John Lock, Thomas Hobbes, Rousseau and some others. It also
deals with the contributions of the French philosopher Montesquieu who is usually
regarded as the first social thinker to have a systematic theory about society, Comte
and his positivist view of society, Saint Simon, and Durkheim. Making a journey through
time Herbert Spencer, McLennan, and Maine along with Tylor and Morgan laid the
foundation of social anthropology.
You are being provided herewith a sound idea of social anthropology as a discipline,
its’ meaning and scope and the distinction between social and cultural anthropology.
You will also read the methods of social anthropology and how these evolved. Outside
Britain and USA, India has been an important centre of social anthropology where the
discipline developed under the shadow of colonial rule, used by the British administrators
to further their interests. In the post-independence period, social anthropology in India
decolonised itself and is trying to respond to the challenges of modernisation of the
traditional Indian society by developing new insights and tools of study. Presently, new
horizons are being explored in Indian anthropology.
It is very important for you to understand the relationship of social anthropology with
other disciplines. The third unit will further enrich your understanding of the subject in
relation to sociology, psychology, history, economics, and other social sciences besides
its relationship and interface with cultural studies, management and even literature. Thus,
you would be able to understand how social anthropology is able to relate with a
variety of disciplines for an understanding of human behaviour and culture in totality.
UNIT 1 SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY:
NATURE AND SCOPE
Contents
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Social Anthropology: A Branch of Anthropology
1.2.1 What is Social Anthropology
1.2.2 Cultural Anthropology
1.2.3 How Social Anthropology Developed
1.2.4 Methods of Social Anthropology

1.3 Nature and Scope of Social Anthropology

1.3.1 Scope of Social Anthropology
1.3.2 Future Perspective
1.3.3 Social Anthropology in India
1.3.4 Present Scenario

1.4 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

The unit will enable you to understand:
 what does social anthropology mean;
 the subject matter of social anthropology;
 how social anthropology had developed;
 the journey of social anthropology in India; and
 future perspective and present scenario.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
This unit will trace the emergence of social anthropology and its scope. It is important
to know the development and scope of social anthropology as a subject. We know
social anthropology today has many stages of development. The subject has not
obtained today’s form overnight. It has many theoretical debates since its emergence
and till today all the matters of debate have not come to an end. So, it is very much
important to the students of anthropology to understand these issues and also to
know the history related to the subject.

1.2 SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY: A BRANCH OF

ANTHROPOLOGY
To understand the emergence of social anthropology as a branch of Anthropology,
we need to explore the historical facts related to the debates between social
anthropology and cultural anthropology. The term social anthropology has a historical 5
Introduction to Social background in the field of anthropology. We need to explore to some extent the
Anthropology
theoretical framework as well to trace the emergence of the term social anthropology.
Along with this the term cultural anthropology would also come in our discussion, as
these two terms have a close interpretation. Sometimes these two terms overlap in
the fields of practice.
Though we have subjective debate over the term social anthropology and cultural
anthropology, sometimes we find interchangeable use of these two terms. People use
the term socio-cultural anthropology to replace these two terms. But historically there
is a debate over the ideology of these two terms and as a student of anthropology
we need to know these issues.
Anthropology basically has two dominant schools of thought. One is British school
of thought and the other is American school of thought. British school of thought
braches out Anthropology into three basic branches
1) Biological or physical anthropology.
2) Social anthropology.
3) Archaeology.
American school defines four branches of Anthropology:
1) Physical anthropology
2) Cultural anthropology.
3) Archaeology
4) Linguistic anthropology.
Thus, we see that there are many issues related to the terminology. It is surrounded
with many historical debates. We will try to unfold these debates in our next sections.

1.2.1 What Is Social Anthropology

The most common and basic definition of Anthropology is to say that Anthropology
is the study of man across time and space. Anthropology deals with every aspect of
human being. It not only studies human beings in present context but also studies
human beings journey through the path of evolution from Pleistocene period till
today’s globalised world and also tries to trace the future path. Anthropology studies
man irrespective of any geographical boundary. It studies human being as a whole
and also tries to study differences within it. Man is the most wonderful creature in
the world with cultural, social, and habitational variation in it. Unlike any other
species Homo sapiens represents a diverse population in itself in respect of culture.
Culture variation gives a diverse look to the same species Homo sapiens. Biologically
defined Homo sapiens are an interbreeding population; but culturally man creates
different rules for marriage. Same species does not contain interbreeding population.
Cultural prohibition defines matting pattern. Likewise, biologically all the members of
the same species i.e. Homo sapiens have equal potentialities in its individuals. But
human being differentiates themselves on the basis of race. We can mention many
such examples that convince us to define anthropology as a unique science to study
man comprising all the differences and similarities within it. Anthropologists find out
the differences and at the same time it tries to find out the general characteristics
within the same species Homo Sapiens. Anthropology professes systematically to
6
research all the manifestations of human being and human activity in a unified way.
Man live in society following a certain culture pattern. In different societies the culture Social Anthropology:
Nature and Scope
norms differ. Generally speaking social anthropology deals with the study of this
aspect of man. But, as a discipline, social anthropology has different meaning in
different countries. Reflecting diversity and variation in human thought we find different
thought surrounding social anthropology.
The term social anthropology is generally used in Great Britain and other commonwealth
countries. With support from Prof. Claude Levi-Strauss, the term is also extensively
used in France, Netherland and the Scandinavian countries. Social anthropology
refers to different meaning in the countries like USA, England and the other countries
of European continent. So, we often see a diverse nature referred by the term social
anthropology in different countries. In Great Britain Anthropology refers to physical
anthropology which studies biological aspect of man. In England social anthropology
is understood as ethnology or sociology as in other countries of the European continent.
In short, in Europe itself social anthropology has two different meanings. On the
other hand in USA, social anthropology is considered as a larger and comprehensive
discipline. It covers up the study of man from different aspects. It not only considers
man as a sociological being but also puts emphasis on the cultural aspect.
In nineteenth century, ‘ethnology’ was the term used instead of social or cultural
anthropology. The Greek term ethos means race and logia means study. Thus,
ethnology was referred to be the study of diverse behaviour of ethnic groups. Cultural
distinction covered a major part of such study. Along with this, it also studied culture
change. Sometimes, social anthropology is defined in the context of ethnology.
Ethnologists, who concentrate on social relations, such as family, and kinship, age
groups, political organisation, law and economic activities (what is called social
structure) is called social anthropology. Supporting the position of A.R. Radcliffe-
Brown the English anthropologists denied the usefulness of historical studies in
anthropology and concentrated on social structure. In this context, social anthropology
is non historical in their view while ethnology is historical. Distinctly, social anthropology
represents the thought following the British school which can rightly be defined as the
study of social structure and social organisation.

1.2.2 Cultural Anthropology

The split in socio-cultural Anthropology is not readily accepted all over the world.
We have already stated how Social anthropology has different terms of reference in
different countries. Likewise the term socio-cultural Anthropology has also different
domain of practice in different countries. Cultural anthropology is a term of reference
popular in America. In America, the stress on cultural anthropology is laid with the
objective that man is more than merely organic man, but a cultural being also. Culture
of a particular society helps us to understand civilisation irrespective of time and
space. The American cultural anthropology also includes Archaeology. Stress on
culture study created a specialty to American school of thought which resulted into
the creation of ethnology – the science of people.
Anthropology as knowledge about ‘cultivated human’ that is, knowledge about those
aspects of humanity which are not natural, but which are related to that which is
acquired. According to Herskovits, Cultural Anthropology is to study the ways man
has devised to cope up with his natural settling and has social milieu and how bodies
of customs are learned, retained and handed down from one generation to the next.
The term ‘culture’ itself is a complex one. Culture has been defined by different
anthropologists differently. The most accepted and briefed definition of culture can
7
Introduction to Social be stated as ‘culture is anything acquired by members of society’. Whatever material
Anthropology
and non-material things man has acquired as a member of society that constitutes the
subject matter of cultural anthropology. The works of man include everything created
by man-traditions, folkways, social institutions and other social networks. Thus, it
can be said that American Anthropologists study things not only with cultural orientation
but also socially oriented under the domain of cultural anthropology. It can be stated
that cultural anthropology is a broader term covering all social aspects of man but
emphasises on cultural aspects. For cultural anthropologists, social system is a part
of society and culture cannot emerge without a social system. David Bidney says in
this context that social and cultural anthropology are then understood as few branches
of a common discipline of anthropology, covered with the study of man and his
culture in society.
Reflection

Anthropology is a large and diversified subject, which is practiced somewhat differently

in different countries, although it retains its distinctive character everywhere. Since the
Second World War, the core areas have been Great Britain, the US, France and Australia.
British anthropology, which is generally spoken of as social anthropology and which also
enjoys a strong position in Scandinavia and India, emphasises the study of social process
and is thus close to social anthropology. The British social anthropologist Edmund Leach
(1982) once characterised this subject as a comparative micro-sociology. In the US, one
speaks of cultural anthropology wherein, the general sociological underpinning
characteristics are dominant. On the other hand, linguistics and pre history have formed
American anthropology in different ways. Several important specialisations such as cultural,
ecology, linguistics anthropology and various approaches in psychological and interpretive
or hermeneutic anthropology have developed in the US.

1.2.3 How Social Anthropology Developed

From the very beginning of human life, people have been wondering about themselves
and their surroundings. Therefore, it is futile to talk about the beginning of the study
of man. For the genesis of systematic thinking all usually refer back to the Greek
Civilisation especially to the writings of Herodotus in fifth century B.C. Some also
call him ‘the father of Anthropology’. He did not merely record what he saw, and
what people told him about the different countries around the shores of the
Mediterranean. He asked some basic questions which at present is the subject
matter of social anthropology like ‘what made people so different?’
To trace the development of social anthropology, we will talk about the scholars
whose pioneering works gave the shape to the present day discipline ‘Social
Anthropology’. But to begin with, we will go through the works of different travelers
who actually collected the basic data which eventually build the foundation of
Ethnographic study. Many early social anthropologists followed these travel accounts
to frame their social anthropological study.
Every age of geographical discovery has seen a burst of interest in the new kind of
society that the explorers have found. The travelers and also the colonisers considered
these newly founded societies as “other culture”. The first and foremost thing they
recognised about these new society or cultures was that these were completely
different from their own society and culture. The explorers and colonisers being
accustomed to their own ways, set the standard of what people ought to be like,
were always prompted to ask why other people were so unlike themselves. The
sixteenth and eighteenth century were such periods. The French essayist Montaigne
(1553-92) was much interested in the apparently paradoxical constraints between
the customs of his own country and others. Theoretical arguments were also there
8
at that time whether people with brown skin who wear no cloths could really be Social Anthropology:
Nature and Scope
descendants of Adam.
Eighteenth century Europeans were less certain than sixteenth century ones that all
the advantages were on their side. North America and Polynesia became the point
of interest. Rousseau described the Indians as ‘noble savage’ of the golden age of
natural man and interestingly these same people were described by the Spanish
missionaries as people having no soul. Hobbes in the seventeenth century had already
thought the American Indians approached pretty closely to his imagined state of
nature where every man’s hand was against his neighbours and man’s life were
‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.’
During this period only, the reports of the manner and customs of distant lands
collected by these travelers and missionaries began to be treated not just as interesting
information about other cultures but a data for constructing historical schemes of the
development of society. Some writers started the history of the comparative ethnography
with the Jesuit missionary Lifitau, who in 1724 published a book comparing American
Indian customs with those of the ancient world as described by Latin and Greek
writers. A little later Charles de Brosses wrote on parallels between ancient Egyptian
religion and that of West Africa. In 1748 Montesquieu published his Esprit des Lois,
based on reading and not on travel, and thus became for some the first theorist of
social anthropology. He considered that differences in legal systems could be explained
by relating them to differences in other characteristics of the nations which possessed
them, population, temperament, religious beliefs, economic organisation, and customs
generally, as well as to their environment. Considering this we can entitle him to be
the first functionalist.
Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith from Scotland based their generalisation, as did
Montesquieu, on the widest reading about the institutions of different societies that
was available at that time. This perspective of evolution became popular with the
discovery of Darwin’s principle of natural selection in the evolution of biological
species. It greatly influenced the study of society and culture. Before this also the
concept of evolution was there. People like Henry de Saint Simor, August Comte,
and Herbert Spencer spoke about evolution in philosophical terms. But they didn’t
offer any empirical evidence of how evolution had taken place. But in the latter half
of the nineteenth century we find a set of scholars both in USA and UK who are
concerned with the stages of evolution.
According to some historians, the origin of social anthropology is traced to David
Hume and Immanuel Kant who were the first philosophers to define social
anthropology. As already mentioned some consider, Herodotus as the father of
Anthropology, who did raise some basic questions of social anthropology. But, it is
believed that the systematic History of social anthropology rightly begins from Henry
Maine and Lewis Henry Morgan. These two thinkers are considered as founding
father of social anthropology. They also followed the works of travelers and
missionaries.
The 19th century social anthropologists were greatly influenced by the work of
Darwin and his associates. They established that the origin of man has passed
through several stages from apes to Homo Sapiens. The Anthropologists tried to
follow the logic of Darwinism and applied it to establish the origin of social institutions.
This trend prevailed throughout the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th
century.
9
Introduction to Social The definitions of social anthropology given by social Darwinists is a landmark in the
Anthropology
development of this discipline. The foundation of present Anthropology goes back to
Henry Maine’s Ancient law (1861) and Lewis Henry Morgan’s books, including
Ancient Society (1877). Both of them were the profounder of evolutionary theory
in Anthropology. This theory is considered to be the theoretical beginning in social
anthropology. Maine worked in India. He proposed a distinction between status and
contract societies. In status based or traditional societies, Maine argued, kinship was
usually crucial in determining one’s position in society; in a contract-based society,
it would rather be the individual achievements of persons that provided them with
their positions. On the other hand Morgan’s contribution to early Anthropology
formed the theoretical background. It resulted into the formation of evolutionary
theory. It supports the notion of social evolution stating that human society has
passed through the stages of savagery, barbarism and civilisation. Each stage has also
been characterised by a certain economy. Savagery had an economy characterised
by subsistence. During this stage man earned his livelihood through hunting and food
gathering. Agriculture and animal husbandry were the source of living at the stage of
barbarism. While those societies which reached the stage of civilisation, developed
literacy, technology, industry and the state. This theory expounded by Morgan got
support of many other scholars. Westermarck set out the theory of human marriage
while Briffault propounded the theory of family. Evolutionary theory of religion also
came out with the study of Tylor. Evolutionists like W.H.R. Rivers, Sir James Frazer,
A.C. Haddon and Charles Seligman contributed to different fields. All these early
social anthropologists defined social anthropology as a science of social evolution.
When evolutionary theory emerged in Anthropology many schools came up with an
anti-evolutionary idea. They criticised evolutionists for depending on travel accounts,
which they claimed to be unscientific. This school of thought is often referred to as
structural–functional school of thought represented by the work of British Anthropologist
Radcliffe-Brown. Another school that came up before this was the school of
diffusionists. They were also critics of evolutionary school, who were not convinced
by the concept of evolutionary progress of society and culture. According to their
view, culture not only developed, but it also degenerated. Again, they followed that
man was basically uninventive, and important inventions were made only once at a
particular place from where it was diffused, migrated, borrowed and initiated, to the
other parts of the world. There were three schools of diffusion – British school,
German school and American school of diffusion. Smith, W.J. Perry, Rivers, Franz
Boas, Clerk Wissler, Kroeber etc. were the scholars of this school.
Franz Boas and Bronislaw Malinowski are regarded as the first modern
Anthropologists, who argued the necessity of doing fieldwork. Boas, a profound
critic of classical evolutionists argued the necessity of doing field work. He emphasised
in collecting empirical data and conducted fieldwork in USA to study American
Indians in 1880. He founded Modern American Cultural Anthropology. He began to
study the influence of culture on personality and vice versa and ultimately formed a
school. The pioneers of this school are Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Linton,
Kardiner and Cora Du Bois. Boas contributed substantially to the field of Anthropology.
The most important contribution seems to be the doctrine of ‘cultural relativism’. It
is the concept which argues that each group should be studied according to its own
culture. In other words, culture is specific to a group. Today also, Boas’ contribution
of cultural relativism is considered to be an indispensable Anthropological tool of
social and cultural anthropology. Boas defined anthropology as a social science of
culture study. This is one of the aspects of modern Anthropology.
10
Malinowski, founder of functional school of thought is known for his work on the Social Anthropology:
Nature and Scope
Trobrianders living in the island of New Guinea. He conducted fieldwork among
these tribals between 1915 and 1918. According to Malinowski, social anthropology
is concerned with the interrelationship of various parts of tribal society. In other
words, tribal economy, politics, kinship etc. are all interrelated. According to him,
social anthropology is interested in studying functional relations among the member
of tribal society. Malinowski contributed a lot to the fieldwork tradition in anthropology.
His ethnographic account based on his fieldwork ‘Argonauts of Western Pacific’
is a landmark publication in Anthropology. The concept of participant observation
was developed by him. He emphasised the importance of studying the interrelationships
of various aspects of society, and therefore held the view that intensive field study
was absolutely necessary.
Radcliffe-Brown, contemporary of Malinowski, developed the social structure concept
to explain forms. It is another important development in social anthropology. According
to him, social structure deals with the study of status and role of a person within an
institution. In other words, it deals with network of social relation within an institutional
framework. Radcliffe-Brown, criticising classical evolutionists said that the study of
change is also essential. But, unlike classical evolutionist study, these must be based
on reliable document. He said that classical evolutionism was based on conjectural
history. It is nothing but a conjectural speculation of the life of the people. He called
it pseudo historical. So, he argued that classical evolutionism has no place in scientific
investigation.
Anthropologists study pre-literate society. Therefore, whatever knowledge, they have
of their tradition; it exists on the oral level. The oral history may mix up with myth
and other stories. Therefore, it may not be totally relied upon as an authentic source.
The early twentieth century scholars, those who are critical of evolutionary theory
thought rather than studying how society has evolved, all must study how society
lives and functions. It is a shift of paradigm. The approach which was born out of
it is popularly known as structural–functional approach. The founder of this theoretical
trend argued that instead of understanding a diachronic study of society social
anthropologists should carry out synchronic study – the study of present society.
Radcliffe-Brown called anthropology as the study of here and now. He also stressed
upon doing first hand fieldwork. Thus, social anthropologists started studying present
social structure focusing on interrelationship of social institutions and their functions.
But this trend also faced certain criticisms like – (1) it does not account for social
change. It is concerned with order. (2) Whatever it has considered change, the
change is adaptive. But every society goes through a process of change. Sometimes
change comes following a revolutionary path. So, structural functional study was
unable to cover this area and it opened the door for criticism. Therefore, by 1940s
anthropologists revived the need to study evolution. The approach of neo-evolutionism
was introduced in the field of archeology. V. Gordon Childe, Leslie White and Julian
Steward represent this school of thought. They defined social evolution with new
perspective. Various new approaches to the study of evolution called attention to the
question, how to combine particulars with general. The issue became sharpened by
the writings of Marvin Harris who emphasised upon Radcliffe-Brown’s earlier
distinction between nomothetic and ideographic approach to the study of culture.
In between, Robert Redfield introduced the study of civilisation to social anthropology.
Redfield developed the concepts of folk–urban continuum and great and little traditions
which were very useful concepts for studying a civilisation and its various dimensions
such as tribal, folk, semi-urban and urban. Thus, village, town and city studies were 11
Introduction to Social introduced. The other scholars who contributed to this field are – Morris E. Opler,
Anthropology
Milton Singer, Meckim Marriot, Mandel Baum etc.
Like any other discipline Anthropology has also been experiencing many new trends.
In the theoretical dimensions many new theories like symbolism, new ethnography
etc. have come up with new promises. This field has been continuously expanding
with many other new theories and ideas. Along with this applied aspects, social
anthropology has also been expanding. Developmental studies in social anthropology
are occupying a major area. New field methods and techniques are also coming up
enriching the research pattern. Ideas like postmodernism are creating new platform
for the social anthropologists to explore. Several Anthropological sub-fields are coming
up, stressing separate and specific cultural aspects and all using the prefix ‘Ethno’ to
indicate their alliance with culture, such as ethno-science, ethno musicology, ethno-
psychology, ethno-folklore and so forth. Thus, social anthropology has constantly
been developing as a branch of Anthropology.

1.2.4 Methods of Social Anthropology

Social anthropology may be described as a scientific study of man, culture and
society. The objective is to know the truth about the affairs of society. It seeks to
develop skills so that human beings can live a better life. For this employment of
scientific method is essential. If there is a science, there is certainly a method. Theory,
method and data go together. Social anthropology has a well developed methodology
for learning about society.
What is unique to social anthropology ‘in the realm of Social Sciences’ is its fieldwork
methodology which is the guiding force of this discipline. Method is logic. What
anthropologists do when they face a problem – they try to solve it logically. In short,
they make a logical understanding for the problem. They argue how the problem can
be approached logically so that the desired objective is fulfilled. It is this logic which
leads to attainment of the objectives of logic to put forward the research problem.
In short, method is the logic of inquiry; it is the role of accomplishing an end.
In social anthropological research fieldwork and empirical tradition have been constant
characteristics of social anthropology. It started with the travel accounts written by
the travelers who had been traveling to distant corners of the globe for about four
hundred years, since ‘the age of Columbus’. As already discussed, these travel
accounts provided the basic data for the early social anthropologists. The facts
gathered by these travelers, missionaries, and government officials were valuable to
make the other Europeans aware about the varied human life on earth. Many European
thinkers became interested about the non-European cultures and gradually ‘study of
man’ was initiated basing on the accounts of travelers, missionaries and government
officials.
The Anthropologists of nineteenth century were totally involved in exploring the
variety of human culture but they were apart from the rigorous life of actual field.
Sitting in their home they simply looked into the accounts served by other people.
The value of fieldwork was realised at the beginning of twentieth century when the
outlook of social anthropology changed. It was understood that experiencing the real
life situation was very important for the social anthropologists, to get accurate and
relevant data. So many anthropologists of this time engaged themselves with the
groups of aborigines. E.B. Tylor was the first scholar who emphasised the need of
direct data-collection in Anthropology, but Boas was the first to begin with this
practice. The earliest attempt of professional data gathering, as mentioned previously,
12
was made in America by Franz Boas. He conducted Jessup North Pacific Expedition Social Anthropology:
Nature and Scope
in 1897. The second attempt at fieldwork was made in England under joint leadership
of Haddon, Rivers and Seligman in 1898. It is known as Cambridge Expedition to
Torres Straits.
The most outstanding fieldwork tradition in Anthropology was developed by
Malinowski. He believed that the various aspects in the life of people were interrelated.
Malinowski also stressed on fieldwork as primary way of anthropological data
gathering. According to Malinowski (1922 : 6), a cultural anthropologist must “possess
real scientific aims and know the values and criteria of modern ethnography … he
has to apply a number of special methods of collecting, manipulating and fixing his
evidence”. Malinowski established participation as an important technique of fieldwork.
Next to Malinowski, we can put the name of A.R. Radcliffe–Brown who did extensive
fieldwork in Andaman Islands.
The early fieldworkers tried to understand how all the parts of a society fit together
to make a working whole. They emphasised on detailing. They tried to gather each
and every information available on the field. They developed the habit of filling their
notebooks with details of what they saw and heard, and those unprecedented
ethnographic activities resulted into ethnographic monographs. As a matter of fact,
a social anthropologist has to live and work in two worlds. Field becomes the
laboratory where one collects data and leads a very different life living with the
aborigines far away from his/her own world. Once he/she comes back from the field
one sits with the gathered data and starts analysing those to come up with a conclusion.
Subjectivity became a big issue in this ethnographic description. Since social
anthropology is an empirical discipline, it languishes for the absence of a deep
respect for facts and for loose attention to their observation and description. A self-
indulgent attitude may produce a disastrous effect. But, beyond all these, fieldwork
became an essential part of social anthropology and the tradition developed with
certain new methods and techniques making itself relevant to the present day context.
Qualitative research that involves huge descriptive accounts has become very useful
and important in today’s world. Not only Anthropology but also other disciplines like
Sociology and Management studies have also indulged into this type of research. But
fieldwork remains unique to social anthropology.
Fieldwork is a part of training in social-cultural anthropology. Every anthropologist
should undergo this training in course of his/her preliminary study. It enables a student
to perceive an alien culture with objectivity. Learning about two different societies
(including his own) gives a student a comparative view i.e. he acquires competency
to estimate the similarity or dissimilarity between any two societies or cultures.
Comparative method holds a very important place in fieldwork tradition in
Anthropology. During nineteenth century extensive comparisons were attempted by
social anthropologists. This pertains to the whole society and also to particular
institutions and practices such as kinship system, marriage practices, magical practices,
and religious beliefs and so on.
There is a clear mark of history as a method in Anthropological monograph. There
are two classical streams in social anthropology to the employment of history as a
method of study. One use of history is non-chronological. The evolutionary
Anthropologists used this kind of history as a method to study society. The second
stream is Marxian.
Another important method in Anthropology is the functional method. Functionalism,
13
Introduction to Social as a method of study in social anthropology, came up as a revolt against historical
Anthropology
method. Interestingly, the evolutionary historicism came into disrepute owing to the
emergence of empiricism. Empiricism is experience. When social anthropologists
took to holistic studies through empiricism, functionalism came to be known as a new
idiom of methodology. Functionalism advocated the holistic study of society through
fieldwork.
New methods have been emerging in social anthropology with new demands in
response to the new challenges. Techniques related to these methods are also changing.
New techniques have also been designed to suit the methodological demands. The
traditional techniques are – observation, schedules, questionnaire, interview, case
study, survey, genealogy etc. With the new methods like ethnography, new techniques
have been coming out. Emergence of new branches like developmental anthropology,
visual anthropology etc. is also demanding new methodological framework. Like any
other discipline Anthropology is also experiencing new dimensions with the passage
of time. Methodological dimension is also not exclusive of such changes.

1.3 NATURE AND SCOPE OF SOCIAL

ANTHROPOLOGY
Generally speaking, social anthropology aims to study human society as a whole. It
is a holistic study necessarily and covers all parts related to human society. Culture
comes naturally under this, as it is an integral part of human society. So, the basic
aim of social anthropology is to study human being as a social animal. Thus, to fulfill
its aim it explores, in a broad area, covering almost every aspects of human social
life.
The aim of modern social anthropology is just not to study human society but also
to understand the complex issues of modern human life. As primitive people have
been the focus of anthropological study, the problems faced by these people in the
process of development in modern days become very important for the anthropologists
to study. Anthropologists not only deal with the study of these problems but also try
to find out a solution for this. Developmental anthropology and Action anthropology
etc. are the specialised fields within social anthropology which deal with such problems.
Therefore, we can say that the scope and aim of social anthropology go together;
one influences the other. As much as the scope increases a new aim comes out of
it.

1.3.1 Scope of Social Anthropology

According to Evans–Pritchard (1966), social anthropology includes the study of all
human cultures and society. In basic, it tries to find out the structure of human society.
Social anthropology considers every human society as an organised whole. Customs,
beliefs whole pattern of working, living, marrying, worshipping, political organisation
– all these differ from society to society. As the structure and the idea working behind
it are different, societies also vary a lot. Social anthropology first tries to find out
these differences and then tries to establish the similarities as well. As we can see
different cultures and societies, we also see similarity among these different cultures
and societies. So, anthropologists study these differences as well as the similarities.
Basically, the study revolves around the social structure. We can take up the example
of studying religion. People in different parts of the world practice different religions.
Every religion has different rituals to perform and people perform these rituals according
to their own religious roles. The common thing among these different religions is the
14
belief in super-natural. So, both the differences and similarities become the study Social Anthropology:
Nature and Scope
matter of social anthropology.
Evans-Pritchard, by comparing social anthropology with Sociology, states that Social
anthropology has primitive society as its subject matter. In other words, it is concerned
with the study of the primitives, indigenous people, hills and forest people, scheduled
tribes and other such groups of people. Fieldwork is another integral part of social
anthropology. Data in social anthropology are collected from the field. Thus, social
anthropology can be defined in respect of two broad field of study – (1) Primitive
Society (2) Fieldwork.
John Beattie (1964) advocated that social anthropologists should study other cultures.
This makes Anthropology a comparative discipline of the study of social institutions.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1995) supports the study of small places in social
anthropology. Eriksen says that social anthropology does not remain restricted to
primitive people; it studies any social system and the qualification of such a social
system is that it is of a small scale, non-industrial kind of society. According to
Eriksen, social anthropology studies:
1) Small scale society
2) Non-industrial society
3) Small and larger issues of the society.
Different theoretical frameworks came out as social anthropology started exploring
its matter of study– the primitive society. Morgan postulated Evolutionary theory and
propounded the study of evolution in human society. According to him human society
has come across three basic stages – savagery, barbarism and civilisation. With such
evolutionary approach social anthropologists started examining human society in the
light of evolution. The theoretical framework of structural – functionalism became a
popular approach in Britain. The British anthropologists using the term Social
anthropology have emphasised on the concept of society, which is aggregate of
individuals who live in face to face association and share same common sentiments.
Different social interrelationships and interactions are their object of study.
Functionalism propounded the functional study of social institutions. On the other
hand, American anthropologists preferring the term Cultural anthropology have
concentrated on the concept of culture which is the sum total of human behaviour,
verbal or non-verbal, and their products- material or non-material. Cultural
anthropologists try to analyse each and every intervention and interrelationship by
judging the value behind it.
The term civilisation was known to Anthropologists since the postulation of evolutionary
theory, but it was the pioneering work of Robert Redfield, who brought a movement
in the history of development of social anthropology by introducing the study of
civilisation. He made study of folk villages and urban centers and attempted to
understand the patterns and processes of interception between them. Thus, he
developed the concept of folk society, urban society and folk–urban continuum.
Since then the study of village as a unit of rural civilisation and town as a center for
urban civilisation came into existence. Thus, Anthropology is not the study of primitive
people only. The subject matter of social anthropology covers a vast area. It studies
tribal society as well as urban society. It studies change as well. No culture and
society regardless of circumstances, is beyond change. Isolated / primitive societies
also change over time. Sometimes with due pressure of circumstances also society
15
Introduction to Social does not change. It follows strictly a traditional path, constantly trying to keep alive
Anthropology
the tradition. Social anthropology studies why or why not society/ culture changes.
But, change is must, whether it is a remote and isolated village or industrialised city,
everywhere people experience a variety of changes in their pattern of living, which
is manifested with the passage of time.
The life of man has several dimensions and the attempts to study each one in detail
has resulted in the origin and growth of several sub-branches from the elementary
branch of Social anthropology such as Economic anthropology, Political anthropology,
Psychological anthropology, Anthropology of Religion and so on and so forth. Many
new sub-branches are also coming up like – Communication and Visual anthropology,
with the new demands of society. Social anthropology has to accommodate all the
new changes in human society to maintain the relevance of its study. Thus, new areas
would expand its field.

1.3.2 Future Perspective

Anthropology has been playing a very important role in each and every sphere of
human society. During colonial times, it was used as an administrative tool. Social
anthropology came out of that colonial impression and now had created a new
disciplinary path. As an academic discipline it has a firm theoretical base and unique
practical dimension. In the near future also it is truly capable of accommodating
disciplinary changes with new theoretical frameworks. Anthropology covers not only
contemporary patterns of human life but also carefully records the changes in human
society and life. It covers historic and prehistoric account of human life as well. So,
it becomes very relevant for each and every stage of human civilisation.
Claude Levi-Strauss envisages the future of social anthropology as a study complete
by itself in terms of communications between persons and groups. The study of
communication, of words and symbols conveying meanings between persons in a
society would constitute the study of linguistics, knowledge, art etc. The study of
communication of spouses (man in matrilocal society and woman in patrilocal society)
between various groups would constitute the study of marriage, kin groups and
kinship usages. And communication of goods and services between persons and as
also groups would constitute the scope of study of economic organisation and material
culture. Thus, studies of human society may be studied not in terms of culture but
in terms of structures which embody culture. Many such innovative ideas are coming
up in the field of social anthropology and its scope is increasing in terms of both
theory and practice.

1.3.3 Social Anthropology in India

In the scenario of World Anthropology, Indian anthropology appears as very young.
Andre Beteille (1996) used the term ‘Indian Anthropology’ to mean the study of
society and culture in India by anthropologists, irrespective of their nationality. Indian
society and culture are being studied by various Anthropologists from inside and
outside of the country. However, Anthropology owes its origin to the latter half of
the nineteenth century with the ethnographic compilation of traditions and beliefs of
different tribes and castes in various provinces of India. It was only during the British
colonial rule that Anthropological data was gathered. With no academic interest
government officials and missionaries first collected some anthropological data in the
eighteenth century. But, the motive behind this was not to study the Indian societies
and cultures but to help the British administration for smooth governance. Missionaries
16 had a religious motive. However, both the administrators and missionaries were
baffled when they came across various types of people having entirely different Social Anthropology:
Nature and Scope
cultures. They tried to communicate their strange experience through writing, by
describing the people and their facts. At the end of nineteenth century, the administrators
and missionaries in India wrote a lot about the Indian people and their life. Trained
British officials namely Risley, Dalton, Thurston, O’Malley, Russell, Crook, Mills etc.
and many others who were posted in India, wrote compendia on tribes and castes
of India. During this time some British anthropologists like Rivers, Seligman, Radcliffe–
Brown, Hutton came to India and conducted Anthropological fieldwork. Throughout
the whole century after this, Anthropologists in India proceeded successfully. Indian
anthropologists borrowed the ideas, frameworks and procedures of work from western
anthropologists and practiced these studying their own culture and society instead of
other cultures.
Different scholars like S.C. Roy, D.N. Majumdar, G.S. Ghurye, S.C. Dube, N.K.
Bose, L.P. Vidyarthi and S. Sinha had tried to find out the genesis and development
of Social Anthropology in India. S.C. Roy’s paper Anthropological Researches in
India (1921) reflects upon the works on tribes and castes published before 1921.
The anthropological accounts consisted of the writings of British administrators and
missionaries as before 1921 anthropological work in India was mainly done by these
people. After this, D.N. Majumdar tried to trace the development of Anthropology
in India. This attempt was made after twenty five years of S.C. Roy’s work. D.N.
Majumdar tried to relate the developing discipline of Anthropology in India with the
theory of culture that originated in Britain and America. American influence was first
recognised besides the works of British administrators and missionaries.
G.S. Ghurye, in his article The teaching of Sociology, Social Psychology and
Social Anthropology (1956), wrote, ‘Social Anthropology in India has not kept
pace with the developments in England, in Europe or in America. Although Social
Anthropologists in India are, to some extent, familiar with the work of important
British Anthropologists or some continental scholars, their knowledge of American
Social Anthropology is not inadequate’. S.C. Dube in (1952) discussed the issue in
the light of research oriented issues. He stated that Indian Anthropology needed
more attention from the social workers, administrators or political leaders, so that the
research oriented issues can be dealt with properly. N.K. Bose in 1963 discussed
the progress of Anthropology in India under headings - Prehistoric Anthropology,
Physical Anthropology and Cultural Anthropology. Recent trends like village studies,
caste studies, study of leaderships and power structure, kinship and social organisation
of tribal village and Applied Anthropology came to the Indian scenario in 1970s and
L.P. Vidyarthi discussed these issues, tracing the growth of Anthropology in India. He
felt the need of an integrated effect from various disciplines for a proper understanding
of man and society. His main stress was laid on ‘Indianess’. According to him ideas
of Indian thinkers as reflected in ancient scriptures were full of social facts and so
those could be explored in the understanding of cultural process and civilisation
history of India. Surajit Sinha (1968) supporting the view of L. P. Vidyarthi stated
that the Indian Anthropologists readily responded to the latest developments of the
west but they had laid logical priority to the Indian situation.
In India, Anthropology started with the work of missionaries, traders and administrators
where the prime focus was the different cultural backgrounds of Indian people. The
rich tribal culture attracted the study of social anthropology. Tribal culture became a
dominant field for Social anthropological research. This continued along with the
changing trend and accommodated the study of village system, and Indian civilisation.
Other social institutions like – religion, kinship, marriage etc. also came to the field
17
Introduction to Social of research. The variety of customs and diversity of Indian culture created a unique
Anthropology
area of research among the social anthropologists of India. Different ideas like dominant
caste, sacred complex, tribe-caste continuum, little and great tradition, sankritisation
etc. came up, giving a new direction to Indian Anthropology. Thus, a body of strong
Indian anthropological thought was created. Development of Indian anthropology is
continuing with additions of new ideas. Emerging areas like ecology, developmental
study etc., are also coming up. Anthropologists in India take keen interest in tribal
studies. The new challenges in the era of globalisation are also coming up and Indian
social anthropologists are focusing on that.

1.3.4 Present Scenario

After independence India faced new challenges of social reform, as a new government
took charge. The whole notion of Indian culture had to be rebuilt, as diverse culture
areas had come under one roof. Various tribal societies and cultures were unable to
cope up with this changing situation. Apart from administrative policies, Indian social
anthropologists took initiatives to overcome such crisis and showed interest in the
study of diverse cultures in India under the common roof of Indian civilisation.
Government policies were influenced with these social anthropological works as
these works dealt with the sensitive issues like tribal development. This trend continues
in the field of Indian anthropology. Today, in the era of globalisation, social
anthropologists in India deal with the new challenges in front of the tribal communities.
Identity and gender issues are popular among them, along with development studies.
Study of folk culture occupies a major area. With development studies, issues like
tribal displacement and rehabilitation have also been a prime focus for social
anthropologists. Tribal art, study of indigenous knowledge system etc. are gaining
popularity with the new global issues like – global warming.

1.4 SUMMARY
In this unit the focus was on how social anthropology has developed as a discipline
covering the different aspects of human life. Social anthropology thus, developed
through various time periods with various goals and perspectives and it has covered
almost all the aspects of human life.
You learnt about different theoretical frameworks of social anthropology. Along with
these theoretical frameworks, how social anthropology deals with the various issues
of human life was also discussed. Different approaches have also been discussed
considering the geographical variations.
Present and future scenario of social anthropology have also been discussed. You
would be able to conceptualise about the Indian and world scenario of social
anthropology after going through this unit.
References
Bidney, D. 1953. Theoretical Anthropology. Columbia: Columbia University Press.
Beattie, J. 1964. Other Cultures: Aims, Methods and Achievements in Social
Anthropology. London: Routledge Kegan Paul.
Beteille, Andre. 1996a. Caste, Class and Power: Changing Patterns of
Stratification in a Tanjore Village. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2nd ed.
Beteille, Andre. 1996b. ‘Inequality’, in Alan Barnard and Jonathan Spencer (eds),
18 Encyclopaedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. London: Routledge.
Bose, N.K. 1963. ‘Fifty Years of Science in India: Progress of Anthropology and Social Anthropology:
Nature and Scope
Archaeology’. Indian Science Congress Association.
Dube, S.C. 1952. ‘The Urgent Task of Anthropology in India’, in the proceedings
of the 1Vth International Congress of Anthropology and Ethnological Sciences,
held at Vienna, 1952, published in 1956, pp. 273-75.
Dube, S.C. 1962 ‘Anthropology in India’, in Indian Anthropology: Essays in
Memory of D.N. Majumdar. ed. T.N. Madan and Gopala Sarana. Bombay: Asia
Publishing House.
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 1995. Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to
Social and Cultural Anthropology. 2nd edition 2001, London: Pluto Press.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1966. Social Anthropology and Other Essays. New York:
Free Press.
Ghurye, G.S. 1956. ‘The Teachings of Sociology, Social Psychology and Social
Anthropology’. The Teachings of Social Sciences in India. UNESCO Publication.
1956 pp 161-73.
Haddon, A. C. 1934. History of Anthropology. London: Watts and Co. chapter1.
Majumdar, D.N. and T.N. Madan. 1957. An Introduction to Social Anthropology.
Bombay: Asia Publishing House.
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Sixth impression
1964. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
Mair, Lucy. 1972. An Introduction to Social Anthropology. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Roy, S.C. 1923. ‘Anthropological Researches in India’. Man in India. Vol-1 1921.
Pp 11-56.
Sinha, Surajit. 1968. ‘Is There an Indian Tradition in Social Cultural Anthropology:
Retrospect and Prospect’. Presented in a conference. The Nature and Function of
Anthropological Traditions. New York: Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological
Research.
Vidyarthi, L.P. 1978. Rise of Anthropology in India. Delhi: Concept Publishing
Company.
Suggested Reading
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 1995. Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to
Social and Cultural Anthropology. 2nd edition 2001, London: Pluto Press.
Mair, Lucy. 1972. An Introduction to Social Anthropology. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Vidyarthi, L.P. 1978. Rise of Anthropology in India. Delhi: Concept Publishing
Company.
Sample Questions
1) Describe the history and development of social anthropology.
2) How social anthropology has developed in India?
3) Briefly describe the aim and scope of social anthropology.
4) Describe history as a method in social anthropology. 19
 UNIT 2 PHILOSOPHICAL AND
HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF
SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Contents
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Beginnings of the Possibility of a Scientific Study of Society
2.2.1 Montesquieu and Social Diversity
2.2.2 Comte and a Positivist View of Society

2.3 The Study of Human Evolution

2.3.1 The Early Evolutionists
2.3.2 Classical Evolutionism

2.4 The Primitive as a Concept

2.5 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

After reading this unit, the students would be able to comprehend the:
 emergence of the historical and philosophical development of the subject of
social anthropology;
 early and classical evolutionists views on the study of human evolution; and
 primitive as a concept.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this unit we shall introduce the students to the philosophical roots of the subject
of anthropology, especially social anthropology, and show how every form of
knowledge can be contextualised into a historical condition. Human thinking does not
grow in a vacuum but is triggered by the intellectual climate, the cultural heritage and
historical circumstances that make possible a way of thinking as well as its condition’s
acceptable. It is seen that some ideas may come that are premature for their times
and therefore face rejection or even persecution, like the classic case of Galileo.

2.2 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE POSSIBILITY OF A

SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF SOCIETY
Society, for a long period of time, was not considered to be an object of study,
simply because it was taken for granted that society and human beings in it were
God’s or a Divine creation and the only explanations of the origin of the world and
the people and other existing animate and inanimate things was to be found in religion
and mythology. It was indeed a great transformation in intellectual thinking when
some 16th and 17th century European scholars began to think about society as a
20 human and not a divine creation. By this century in the West, the intellectual climate
was moving towards a break away from the Church and its controlling ritualism Philosophical and
Historical Foundations of
towards a greater faith in the human capacity for rational thinking. The human mind Social Anthropology
was seen as a superior endowment that privileged human beings above all others and
could dominate over nature and also over women who in this frame of reference
were equated with nature. Society was seen as a creation not of nature or of God
but of humans as creatures of reason and society was now opposed to a state of
nature and the foundation was laid for a nature, culture opposition that had far
reaching ramifications for later theory.
It was with the philosophical thinking of scholars such as David Hume, John Locke,
Thomas Hobbes and Jean Jacques Rousseau that the scholarly thinking began to
debate upon the human origins of the kind of society in which the then Europeans
lived. Society became a self imposed discipline to which human beings subjected
themselves in order to escape a state of anarchy. Some like Rousseau romanticised
on a blissful state of nature from which humans had entered into a state of slavery
to customs, while others like Hobbes viewed a state of nature as savage and the
state of society as harmonious and desirable. It was at this point that individuals were
seen as opposed to society or the collectivity and a tension between the two became
a point of concern of western views about society.
By the seventeenth century onwards the Europeans had been thrown into close
contact with the non-European world through colonisation, conquest and trade, at
the same time there were genuine thinking about a unified vision of humanity that
encompassed even those most remote from the western civilisation. Scholars were
now faced not only with the task of explaining human social origins but also social
diversity.

2.2.1 Montesquieu and Social Diversity

The French philosopher Montesquieu has often been regarded as the first to have
a systematic theory about society as described in his work The Spirit of the Laws.
In true spirit of having a science of society, he worked on the basic premise that the
seemingly endless diversity is reducible to coherence by looking for some underlying
principle of causation. In other words, if we can find out what causes diversity, we
have a classification and explanation of varieties of social formations. A second
premise was again based upon that of finding a scientific explanation, namely of
creating a typology of societies. Thus two fundamental processes of a scientific
explanation, namely, to establish causal relationships and to arrange diversity into a
typology in order to gain insight, were applied by Montesquieu to the study of
society. Firstly he divided societies into three types of governments; republic, monarchy
and despotism. Secondly he tried to establish some causative factors for the
development of each of these types. A republic was where the government was
vested in either a part of a society (aristocracy) or in all the people (democracy);
while in both monarchy and despotism it was vested in an individual the difference
being that the monarchy is run on principles and law (Montesquieu had the British
monarchy as an example in front of him) and despotism follows no such rules. To
Montesquieu, each form of government was not just a political principle but was a
particular kind of society which was also founded upon a particular type of basic
sentiment. We can compare the concept of sentiment with what much later Ruth
Benedict had called ethos, in describing different types of cultures (Benedict, 1934).
Thus the predominant kind of sentiment in case of a republic was virtue in the sense
of what today we would call ethics, adherence to laws and a sense of collective
order, in case of monarchy, it was honour again this was in reference to rank and
21
Introduction to Social status and was primarily of the person in power, and that of despotism was that of
Anthropology
primal emotion of fear, of the people for the person in power. Thus the sentiments
are not seen as evenly distributed but refer to the main guiding principle of that
particular type of society.
The real sociological dimension of Montesquieu’s analysis lies in his attempts to
impute causes to the types of societies which unlike Comte, he did not put in any
evolutionary framework. To him the causative factors were both geographical, like
climate and nature of the soil and social in terms of trade, its historical transformations
and currency. While his analysis contains some traces of economic determinism in his
emphasis on the economic factors over others, he did not impute any progressive
scale to the societies. In his opinion, despotism, the most evil of the three could well
be the fate of most societies as monarchies had a tendency to transform into despotism,
especially when the size became too large. At the same time he referred to the British
parliament as a combination of democracy and aristocracy represented by the House
of Commons and the House of Lords. The moderate nature of government, that is
one that was not oppressive like despotism was possible through a balance of
power and like most people of his time he had no concept of equality, only a benign
balance of power or rule by principles by those in power. To some extent, however,
he does give primacy to sentiments over physical conditions and makes some judgment
about the moral and ethical qualities of different principles of government. Thus we
find in Montessquieu a sociological analysis that makes use of causative factors
underlying various types of societies and an attempt to understand social formation,
both in terms of creating a typology of societies independent of any particular spatial
or temporal distribution.
Social philosophers were also beginning to think in terms of social transformation as
the French Revolution brought about the first major social transformation of the mid
eighteenth century, setting the stage for rethinking on society, not as static but as an
entity that was likely to have changed over time. It was in this historical setting that
August Comte gave his theory of social evolution.

2.2.2 Comte and a Positivist View of Society

The French Revolution and the beginnings of industrialisation in Europe gave a
different perspective to the social philosophy of Auguste Comte who concentrated
upon transformation of society from one type to another rather than upon the co-
existence of a diversity of social types, like Montesquieu. As Comte saw it, the
society based on military power and religion was being replaced by one based on
science and industry. Thus instead of looking at a horisontal diversity, he looked upon
a vertical transformation. Hence, to him science or rational study of society would
be one in which one would be able to explain how society is transforming. Thus to
an intellectual analysis of society, he gave the nomenclature, sociology and to the
method of analysis, the term positivism.
Comte distinguished between an analytic and a synthetic analysis; an analytic method
can be applied only in material sciences where any two things can be linked without
consideration to context, but in social analysis context is essential or in other words,
he applied the organic analogy where no part has existence outside of the whole.
Therefore, social phenomenon can only be understood in context of the associated
aspects including history. Thus while material phenomenon can be understood as
elements, society only exists as an entity. This was the beginning of an organic
analogy and the holistic method later taken up by the structural functionalists. But
22
Comte’s more immediate application was that of the postulation of a stage by stage Philosophical and
Historical Foundations of
theory of progress that was the basis of classical evolutionary theories. Social Anthropology

To Comte all of human society is only one entity, and differences are only at various
levels of progress exhibited by them. The level at which European society was
existing (or rather making a transition) was preceded by earlier stages. Comte’s stage
by stage theory of progress was of the Theological, Metaphysical and the Age of
Reason. The positivist method of observation, experimentation and analysis that
signified the western scientific approach was possible only in the last stage of human
progress. To Comte nothing was achievable by human agency and that historical
events took their own course, thus a revolution was not a human achievement but
part of an inevitable course of events, subject to natural laws. In this way sociology
for him was the laws of historical development.
When humans had imperfect understanding of their environment, they worshipped
anthropomorphic beings, alter the objects of worship became more abstract or
metaphysical like in higher religions, but finally humans attained a reasoned
understanding of their environment in the form of science and society was moving
towards industrialisation and emphasis upon economy and trade rather than war.
However the most industrialised societies of the world have always shown themselves
to be more prone to warfare and science never did replace religion as a central
concern of human beings. But to Comte we do owe a systematic study of society
to be called as sociology although in terms of the comparative method, it was
Montesquieu, who led the way.
To mention Comte one must not forget to mention his mentor and teacher Saint-
Simon, who according to Durkheim was the real father of positivism. Saint-Simon
believed that society or institutions were only epiphenomenon of ideas and that
behind every coherent society there was a body of coherent ideas. As an idealist he
supported the French Revolution and also fought in the American war of independence.
To him the French revolution was the result of a break down in the coherence of
theological ideas and the monarchy; and that monarchy needed to be replaced by
industry by which he meant any kind of honest work. In his view of social
transformation, organic or stable periods were marked by a breakdown of existing
social relationships and the forging of new ones.
However not all thinkers were of the opinion that western societies were superior in
all respects; Hume for example was convinced that polytheism gave rise to a sense
of greater tolerance and gave more freedom to human thought than monotheism that
was too restrictive, Rousseau also believed the civilisations to be too controlling of
human freedom of both thought and action. But while Comte talked of progress, he
did not mention evolution as a concept that was first formulated by Herbert Spencer,
although later established by Charles Darwin.

2.3 THE STUDY OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

The concept of evolution was formally established by Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
the author of the book Progress: Its’ Laws and Causes published in 1857. Spencer
believed that evolution was a feature of all phenomena; organic, inorganic or super
organic. He, like other evolutionists to follow, believed that evolution goes through
uniform stages always towards progress that he defined in terms of greater
differentiation as well as integration, in other words greater complexity. Spencer
believed that those of superior ability have greater advantage in survival, an idea
expressed in the cliché “survival of the fittest”, variously misused over the period 23
Introduction to Social following him. He foreshadowed the concept of structure and function looking upon
Anthropology
societies as some kind of self regulating systems, where human agency had limited
role to play while the constituent parts were interdependent. In this sense of viewing
society as having its own inner logic, he was against too much of external interference
in regulating social affairs. He was thus against any kind of state welfare programs,
looking upon the poor and marginal as weeds that would eliminate themselves.
Spencer believed that as society evolved human beings would learn to live together
by consensus rather than by coercion, in other words a civic society based on mutual
consideration would evolve. In this sense also he contributed to the western bias of
seeing so called primitive societies as based upon a mechanical solidarity and advanced
forms of society as based upon organic solidarity. War and conquest were also seen
by him to be a part of progress or to establish the domination of the superior to bring
about more complex forms.
The term evolution was first used in seventeenth century Europe to designate a
process of unfolding in a sense that the outcome is already contained within the entity,
in other words there is a sense of inevitability. Comte also used it to designate
progress and inevitability of transformation. But a science of society based on
evolutionary principles can definitely be attributed to Spencer alone.
Darwin’s theory of evolution was more correctly to be understood as descent with
modification, an empirical work based on factual data and lacking sweeping
generalisation of Spencer.
A major contributor to the idea of evolution was Herder who further refined the
concept of progress into development, and gave a definite shape to each level of
development as a stage. Evolutionism can be understood as a nomothetic or generalised
mode of explanation that can also be called a grand or meta theory. It makes use
of the comparative method borrowed from biology and philology. Apart from Spencer,
some of the early social evolutionists whose works influenced anthropological theory
immensely were McLennan (1827-81), Bachofen (1815-87) and Maine (1822-88)

2.3.1 The Early Evolutionists

None of these authors were anthropologists as they predate the establishment of
anthropology as a separate discipline. All three were lawyers whose subject matter
of dealing with human society gave them an incentive to study the development of
society and to make generalisations basing themselves on earlier scholarly inputs.
J.J. Bachofen was greatly influenced by the works of Carl von Savigny interested
in symbolism of grave paintings where he identified the recurrent themes such as the
black and white eggs that he interprets as feminine and interprets the feminine as the
passive recipient of discourse between men, who are shown as standing and talking
presumably about the egg. However, Bachofen’s major contribution lies in advocating
for mother right as a predecessor of father right, or patriarchy. In other words he
associates the rule of women as more primitive state than the rule of men, which
appears to him as definitely more like civilisation. According to Bachofen social
relationships arise in response to the need or establishment of social order contained
in the basic needs of child rearing, sexual access and social authority; thus the first
stage is anarchy or no order, then comes one based on rule by women that is finally
replaced by the rule by men. He took the example of three fictitious societies to
illustrate the prevalence of mother right in his work Das Muttterrecht, 1861, as he
neither had access to any first hand data nor were there any ethnographic examples
24 of matriarchal societies.
His view of the early stages of human society was that they were close to nature and Philosophical and
Historical Foundations of
materialistic. In some ways his views reflect the general conceptualisation of the Social Anthropology
primitive societies as based on instinct rather than reason, as lacking higher spirituality
and crude in their mental makeup; in this sense the transition from mother right to
patriarchy is also synonymous with ethical and moral upliftment.
The reasons for transformation of societies reflect both a Hegelian dialectics and
Montequieu’s contextualisation, thus each system produces contradictions leading to
reactions. The fundamental change is in the way people think about good and bad
or the right and the wrong; once these change all aspects of society change. He
believed in the power of ideas to change society. To a very large extent he was
Eurocentric in that in his opinion the conquest of the East by the West was a major
step towards higher civilisation and embodied the victory of non-material over material,
reason over feeling and maleness over femaleness. Thus he follows the western
philosophy of equating the feminine with passivity, instinct, nature and the base
qualities of life while masculinity is equated with, reason, culture and the higher
qualities of life. He gave his idea about masculine and feminine in the broad universal
categorisation of everything in the universe in his matriarchal mosaic and patriarchal
mosaic. To him these were two different cultural types albeit hierarchical.
Henry Maine too was a lawyer whose major work Ancient Law was published in
1861. He derived his intellectual inspiration from Montesquieu, Jeremy Bentham
and John Austin. He linked the laws of people with their social heritage and rejected
the idea of laws of society being homologous to laws of nature or in other words
the possibility of having universal laws. According to Maine there are three fundamental
aspects of any law, its origin in a command, an obligation imposed by the command
and a sanction to enforce the obligation. These aspects are derived from the works
of John Austin and Jeremy Bentham. However he did not accept Jeremy Bentham’s
main thesis of utility that each individual should get from society what they contribute
to it. The Benthamite principle takes as the main fundamental unit of law, the individual
whereas most non-western systems see the individual as embedded in social
relationships. There can also be a debate as to the assessment of utility, how does
one define or find any universal standard for it. However, Maine’s work was based
on the detailed study of ancient legal systems, notably that of ancient Rome, Islamic
law and the Brahmanical laws as encoded by Manu. In this way Maine focused upon
higher civilisations and came up with the proposition that patriarchy was the first form
of the family. In this way he opposes both Bachofen and McLennan, who were for
the model of evolution of human societies from matriarchy/matriliny to patriarchy/
patriliny.
His main contribution lies in putting forward the thesis that societies evolve from
status to contract, in other words from a stage where social personhood is defined
by a person’s social relationships or ascriptive status to one where social personhood
is determined by rational legal characters.
Reflection

Maine traces the origin of family to the ‘Patrias Potestas’ of the ancient Romans, tracing
the evolutionary stages from the male headed household with wives, children including
adopted ones and slaves to the power of the king and oligarchies, then nobility and then
industrial societies where instead of kinship, contractual relationships become important.

Maine’s sequence is not speculative but based on data from historical societies.
Since he was not aware of the actual depth of human civilisation his data began from
the early stages of European society only. However he had served as an administrator 25
Introduction to Social in India and was for sometime the vice-chancellor of Calcutta University. It was
Anthropology
because of his intervention that the Indian legal system was debated upon taking
cognisance of the ancient Hindu codes and other civil codes existing in India, rather
than replacing it totally by the British system as was done by the Permanent Settlement
of Bengal of 1793. Maine rightly believed that a legal system cannot be transplanted
onto an alien society as each legal system reflects a specific kind of society. Legislation
and jurisprudence was not the only expression of a legality as supposed by Bentham
and others but only the final stage of a historical development of law beginning from
the divine laws of ancient times to its codification as at the time of Hammurabi and
then to modern law expressed by the British legal system based on contract.
McLennan too was a lawyer who reflected upon the evolution of human marriage
and society. His book Primitive Marriage written in 1865 had great influence and
made the notion of matriarchy as the early stage of human evolution popular as
directly opposed to Maine’s theory of Patriarchy. McLennan followed a speculative
theory where he presumed a so called primitive stage where there was no regulation
sexual activity; female infanticide was rampant that led to a situation of scarcity of
women that would cause men to enter into conflict over scarce women. To mitigate
the situation of conflict each group would exchange its women with other groups in
a peaceful negotiation leading to the practice of exogamy that would also establish
the notion of clans as a group that would not marry its own women. However even
exogamy would not solve the problem of shortage of women giving rise to the
practice of polyandry. Eventually with fraternal polyandry some notion of fatherhood
would come up. In the initial stages however only the biological fact of motherhood
would serve to distinguish a set of children as siblings and descended from a common
mother, therefore the notion of matriliny would be an obvious precursor of patriliny.
The establishment of fatherhood as a part of kinship relationships could only come
much later when fraternal polyandry would give way to levirate.
While Maine had given the sequence of social evolution as family-gen-tribe-state;
McLennan gave the opposite sequence of tribe-gen-family. Thus the tribe was a
stage of undifferentiated promiscuity where only motherhood was recognised, followed
by gens that recognise siblings and finally family that recognises the father and mother
as the parents of a set of siblings. Morgan agreed with McLennan giving the additional
evidence in the form of kinship terminology. He said that kinship terminologies were
survivals of earlier forms of marriage, thus the generational or Hawaiian kinship that
has only generation and sex specific kin terms actually represents a stage of promiscuity
where one could only recognise generations and sex and no other kin relationship.
However the counter argument came from Charles Darwin himself, who criticised the
concept of primitive promiscuity as proposed by McLennan saying that sexual jealously
was an innate emotion and humans must have had ordered mating patterns from an
early stage. Moreover there was no evidence of promiscuity from any known human
society, past or present. Later Westermarck in his monumental work on the History
of Human Marriage once and for all laid to rest the debate about promiscuity as
well as matriarchy. In fact it was Westermarck’s criticism that discredited Morgan
and for a long time he was not taken seriously.
However, Morgan along with Edward B Tylor can be called as the founders of the
discipline of anthropology as the subject is known today.

2.3.2 Classical Evolutionism

Charles Darwin’s work had established the Monogenistic School that believed that
all humans have the same origin and thus there is no racial difference in human
26
development. Given that all humans have the same potential the problem in front of Philosophical and
Historical Foundations of
the nineteenth century European scholars was to explain the varieties of cultures Social Anthropology
found all over the world and the fact that the Europeans were also experiencing
transformations that made it clear that their society had also evolved from an earlier
stage where things were not the same as they were then. Anthropology as a discipline
was established to study two primary issues facing the civilised men of nineteenth
century Europe, the facts of human evolution and variation, both in terms of culture
and in terms of physical differences. Since humans were now known to have
evolved from pre-human stages paleo-anthropology and archaeology were added to
study the physiological and cultural evolution of humans to the Homo Sapiens stage.
Tylor, who held the first officially designated chair of anthropology, explained human
cultural variations as stages of development of the same culture, what Ingold (1986)
has called culture with a capital C. Thus there was but only one human Culture and
all the differences that one could see across the globe were different stages of it.
Tylor evoked the notion of psychic unity of mankind to determine the origin of an
overtly human institution like religion by using what Evans-Pritchard has called the “If
I were a horse hypothesis?” Thus Tylor put himself in the place of an early human
to speculate what that person must have thought in the face of life’s most mystical
aspects, namely death and dreams. From this speculation Tylor derived the origin of
religion as Animism or belief in a soul.
Tylor along with Lubbock described human evolution in terms of stages of evolution
with an inbuilt notion of progress. Thus, Lubbock in 1871 published the book Origin
of Civilisation where he identified the archeological stages of stone, copper and
iron age with the stages of economic progress, namely savagery (hunting and food
gathering) barbarism (nomadism and pastoralism) and then agriculture and then
industrial civilisation. Tylor likewise in his book Primitive Culture (1871), identified
three stages of progress of human Culture, savagery, barbarism and civilisation; the
transition from the first to second marked by the advent of agriculture and from
second to third by the invention of writing. Tylor used the concept of ‘survivals’ to
substantiate his theory of evolution.
Lewis Henry Morgan was influenced by both Tylor and Lubbock and borrowed
from them to write his Ancient Society (1877). He used the concept of Ethnical
Periods, dividing each into three stages thereby converting the three stage
developmental scheme into a more detailed and elaborate scheme of seven distinct
ethnical periods. According to Morgan original ideas only occur once in human
society and they are like germs that develop on their own into stages that are
predetermined. He identified four main ideas, namely idea of government, idea of
property, idea of family and idea of subsistence or technology. Each of these follows
its own line of growth and each ethnical period is marked by successive stages of
growth of these ideas.

2.4 THE PRIMITIVE AS A CONCEPT

Both sociology and social anthropology were made possible by a paradigm shift
from a divine origin of human society to a conceptualisation of society as an outcome
of human agency. The major transformations taking place in European society marked
by the French Revolution and the transition to a industrialised society based on trade
and commerce rather than war and conquest gave rise to the expectation that societies
transform and therefore there must have been a past to the European society as it
was existing in the eighteenth to nineteenth century. Much of sociological thinking was
27
Introduction to Social directed towards understanding one’s own past and in this attempt scholars like
Anthropology
Comte, Spencer, Lubbock and others formulated an evolutionary schema of social
development, always keeping the European societies at the apex. The influence of
Lamarck is seen in the postulation of a stage by stage rather than a gradual evolution.
And to Darwin we owe the consolidation of the entire human species as one supported
by the theory of monogenesis and psychic unity of mankind. The idea of monogenesis
and unity of the human race was also supported by the universal presence of family
and marriage in the form of regulated mating and a universal acceptance of incest
taboos and religion as a belief in the supernatural and mystical.
By the nineteenth century all theories of savages with no sense of kinship or morality
was replaced by a universal humanism, only that it expressed itself in many different
forms. Thus the question was no longer whether non-western societies have a religion
or forms of marriage but why are the manifestations of these universal human institutions
so varied in different parts of the world. The problem was not just to explain human
evolution but human variation as well.
Tylor, found a solution in transforming spatial difference into temporal ones. In other
words he put forward the thesis that those who were different were so because they
were at different stages of Culture that was universal for all humans. To substantiate
his arguments he made use of the comparative method borrowed from biology to put
on a fictitious time scale all or most human cultures about which knowledge was
obtained through various sources. Thus living populations were seen as the past of
the European societies. The term primitive came to denote not people who were
actually living in the past, but who were living as primitives in the contemporary
world. The implications were far reaching, especially as it informed the notion of
development as it is still understood, long after the demise of classical evolutionary
theories. Many societies of the world were and are still judged as primitive meaning
almost always that they do not fulfill the criteria of civilisation as embodied in western
societies and those which are following the western model. To a large extent the
branding of some cultures as lower stages of a common human culture gave a
justification to European colonisation as it was presented not as an exploitative
project but a reformative one.

2.5 SUMMARY
In summing up the unit we can say that the beginnings of positivism and the scientific
study of society made social anthropology possible as a scientific study of human
social and cultural variations. The nineteenth century was marked by a preoccupation
with human evolution and the social scientists followed Lamarck in positing a stage
by stage schema of evolution. The classical evolutionists were all unilineal influenced
by the monogenesis theory of Darwin and the hypothesis of a psychic unity of
mankind. The institutions of kinship, marriage and religion were of prime concern as
universal traits of a common humanism. The methodology made use of the comparative
method borrowed from biology. While sociology was a discipline that looked only
into the evolution of European society, anthropology focused on entire mankind and
in all aspects of being human, cultural, physical and species evolution.
References
Aaron, Raymond. Main Currents in Sociological Thought. Vol.1
Darnell, Rayna. 1974. Readings in the History of Anthropology. New York: Harper
and Row.
28
Honigmann. 1976. The Development of Anthropological Ideas. The Dorsey Press. Philosophical and
Historical Foundations of
Ingold, Tim. 1986. Evolution and Social Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Social Anthropology

Press.
Kuper, Adam. 1988. The Invention of Primitive Society. London: Routledge.
Leaf, Murry. J. 1979. Man, Mind and Science: A History of Anthropology. New
York: Columbia University Press.
Lowie, Robert H. 1937. The History of Ethnological Theory. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston.
Maine, Henry. 1861. Ancient Law, Its Connection with the Early History of
Society, and its Relation to Modern Ideas. 1931 reprint London: J.M. Dent.
Martindale, Don. 1961. The Nature and Types of Sociological Theory. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul.
McLennan, John F. 1865. Primitive Marriage: An enquiry into the Origin of the
Form of Capture in Marriage Ceremonies. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black.
Morgan, Lewis Henry. 1877. Ancient Society. First Indian publication 1944. Calcutta:
Bharati Publication.
Suggested Reading
Ingold, Tim. 1986. Evolution and Social Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Leaf, Murry. J. 1979. Man, Mind and Science: A History of Anthropology. New
York: Columbia University Press.
Sample Questions
1) Describe the intellectual basis for the emergence of a science of society.
2) Discuss Montesquieu’s contribution towards a sociological understanding of
social variation.
3) What is positivism? Discuss Comte’s contribution towards this theory.
4) Compare the approach of Comte and Montequieu critically.
5) What was Darwin’s influence on the formation of a theory of social evolution?

29
 UNIT 3 RELATIONSHIP OF SOCIAL
ANTHROPOLOGY WITH ALLIED
DISCIPLINES
Contents
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Relationship of Social Anthropology with other Social Sciences
3.2.1 Social Anthropology and Sociology
3.2.2 Social Anthropology and Psychology
3.2.3 Social Anthropology and History
3.2.4 Social Anthropology and Economics
3.2.5 Social Anthropology and Political Science
3.2.6 Social Anthropology and Social Work
3.2.7 Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies
3.2.8 Social Anthropology and Literature
3.2.9 Social Anthropology and Public Health
3.2.10 Social Anthropology and Policy and Governance
3.2.11 Social Anthropology and Management
3.3 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

Once you have studied this unit, you would be able to describe the:
 relation between social anthropology and the various allied sciences; and
 ability of social anthropology to interpret the biological and social factors to
depict man’s culture and behaviour in totality.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Social anthropology is that branch of anthropology which deals with human culture
and society emphasising cultural and social phenomena including inter personal and
inter group relations especially of non literate people. All social sciences study human
behaviour, but the content, approach and the context of sociology and social
anthropology are very different from other disciplines. Apart from studying the internal
characteristics of the society, social anthropology also studies the external
characteristics of the population and rate and stage of its progress. The problems of
the society are explained using these factors. Secondly, it also studies institutions like
– political, economic, social, legal, stratification, etc. It studies the features that these
institutions share and the features that are different. Their degree of specialisation and
level of autonomy are also studied. Durkheim, one of the pioneers of social
anthropology called social anthropology as the study of social institutions. Thirdly,
social anthropology is the study of social relationships. By social relationship we
mean the interactions between individuals. Interactions between individuals are mediated
by norms and values of the society and are intended to achieve goals.
30
 Relationship of Social
3.2 RELATIONSHIP OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY Anthropology with Allied
WITH OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES Disciplines

The social and cultural anthropologists include a broad range of approaches derived
from the social sciences like Sociology, Psychology, History, Economics, Political
Science, Social Work, Cultural Studies, Literature, Public Health, Policy and
Governance Studies, Management, etc. Social anthropology is, thus, able to relate
all of these disciplines in its quest for an understanding of human behaviour, and
draws upon all of them to interpret the way in which all biological and social factors
enter to depict man’s culture and behaviour in totality.

3.2.1 Social Anthropology and Sociology

Social anthropology usually has been defined as the study of other cultures, employing
the technique of participant observation and collecting qualitative data. Social
anthropology is similar to but not identical with sociology, at least in terms of how
each discipline has developed since the last century. Social anthropology has focused
on pre-industrial societies, sociology on industrial societies; anthropologists conducted
their research in other cultures, employed the technique of participant observation
(collecting qualitative data), and advocated comparative (especially cross-cultural)
analysis; sociologists did research in their own societies, used questionnaires (collecting
quantitative data), and rarely attempted to test their generalisations cross-culturally.
Of course, there have been many exceptions to these patterns with the result that
sociologists have sometimes resembled anthropologists in their labours, and vice
versa (Barrett, 2009).
However, another way of examining the relationship between these two disciplines
is by finding out the important differences. The first major difference is that while
sociology is by definition concerned with the investigation and understanding of social
relations and with other data only so far as they further this understanding, social
anthropologists although they share the concern with sociologists, are interested also
in other matters, such as people’s beliefs and values, even where these cannot be
shown to be directly connected with social behaviour. Social anthropologists are
interested in their ideas and beliefs as well as in their social relationships and in recent
years many social anthropologists have studied other people’s belief systems not
simply from a sociological point of view but also as being worthy of investigation in
their own right.
The second important difference between social anthropology and sociology is simply
that social anthropologists have mostly worked in communities which are both less
familiar and technologically less developed, while sociologists chiefly studied types of
social organisation characteristic of more complex, western –type societies. The
distinction is by no means a hard and fast one; it implies difference in field rather than
in fundamental theory, but it has important implications. It is in the study of small-
scale systems of this kind, where person to person relationships are all important that
the methods of social anthropology have been elaborated, and its main contributions
to sociological knowledge have been in this field.
Finally, the fact that social anthropologists have mostly worked in unfamiliar cultures
has imposed on them a problem of translation which is much less acute for sociologists,
though it certainly exists for them too. Sociologists usually speak the same language
(more or less) as the people they study and they share with them at least some of
their basic concepts and categories. But for the social anthropologist the most difficult
31
Introduction to Social part of his/her task is usually to understand the language and ways of thought of the
Anthropology
people he studies, which may be and probably are very different from his own. This
is why, in anthropological fieldwork, a sound knowledge of the language of the
community being studied is indispensable for a people’s categories of thought and the
forms of their language are inextricably bound together. Thus questions about meanings
and about the interpretation of concepts and symbols usually demand a larger part
of the attention of social anthropologists than of sociologists. Never the less, sociology
is social anthropologists’ closest companion discipline and the two subjects share a
great many of their theoretical problems and interests. Social anthropologists are
sociologists as well, but they are at once something less, because their actual field
of investigation has on the whole been more restricted and something more, because
although they are concerned with social relationships, they are concerned with other
aspects of culture as well. However, the top scholars in both social anthropology and
sociology spend very little time in worrying whether what they are doing is sociology
or social anthropology.

3.2.2 Social Anthropology and Psychology

The study of mind and human behaviour is called Psychology. Psychologists investigate
a diverse range of topics through their theories and research.These topics include-
the relationship between the brain, behaviour and subjective experience; human
development; the influence of other people on the individual’s thoughts, feelings and
behaviour; psychological disorders and their treatment; the impact of culture on the
individual’s behaviour and subjective experience; differences between people in terms
of their personality and intelligence; and people’s ability to acquire, organise, remember
and use knowledge to guide their behaviour.
Thus for the psychologists the focus of study is upon all aspects of human behaviour:
and its personal, social and cultural dimensions which will never be complete without
having the knowledge of social anthropology. Therefore, for understanding the social
processes and meanings in the world around us one has to study social anthropology.
Both Social Psychology and Social Anthropology deals with the manifold relations
between individuals on the one hand and groups, communities, societies and cultures
on the other hand.
According to Barrett (2009:135) British social anthropology has historically been
quite opposed to psychology. Another way of stating this is to say that social
anthropology has been anti-reductionist, which means opposed to reducing the
explanation of social life to other disciplinary levels such as psychology. This perspective
can be traced back to Durkheim, who declared that any time a psychological
explanation is provided for a social phenomenon we may be certain that it is wrong.
American cultural anthropology has been much more receptive to psychology,
especially the focus on the individual. Boas was interested in the relationship between
the individual and society, and eventually there was the culture and personality school,
with its emphasis on modal personality. In more recent years a distinct approach
called psychological anthropology has emerged, with a focus on attitudes and values,
and child-rearing practices and adolescence (Bourguignon 1979).
The only line of difference is that social anthropology examines the group, psychology
the individual. Social anthropologists specialise in social structure or culture
psychologists in the personality system, and in mental process such as cognition,
perception, and learning, and emotions and motives. Social anthropologists take
personality system as constant and look for variation in the social structure as the
32
basis of their investigations whereas, psychologists accept the social structure as Relationship of Social
Anthropology with Allied
constant and look for variations in the personality system as the basis of their analysis. Disciplines

Barrett (2009) in his work has stated that for both psychologists and anthropologists
the only real entity is the individual human being. Social anthropologists abstract and
generalise at the level of the social system whereas psychologists also abstract and
generalise, but in their case at the level of the personality system. Finally, the work
of some social anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists, occupies a common
ground, reflecting shared interests in integrating social structure and personality.

3.2.3 Social Anthropology and History

Historians are chiefly interested in the past, whether remote or recent, their study is
to find out what happened and why it happened. On the whole, they are more
interested in particular sequences of past events and their conditions, than they are
in the general patterns, principles or laws which these events may exhibit. In both of
these respects their concern is little from that of social anthropologist. For social
anthropologists are centrally (though not exclusively) interested in understanding the
present condition of the culture or community which they are studying. But although
the disciplines are different, social anthropology has a very close relationship with
history in two important ways. First an anthropologist who aims to achieve a complete
understanding as possible of the present condition of the society he is studying can
hardly fail to ask how it came to be as it is. That is not withstanding that his central
interest is in the present, not in the past for its own sake, but often the past may be
directly relevant in explaining the present. A difficulty has been that many of the
societies which social anthropologists have studied have no histories, in the sense of
documented and verifiable accounts of the past or at least they had none before the
often very recent impact of western culture. In such societies, the past sometimes is
thought of as differing from the present only in respect of the individuals who occupy
the different statuses which are institutionalised in the society.
But history may be important to social anthropologists in another sense, that is, not
only as an account of past events leading up to and explaining the present, but also
as the body of contemporary ideas which people have about these events what an
English Philosopher Collingwood aptly called “encapsulated history” people’s ideas
about the past are an intrinsic part of the contemporary situation which is the
anthropologists immediate concern and often they have important implications for
existing social relationships. Also, different groups of people involved in the same
social situation may have very different ideas about the ‘same’ series of historical
events. Myths and traditional histories may sometimes give important clues about the
past events. History is part of the conscious tradition of a people and is operative
in their social life. It is the collective representation of events as distinct from events
themselves. Evans-Pritchard in his work Social Anthropology and Other Essays,
(1950) had stated that the functionalist anthropologists regard history in this sense,
usually a mixture of fact and fancy, as highly relevant to a study of the culture of
which it forms part. Neglect of the history of institutions prevents the functionalist
anthropologist not only from studying diachronic problems but also from testing the
very functional constructions to which he attaches most importance, for it is precisely
history which provides him with an experimental situation.
It is true that some of the early anthropologists such as Radcliffe-Brown denied that
history had any relevance for anthropology, mainly because they thought history dealt
with unique events, and that a scientific study of the past was not possible. But,
33
Introduction to Social Evans–Pritchard (1968) argued that anthropology was not a generalising discipline,
Anthropology
but instead a branch of history. Much earlier Boas (1897), the founder of American
anthropology, had included historical inquiry as a central feature of anthropological
investigation.
Both social anthropologists and historians attempt to represent unfamiliar social
situations in terms not just of their own cultural categories, but, as far as possible,
in terms of the categories of the actions themselves. The main difference between
social anthropology and history lies not much in their subject matter (though generally
this does differ), as in the degree of generality with which they deal with it. Once
again it is very much a question of emphasis. Historians are interested in the history
of particular institutions in particular places. Although in a very general sense it is true
that historians are concerned with what is individual and unique, social anthropologists,
like sociologists, are concerned with what is general and typical, and this dichotomy
is altogether too simple. As so often in the social sciences, the difference is largely
one of emphasis (Ahmad, 1986)
Barrett, (2009) rightly summarises that today; most anthropologists would probably
agree that a historical perspective enriches one’s ethnography. Unlike historians,
however, anthropologists include history not so much in order to document and
explain what happened in the past, but rather to help to understand the present.
There also appears to be a difference in styles of research. Whereas historians often
seem reluctant to draw even modest generalisations from their data, anthropologists
are much less cautious and there is more pressure than in history to tie one’s
ethnography to general theoretical orientations.

3.2.4 Social Anthropology and Economics

As we know economics focuses on a particular institution, and is concerned about
the production, consumption, and distribution of economic goods, and with economic
development, prices, trade, and finance. In anthropology there is an area of
specialisation called economic anthropology. It is a precious fact that an institutionalised
kind of economics first appears in anthropology in direct relation to the field research
among exotic societies. Anthropology has a substantial overlap with economics,
considered as the production and distribution of goods. While not all societies have
a fully developed monetary economy, all societies do have scarce goods and some
means of exchange.
Social anthropologists are interested in exploring the range of production and
distribution systems in human societies and in understanding the particular system in
the society being studied at a given time. Most social anthropologists are not
scientifically interested in the operation of the economy of one’s own society; the
typical non-anthropological economist, on the other, hand is extremely interested in
the operation of one’s own economy. He will not ordinarily show much interest in
the operation of greatly different economic systems. Social anthropology under the
name of “formalist” vs “substantivist” interpretations of the primitive economics, bring
with these terms the following option between the ready-made models of western
economic science, especially the micro-economics taken as universally valid and
therefore applicable to the primitive societies and the necessity – supposing the
formalist position unfounded – of developing a new analysis more appropriate to the
historical societies in question and to the intellectual history of anthropology.

34
3.2.5 Social Anthropology and Political Science Relationship of Social
Anthropology with Allied
The foundation of anthropology was evolutionism, biology, and the great social theorists Disciplines
such as Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, whereas the foundation of political science
was classical philosophy. While social anthropology deals with all the sub-systems of
society, political science focuses on the political system and power. It would be a
mistake, however, to assume that anthropology is not concerned with power. Edmund
Leach (1965), a prominent British social anthropologist, has argued that power is the
most fundamental aspect of all social life, and therefore central to the anthropological
endeavour, and in fact there is an area of specialisation in anthropology called political
anthropology.
Social anthropologists do look at something politically. There is a range of
anthropological behaviours depending on the sophistication of the society being studied
and the goals and theoretical awareness of the investigator. The overlap of political
and other activities is greater in simpler societies than in more complex societies. To
put it in a slightly different manner, there is less functional specificity of different
cultural aspects. Or, in simpler societies activities that social anthropologists regard
as clearly and predominantly political are usually embedded in other kinds of activities.
Political activity is an aspect of all human social action and “interest articulation” is
a universal function of all systems. Social anthropologists represents a highly diverse
set of policies for whom political theory should be applicable if such ideas lay claim
to universality. For a political scientist the presence of anthropological literature is not
only a stimulus to theory testing but forms a basis for understanding local political
situations as well. The theoretical contribution that anthropology is making to political
science, related to functionalism, is the evolutionary point of view. Cohen, (1967)
stated that explicitly or implicitly, social anthropologists have almost always ordered
the societies they study into an evolutionary framework. Research on the local areas
and institutions of the new nation brings the political scientist and the social
anthropologist into the same area treating with the same populations and many of the
same behaviours. In many parts of the non-western world, local political systems are
heavily dependent on forms of socio-political structures that are still strongly influenced
by their traditional cultures. Social anthropology can aid political science in the
analysis of ethnicity and in preparing researchers for the use of participant observation
techniques in the field. Social anthropology on its side has a great deal to gain from
political science, in terms of theory and more precise behavioural methods, which at
this point of its development the discipline needs (R. Cohen, 1967).

3.2.6 Social Anthropology and Social Work

According to Keith Hart (1996 : 42) the only thing which can truly distinguish
anthropology from the rest of the social sciences is that it addresses human nature
plus culture plus society. The knowledge about society and culture is very important
to the social worker. Social anthropology is the systematic study of social relationships
at levels ranging from individual interaction to global political and economic relations.
It also examines the cultural, historical, physical, and linguistic behaviour of people
from all parts of the globe both in the past and present. Social workers help people
in a number of ways including: dealing with their relationships with others; solving
their personal, family, and community problems; and growing by learning to cope
with or shape the social and environmental forces affecting their daily lives. Social
workers practice their professions in specific social and cultural contexts which will
definitely influence their mode of practice (Payne, 1997). They have to take into
consideration the values, norms, beliefs, ideologies of the society before they create
programs of action to ameliorate social problems and resolve conflicts. 35
Introduction to Social Equally important is the necessity of the social worker to understand himself or
Anthropology
herself. Social workers are themselves products of the societies that they live in and
are inevitably influenced by it. Knowledge about society and culture is also needed
to help the social worker gain self-awareness about himself or herself. The personality
of the social worker is a major tool used in practice and culture plays a major role
in the development of the personality.
Society and culture are basic concepts used by social anthropologists to understand
the social reality around us. In social anthropology, we usually study the various
comparative components of social system, their structure, their organisation, function,
etc. The social systems are the interdependent activities, institutions, and values by
which people live and it is the job of social anthropologists to identify these components
of social systems. In social anthropology, various theories and concepts have been
developed to understand the meanings of social structure, the social organisation and
the social function.
Social anthropology and social work differ in many aspects. In social anthropology
the approach to society is theoretical and theory building is its major concern. Social
work on the other hand has to be practical and deal with problems. On the other
hand, anthropologists find social worker’s work to be fragmented and oriented only
towards the problem at hand. Another important distinction between social work and
social anthropology is that the latter made claims to be a value free discipline. Being
objective and free from bias was considered a virtue. Social work on the other hand
is a value based profession based on humanitarian principles (Johnson, 1998 : 14).
By going through the above discussion it is very much clear that social work often
borrows from different disciplines from the wider society. Thus we may conclude by
saying that unlike social anthropology, social work knowledge comes from a wider
range of sources which includes precedent, experience and common sense.

3.2.7 Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies

Twenty first century world is moving towards a homogenous culture. Social scientists
define Cultural studies as a combination of sociology, literary theory, film/video studies,
and cultural anthropology to study various cultural phenomena in industrial societies.
Researchers from Cultural studies basically concentrate on how a particular
phenomenon is linked to matters of ideology, race, social class, and/or gender.
Basically, Cultural studies deals with the meaning and practices of everyday life.
Cultural practices comprise of the ways in which people do particular things in his/
her own culture. In every culture specific meanings is attached to the ways people
do things. Thus, cultural studies enable us to meaningfully engage and interact with
the new modes of being and doing. It makes us conscious about the many complex
ways in which power impinges on our lives and constructs our cultures. Cultural
studies have the potential of empowering the society to critically read the media and
other cultural institutions and texts. It also helps us to understand how they shape our
identities and to think about how we could possibly shape them.
Thus, Cultural studies can be viewed as a historical, humanistic discipline, as well as
a natural science, depending upon the method or approach which it is utilised in
studying cultural phenomena. The traditional tendency to understand ‘culture’ as a
naturalised concept is still quite dominant not only among the common folk in general
but also among those engaged in the academic arena of culture. Such an understanding
of culture also has its consequent reflection in the various forms of cultural activism
36
covering documentation, preservation, and conservation of culture. Thus, leading to Relationship of Social
Anthropology with Allied
the systematic classification of various cultural items like music, dance, literature, and Disciplines
language etc. and also assembling them in a hierarchy. Recent cultural theories have
shown that classification of cultural objects is not exactly irrelevant, arranging them
in a hierarchy like ‘high’ and ‘low’, ‘great’ and ‘little’ is definitely not desired because
it is based on the celebration of the ‘high’ and ‘elite’ culture at the cost of the ‘low’
or ‘folk’ culture. However, at present, such terms like ‘high’ and ‘low’ are no longer
used in cultural theories, because all cultures are considered as equal. According to
social anthropological knowledge every culture has its own set of perspectives.

3.2.8 Social Anthropology and Literature

The scholars and academician very often question the validity of a strict disciplinary
boundary between social anthropology and literature, at a time when schools and
colleges are hiring faculties and establishing courses that speak to two or more
disciplines. Literature may be used in the preparing of ethnography by social
anthropologists, for example life histories of generations may be used as an important
source of data. Collection of tradition narratives may add values to the ethnography
of people. In studying the approaches to ritual and performance, Victor Turner uses
poetry of contemporary as well as renaissance plays.
In the current attempts to redefine literature as social ‘artifact’ or social ‘discourse’,
and to situate literary studies within cultural criticism, an indispensable role has been
played by those who take society and culture as their primary subjects – sociologists
and anthropologists (Ashley, 1990). Today, social anthropologists have come up with
new ways to represent context and experience in the study of culture. Ethnography
as text, narrative, allegory, and “true fiction” is the new approach.
Social anthropologists also use oral literature to study the unwritten forms which can
be regarded as in some way possessing literary qualities. This avenue covers oral
forms like myths, narratives, epics, lyrics, praise poetry, laments, and the verbal texts
of songs; and also sometimes riddles proverbs and perhaps oratory and drama. This
is an area in which both scholars from the field of literature, linguistic studies and
folklorists have been interacting with social anthropologists for long.
Thus social anthropology and literature study with the purpose to integrate the literature
experience into anthropology and to cultivate themselves as universal citizens. The
intention to break the boundaries between literary study and other field of study and
integrate literary study into cultural study is an evident important trend in the later
20th century. Clifford Geertz’s role in the development of interpretive anthropology
can hardly be overestimated. He remains one of the most productive and well-
known social anthropologists. Yet today, within interpretive anthropology itself, critics
of Geertz are increasing and his influence is waning. What is “thick description”?
What are its main characteristics? How is it done? How do we come to know “the
native’s point of view”, that is, how members of another culture think, feel and
perceive? What is the relationship between “thick description” and anthropological
theory? etc. are some of the rising questions.
Thus it shows similarity to interpretive anthropology which is mainly concerned with
acquiring the native’s point of view. It takes care of some of the pertinent questions
like - How are we to approach and read native history and literature? Can we use
such native expressions as data, as cultural artifacts? What modifications might the
ethnographer have to make in doing so? These are some of the questions which
would involve literature to answer them.
37
Introduction to Social
Anthropology
3.2.9 Social Anthropology and Public Health
Public health is “the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting
health through the organised efforts and informed choices of society, organisations,
public and private, communities and individuals (Winslow, C.E.A.1920).The
relationship between anthropology, medicine and medical practice is well documented.
General anthropology occupied a notable position in the basic medical sciences
(which correspond to those subjects commonly known as pre-clinical). However,
medical education started to be restricted to the confines of the hospital as a
consequence of the development of the clinical gaze and the confinement of patients
in observational infirmaries (Foucault, 1963). Most, not all because ethnography
remained during a large part of the twentieth century as a tool of knowledge in
primary health care, rural medicine, and in International public health. The abandonment
of ethnography by medicine happened when social anthropology adopted ethnography
as one of the markers of its professional identity and started to depart from the initial
project of general anthropology.
The concept of popular medicine, or folk medicine, has been well known to both
doctors and anthropologists since the beginning of the twentieth century. Doctors,
anthropologists and medical anthropologists used these terms to describe the resources,
other than the help of health professionals, which European or Latin American peasants
used to resolve any health problems. The term was also used to describe the health
practices of aborigines in different parts of the world, with particular emphasis on
their local knowledge. Moreover, studying the rituals surrounding popular therapies
served to challenge Western psychopathological categories, as well as the relationship
between science and religion. Doctors were not trying to turn popular medicine into
an anthropological concept; rather they wanted to construct a scientifically based
medical concept which they could use to establish the cultural limits of biomedicine
(Comelles, 2002).
Professional anthropologists started using the concept of folk medicine in the early
twentieth century. They used this concept to differenciate between magical practices,
medicine and religion. In addition, they also applied this concept to explore the role
and the significance of popular healers and their self-medicating practices. The
professional anthropologists looked at popular medicine as specific cultural practice
of some social groups which were distinct from the universal practices of biomedicine.
Thus, it may be assumed that every culture has its own specific popular medicine
based on its general cultural features.
Under this concept, medical systems are seen as the specific product of each ethnic
group’s cultural history. Scientific biomedicine is regarded as another medical system
and therefore a cultural form is studied as such.
Reflection
The proposition of studying cultural form as it is originated in the ‘cultural relativism’ in
cultural anthropology and allows the debate with medicine and psychiatry to revolve
around some fundamental questions like- (i)What is the relative influence of genotypical
and phenotypical factors on personality and what are the forms of pathology; especially
psychiatric and psychosomatic pathologies?(ii) What is the influence of culture on what
a society considers to be normal, pathological or abnormal?(iii)Verifies in different cultures
the universality about the non sociological categories of biomedicine and
psychiatry.(iv)How to identify and describe the diseases belonging to specific cultures
which have not been previously described by clinical medicine? Such culture specific
diseases are known as ethnic disorders and, more recently been termed as culture bound
syndromes, that include the evil eye and tarantism, being possessed or in a state of trance
in many cultures, and nervous anorexia, nerves and premenstrual syndrome across societies.
38
 Relationship of Social
The medical anthropologists of twentieth century have a much more sophisticated Anthropology with Allied
understanding of the problem of cultural representations and social practices related to Disciplines
health, disease, medical care and attention.
source: http:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/medical_anthropology#popular_medicine_and_
medical_system.
The imperative of social anthropological perspectives, methods, information, and
collaboration in the understanding and practice of public health is widely reckoned
in the twenty first century. Social anthropologists develop and implement interventions
to address particular public health problems, often working in collaboration with local
participants. Their primary task is to work as evaluators, examining the activities of
public health institutions and the successes and failures of public health programs.
Their job is also to focus on major international public health agencies and their
workings, as well as public health responses to the threats of infectious disease and
other disasters. Thus the role of social anthropologists in public health is to examine
the health related problems with a social anthropological perspective like (i) socio
anthropological understanding of public health problems (ii) socio anthropological
design of public health interventions (iii) socio anthropological evaluations of public
health initiatives (iv) socio anthropological critiques of public health polices and
health care reforms. Thus, the role of social anthropology is to bridge the difference
in culture and society in the practice of public health (Mahn and Inhorn, 2011).

3.2.10 Social Anthropology and Policy and Governance

As we enter the twenty first century, the terrain on which social policy is made is
changing rapidly. This has resulted in anthropologists, in combination with other social
scientists, giving serious attention to the impact of this new phase of globalisation on
changes in social and environmental policies. Social anthropology as a sub field has
contributed, and continues to contribute, to social policy research, practice, and
advocacy in a number of different ways; it has taken on increasing relevance as the
world is rapidly being transformed by the process of globalisation (Okongwu and
Mencher, 2000). Social anthropologists studying globalisation, the state, politics,
development, and elites, among other topics, are discovering the centrality of policy
to their research, and a body of work in the anthropology of policy is developing.
Although some social anthropologists who study policy became involved in public
debates or advocacy, and several movements in anthropology encourage activism,
the anthropology of public policy is devoted to research into policy issues and
processes and the critical analysis of those processes. Though anthropologists have
generally had less influence than economists on public policy, there are a number of
ways in which we have made our opinions known, such as by (a) documenting the
conditions of the people we study, or other poor or disenfranchised people, and
acting as their advocates-including serving as expert witnesses for the homeless (b)
analysing, writing, and making public the effects of government policies and suggesting
alternative policies (c) working with-or against-elected officials; (d) attempting to
influence members of aid agencies in their varied roles and/or working from within
these agencies to pinpoint critical issues (e) working with migrant populations, both
forced and voluntary in terms of both policies to deal with migrants and studies of
cultural capital and its intersection with both formal and informal labour markets in
the north and south and (f) studying strategies of resistance and how the work of
anthropologists can inform and help indigenous people (Wedel, et al. 2005).
There has long been a theoretical and individual divide between anthropologists
focusing on pure research and those focusing on the problems faced by humans,
including the growth of inequality. In a fast changing world, anthropologists’ empirical 39
Introduction to Social and ethnographic methods depicts how policies actively create new categories of
Anthropology
individuals to be governed. Wedel, (2005) suggest that the long-established
frameworks of “state” and “private”, “local” or “national” and “global,” “macro” and
“micro,” “top down” and “bottom up,” and “centralised” and “decentralised” not
only fail to capture current dynamics in the world but actually obfuscate the
understanding of many policy processes.
Although some social anthropologists worked in earlier periods on policy-related
projects in agriculture, the numbers of anthropologists in applied and policy work on
the environment and in the field of agriculture have significantly increased as the
multinational corporations have gained in power over governments. Anthropologists
have been interested in such issues as the scale of farming, water use, use of
petrochemicals and other inputs, increase in mono cropping (with all of its attendant
potential for future famines), and quality- of-life issues. Others have been involved
with issues related to the loss of biodiversity, and especially among ethno botanists
working with centers for international agricultural research to help traditional societies
preserve their native species. Most of the anthropologists working on agricultural and
related issues have “in one way or another [been] critical of the dominant institutions
and trends in food systems (Okongwu and Mencher, 2000), especially those [moving
more and more] toward globalisation. Many others present alternative approaches,
often stressing the importance of strengthening local food systems as a way of trying
to provide not only buffers, but new organisational and institutional models for more
sustainable and just food systems”. Giddens (1990, 1995) has noted that social
anthropology must be ready to contest unjust systems of domination, seeking to
decide along the way what injustice actually is, and to bring potential controversial
issues to light.
Social anthropologists have traditionally had the reputation of working at the grassroot
level and getting to know people and their problems and issues well. We also need
to serve as conduits for solutions. One of the greatest strengths of social anthropologists
is their ability to view systems holistically-in this case to deal not only with the
theoretical issues of political economy, but also to work to influence policymakers to
pay attention to the social, structural, and economic consequences of globalised
agriculture on both farmers and consumers, on communities, and, taking the
environment into account, on the very nature of life on this planet (ibid).
Surely there are many roles for social anthropologists in documenting protests, as
well as in getting onto policy-making boards and into circles where large agency
policy is formulated. The crisis situations created by capitalism today require a real
reinventing of anthropology, with social anthropologists not only studying alternative
policies but also working as advocates and with the people they have studied to put
pressures on governments, international agencies, and multinational corporations to
get them to change. These are issues that are extremely well suited for the involvement
of social anthropology during the twenty first century. It is expected that social
anthropologists, based on their in-depth knowledge and their ability to learn how to
use the language of influence effectively, need to make clear and short statements
available to policymakers. If social anthropologists fail to influence the policy, then
others with far less understanding and insight will do so to the detriment of humanity
(Okongwu and Mencher, 2000).

3.2.11 Social Anthropology and Management

Over the last century, social anthropologists have created a discipline to make sense
out of human behaviour through the culture concept, a holistic analytical approach,
40 and empirical research. Although social anthropological concepts have been defined
largely in academia, the discipline has always had ‘applied’ practitioners working in Relationship of Social
Anthropology with Allied
areas like health care, education, business and industry. These practitioners have Disciplines
demonstrated time and again that an anthropological perspective has a great deal to
offer the wider world. At first glance, the two professions – anthropology and
management may appear highly dissimilar. But a closer look reveals many points of
common interest. For example, like social anthropologists, management practitioners
attempt to make sense out of human behaviour as they address the ‘people’ dimensions
of doing business. Hence, there is an opportunity for a valuable exchange between
social anthropologists and management practitioners. To some extent this is already
taking place. Social anthropologists are working as consultants and many consultants
are using an anthropological perspective perhaps without knowing it (NAPA Bulletin,
1990).
The almost exponential rate of change in the contemporary business world challenges
business leaders in many ways. The survival of a business depends on management’s
ability to adjust to change. Social anthropology can help consultants and their clients
respond successfully to five major trends that will shape the way we all live and work
in the future (Giovannini & Rosansky, 1998). They are in the areas of –
1) Increasing Globalisation
2) Demographic Trends
3) Social Issues
4) Technological Innovation
5) Organisational Change
Social anthropology as a field science has great potential for informing multi-disciplinary
research in management both conceptually and methodologically. Anthropology’s
main distinguishing method is participant observation which involves the anthropologist
spending a prolonged period, doing fieldwork in an effort to gain an in-depth
understanding of the organisation under study. By virtue of its eclecticism and experience
of facilitating understanding of the processes of change across institutions and other
social phenomena, anthropology can make a significant contribution to the
implementation of knowledge management. Objective of social anthropology is to
take accurate description of context and precise understanding of how those contexts
are interpreted and experienced by participants. Ethnographic immersion is the
methodology adopted. This enables the capture of elusive, ambiguous and tacit
aspects of research settings, and also allows grounded theory to be generated from
‘thick’ or ‘rich’ data. Social anthropology, having taken into account recent
developments in postmodern and critical thought, can contribute to the study, practice,
and teaching of management in three categories.
Reflection

Linstead (1997) states that the focuses are on the following aspects; (a). culture, new
theoretical lines of enquiry can be developed that reassess the significance of shared
meaning and conflicting interests in specific settings; the concept of the symbolic in
management can be critically elaborated; and modes of representation of management can
be opened up to self-reflexivity; (b). critique, ethnography can be used to defamiliarise the
taken-for-granted circumstances and reveal suppressed and alternative possibilities; new or
unheard voices and forms of information can be resuscitated and used to sensitise managerial
processes; and cognitive, affective, epistemological, ideological and ethical considerations
can be linked in the same framework; (c). change, anthropological ideas and concepts can
shape and reflect change processes and resolve unproductive dilemmas; and managerial
learning can be enhanced by promoting the ethnographic consciousness as a way of
investigating and understanding, an attitude of openness. Thus, we can say that social
anthropology can state an example of the application of the approach in a management
development programme, where teaching and research would progress in harness. 41
Introduction to Social
Anthropology 3.3 SUMMARY
Social anthropology is, thus, able to relate to almost all the disciplines in its quest for
an understanding of human behaviour, and draws upon all of them to interpret the
way in which all biological and social factors enter to depict man’s culture and
behaviour in totality.
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Linstead, S. 1997. ‘The Social Anthropology of Management.’ British Journal of
Management. 8: 85–98. doi: 10.1111/1467-8551.00042
Mahn, Robert A. and Mercia C. Inhorn (Eds).2011. Anthropology and Public
Health- Bridging differences in culture and society. London: Oxford University
Press.
Nadel, S. F. 1951. The Foundations of Social Anthropology. London: Cohen &
West
Okongwu, F.A.and J.P. Mencher. 2000. ‘The Anthropology of Public Policy: Shifting
Terrains’. Annual Review of Anthropology, 29:107-24.
Payne, Malcolm. 1997. Modern Social Work Theory. New York: Palgrave.
Younghusband, Eilleen.1964. Social Work and Social Change. London: George
Allen and Unwin Ltd.
Wedel, Janine R. Cris Shore, Gregory Feldman and Stacy Lathrop. 2005. ‘Toward
an Anthropology of Public Policy’. The ANNALS of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science. 600; 30. DOI: 10.1177/0002716205276734
Winslow, C.E.A.1920. The Untitled field of Public Health, Science, n.s.51.pp.23
(1990), Introduction/The Background/The Field of Management Consulting/The
Consulting Process/The Contributions of Anthropology/Management Consulting
Knowledge and Skills/Becoming a Management Consultant/A Note to Managers/
Benefits from the Exchange/Notes/References Cited. NAPA Bulletin, 9: 1–48.
doi: 10.1525/napa.1990.9.1.1
Suggested Reading
Beattie, J. 1964. Other Cultures: Aims, Methods and Achievements in Social
Anthropology. London: Routledge Kegan Paul.

43
Introduction to Social Evans–Pritchard, E.E. 1951. Social Anthropology. London: Cohen and West.
Anthropology
Herskovits, Melville J. 1952. Man and His Works. New York: Knopf.
Hoebel, E. A. and Frost, E. L. 1976. Cultural and Social Anthropology. New
Delhi. Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Ltd.
Mair, Lucy. 1965. An Introduction to Social Anthropology. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Sample Questions
1) Which disciplines are considered cognate disciplines of Social anthropology?
2) What is the contribution of Social anthropology in Sociology and Psychology?
3) Can the Historians study the particular sequences of past events and their
conditions without incorporating social anthropological approach?
4) How are the disciplines of Cultural Studies and Literature related to Social
anthropology?
5) What are the diverse roles of Social anthropologists in solving various problems
of the traditional as well as contemporary society?

44
 ANTHROGURU

ANTHROGURU
ANTHROPOLOGY

2.1 The Nature of Culture : The concept and characteristics of culture and
civilization; Ethnocentrism vis-àvis cultural Relativism.

2.2 The Nature of Society: Concept of Society; Society and Culture; Social
Institutions; Social groups; and Social stratification.

2.3 Marriage: Definition and universality; Laws of marriage (endogamy, exogamy,

hypergamy, hypogamy, incest taboo); Types of marriage (monogamy, polygamy,
polyandry, group marriage). Functions of marriage; Marriage regulations
(preferential, prescriptive and proscriptive); Marriage payments (bride wealth and
dowry).

2.4 Family: Definition and universality; Family, household and domestic groups;
functions of family; Types of family (from the perspectives of structure, blood
relation, marriage, residence and succession); Impact of urbanization,
industrialization and feminist movements on family.

2.5 Kinship: Consanguinity and Affinity; Principles and types of descent (Unilineal,
Double, Bilateral, Ambilineal); Forms of descent groups (lineage, clan, phratry,
moiety and kindred); Kinship terminology (descriptive and classificatory); Descent,
Filiation and Complimentary Filiation; Descent and Alliance.

CONTACT:
anthroguru@gmail.com
telegram: anthroguru
 MAN-001
Social Anthropology
Indira Gandhi
National Open University
School of Social Sciences

Block

2
SOCIETY AND CULTURE
UNIT 1
Concept of Society and Culture 5
UNIT 2
Social Group 20
UNIT 3
Social Identity and Movements 34
UNIT 4
Social Change in Indian Context 50
Expert Committee
Professor I J S Bansal
Retired, Department of
Human Biology
Punjabi University, Patiala
Professor K K Misra
Director
Indira Gandhi Rashtriya
Manav Sangrahalaya
Bhopal
Professor Ranjana Ray
Retired, Department of
Anthropology
Calcutta University, Kolkata
Professor P. Chengal Reddy
Retired, Department of
Anthropology
S V University, Tirupati
Professor R. K. Pathak
Department of Anthropology
Panjab University
Chandigarh
Professor A K Kapoor
Department of Anthropology
University of Delhi, Delhi
Programme Coordinator: Dr. Rashmi Sinha, IGNOU, New Delhi
Course Coordinator : Dr. Rukshana Zaman, IGNOU, New Delhi
Professor V.K.Srivastava
Principal, Hindu College
University of Delhi
Delhi
Professor Sudhakar Rao
Department of Anthropology
University of Hyderabad
Hyderabad
Professor. Subhadra M.
Channa
Department of Anthropology
University of Delhi
Delhi
Professor P Vijay Prakash
Department of Anthropology
Andhra University
Visakhapatnam
Dr. Nita Mathur
Associate Professor
Faculty of Sociology
School of Social Sciences
Indira Gandhi National Open
University, New Delhi
Dr. S.M. Patnaik
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Delhi
Delhi
Dr. Manoj Kumar Singh
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Delhi
Delhi
Faculty of Anthropology
SOSS, IGNOU
Dr. Rashmi Sinha
Reader
Dr. Mitoo Das
Assistant Professor
Dr. Rukshana Zaman
Assistant Professor
Dr. P. Venkatrama
Assistant Professor
Dr. K. Anil Kumar
Assistant Professor

Block Preparation Team

Unit Writers Unit 3 Content Editor
Professor Debal Singha Roy Professor N. Sudhakar Rao
Unit 1
Discipline of Sociology Department of
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SOSS, IGNOU Anthropology, University of
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Hyderabad, Hyderabad
Discipline of Anthropology Unit 4
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Unit 2 Department of Anthropology Dr. Parmod Kumar
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Assistant Professor Lucknow Discipline of English
Amity Institute of School of Humanities
Anthropology IGNOU, New Delhi
Amity University, Noida
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BLOCK 2 SOCIETY AND CULTURE
Introduction
This Block is mainly devoted to generate a general understanding of the society,
in terms of broad structures and important social processes that constantly keep
operating in every society. It begins with the exposition of meaning and delineation
of various attributes and characteristics of the concepts of society and culture.
Since these two terms are freely used not only in other disciplines with different
meanings but also in general conversations, it is necessary to make it explicit the
sense in which these are used in anthropology. Culture being central concept in
anthropology, there is a greater need to differentiate it from the concept of society.
The first unit, will deal with what the society essentially refers to as complex
patterns of social relationships, and culture as designed for living. In the second
unit, the focus is on the important social groupings. The social groups are broadly
divided into primary and secondary. However, based on the spatial segregation,
interests of the members and the nature of the groups, there is further classification
as community, association and organisation. Thus, the social organisation can be
found at different levels. A social group manifests mainly due to its separate
identity with reference to other social groups. Therefore, the identity of a group
is important, and the third unit discusses the significance of social identity. For
social identity individual self exists a priory, and it is constructed in social and
cultural conditions and contexts. In this unit we attempt to examine the identity
construction through reasons and choice, and also the transformation of identity as
identity cannot be static. The identity is also subjected to hegemony, power and
changing nature of society, and as a result, different forms of identities can be
noted. The changing society, particularly the post-industrial one has such a far
fetching influence that the social identity has become very dynamic. The global
networks of various kinds generated social movements that spread across the
geographical boundaries and began to challenge the traditional institutional structures
and powers. In these social movements we find formation of new identities and
shaping up of the identities. Finally, the attention is drawn to the dynamic aspects
of the society, the conceptualisation of social change. In the last unit, we shall
focus on the various processes of social change in Indian context. The tribes which
remained outside the pale of Hindu society are gradually drawn close to Hindu
society adopting Hindu customs and practices, which is termed as Hinduisation.
The caste system has not been as rigid as it was thought of, and Indian society
has been changing and this process is explained as sanskritisation in which low
castes and tribes attempt to emulate the practices of higher castes. The impact of
British rule, and the western ideas and values have been conceptualised as
westernisation and modernisation. Globalisation is the recent trend.
This Block, thus, provides a comprehensive view on the concept of society,
various social groups, social identity, social movements and social change.
UNIT 1 CONCEPT OF SOCIETY AND
CULTURE
Contents
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The Concept of Society
1.2.1 Meaning and Definition of Society
1.2.2 Characteristics of Society

1.3 The Concept of Culture

1.3.1 Meaning and Definition of Culture
1.3.2 Elements of Culture
1.3.3 Characteristics or Attributes of Culture
1.3.4 Culture and Society

1.4 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

At the end of this unit, you will be able to:
 explain the concept of society and culture in anthropological perspective;
 describe some major characteristics of society and culture; and
 understand the relationship that exists between culture, society and individual
behaviours.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Though the term society and culture is used today as a scientific concept by most
of the social sciences, its most comprehensive definition has been provided in
anthropology. Humans are social beings. That is why we live together in societies.
Day-to-day we interact with each other and develop social relationships. Every
society has a culture, no matter how simple that culture may be. Culture is shared.
The members of every society share a common culture which they have to learn.
Culture is not inherited it is transmitted from one generation to the other through
the vehicle of language. Like societies, cultures differ all over the world. The two
concepts society and culture are closely related and sometimes can be used
interchangeably. This unit discusses the meaning and definition of society and
culture in anthropological perspective. The unit also discusses some of the
characteristics and elements of society and culture.

1.2 THE CONCEPT OF SOCIETY

In common parlance the word society is usually used to designate the members
of specific in-group, persons rather than the social relationships of those persons.
Sometimes the word society is used to designate institutions like Arya Samaj 5
Society and Culture (society) or Brahmo Samaj. Society is a word used in routine life with a particular
meaning. Everyone often defines society as an aggregation or collection of
individuals. But in sociology and anthropology, the term is used in a different
sense. The term “society” refers not just to a group of people but to a complex
pattern of norms of interaction that exist among them. In terms of common sense,
society is understood as a tangible object, where as in sociology and anthropology
it refers to an intangible entity. It is a mental construct, which we realise in every
day life but cannot see it. The important aspect of society is the system of
relationships, the pattern of the norms of interaction by which the members of the
society maintain themselves. Some anthropologists say that society exists only
when the members know each other and possess common interests or objects.

1.2.1 Meaning and Definition of Society

The roots of the term society can be traced to the Latin word socius which means
companionship or friendship. George Simmel an eminent sociologists has stated
that it is the element of sociability or companionship which defines the true essence
of society. As Aristotle stated centuries ago man is a social animal, it brings into
focus that man always lives in the company of other people. Society has become
an essential condition for human life to continue. Herein, we will discuss some of
the views of the social thinkers who had on society and how they have perceived
the same.
August Comte viewed society as a social organism possessing a harmony of
structure and function. Emile Durkheim regarded society as a reality in its own
right. For Talcott Parson Society is a total complex of human relationships in so
far as they grow out of the action in terms of means-end relationship intrinsic or
symbolic. G.H Mead conceived society as an exchange of gestures which involves
the use of symbols. Morris Ginsberg defines society as a collection of individuals
united by certain relations or mode of behaviour which mark them off from others
who do not enter into these relations or who differ from them in behaviour. Cole
saw Society as the complex of organised associations and institutions with a
community. MacIver and Page found it was a system of usages and procedures
of authority and mutual aid of many groupings and divisions, of controls of human
behaviour and liberties; a web of social relationship. A society is generally conceived
of as a human group which is relatively large, relatively independent or self-
perpetuating in demographic terms, and which is relatively autonomous in its
organisation of social relations. But it is the relativity of each society’s autonomy,
independence and self-perpetuating nature which is the crucial factor, and the
distinction of one society from another is often arbitrary. It is important in
anthropology not to allow these arbitrary divisions to distort our vision of systems
of local, regional, national and international social relations.
We can sum up the definitions of society into two types – the functional definition
and the structural definition. From the functional point of view, society is defined
as a complex of groups in reciprocal relationships, interacting upon one another,
enabling human organisms to carry on their life-activities and helping each person
to fulfill his wishes and accomplish his interests in association with his fellows.
From the structural point of view, society is the total social heritage of folkways,
mores and institutions; of habits, sentiments and ideals. Ginsberg, Giddings, Cole
and Cuber take a structural view of society while McIver, Parsons, Lapiere,
Cooley and Leacock have given functional definition of society.
The definition of society has undergone little variation from the standpoint of
6 classical and modern scholars. For our understanding we can simply define society
as a group of people who share a common culture, occupy a particular territorial Concept of Society
and Culture
area and feel themselves to constitute a unified and distinct entity. It is the mutual
interactions and interrelations of individuals and groups. Society is a group of
people related to each other through persistent relations in terms of social status,
roles and social networks. By extension, society denotes the people of a region
or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole. Used in the sense of an
association, a society is a body of individuals outlined by the bounds of functional
interdependence, possibly comprising characteristics such as national or cultural
identity, social solidarity, language or hierarchical organisation.

1.2.2 Characteristics of Society

According to McIver “society is a web of social relationships”, (McIver, 1931:
6) which may be of several types. To formulate a catalogue of social relationships
would be an uphill task. The family alone is said to have as many relationships
based on age, sex, gender, and generation. Outside the family there is no limit to
the number of possible relationships.
McIver says “society means likeness”. Therefore, likeness is an essential pre-
requisite of society. The sense of likeness was focused in early society on kinship,
that is, real or supposed blood relationships. In modern societies the conditions
of social likeness have broadened out in the principle of nationality of one world.
“Comradeship, intimacy, association of any kind or degree would be impossible
without some understanding of each by the other, and that understanding depends
on the likeness which each apprehends in the other.
Society also implies difference but this sense of likeness does not exclude
diversity or variation. Society also implies difference and it depends on the latter
as much as on likeness. A society based exclusively on likeness and uniformity is
bound to be loose in socialites. All our social systems involve relationships in
which differences complement one another, for e.g., family rests upon the biological
difference between sexes. Besides the difference in sex there are other natural
differences of aptitude, of interest of capacity. While difference is necessary to
society, difference by itself does not create society, difference subordinate to
likeness. It has been argued that likeness is necessarily prior to the differentiation
of social organisation. As McIver observed, – primary likeness and secondary
difference create the greatest of all social institutions-the division of labour.
In addition to likeness, interdependence is another essential element to constitute
society. Family, one of the important units of society with which we all are closely
associated, is based on the biological inter-dependence of the sexes. None of the
two sexes is complete by itself and therefore each seeks fulfillment by the aid of
the other. The Social organisation diversifies the work of each, making each more
dependent on others, in order that by the surrender of self sufficiency he may
receive back thousand fold in fullness of life. This interdependence is both extensive
as well as intensive.
Lastly, cooperation is also essential to constitute society. Without cooperation no
society can exist. Unless people cooperate with each other, they cannot live a
happy life. All social institutions rest on cooperation. The members in social
institutions cooperate with one another to live happily and joyfully. Cooperation
avoids mutual destructiveness and results in economy. For want of cooperation the
entire fabric of society may collapse.
Thus likeness, interdependence and cooperation are the essential elements to
constitute society. Besides these elements, McIver has also mentioned some other 7
Society and Culture elements of society; it is a system of usages and procedures, authority and mutual
aid, of many groupings and divisions; it controls human behaviour and liberties.
This view brings in several other elements of society firstly, in every society there
are some usages concerned with marriage, education, religion, food, and speech
etc., which differ from society to society. Secondly, there are procedures i.e., the
modes of action in every society which maintain its unity and organisation. Thirdly,
the presence of an authority is necessary to maintain order in society. Fourthly, no
society can be stable unless there is a feeling of mutual aid among its members.
Fifthly, in a society there are several groupings and divisions such as family, city
and village etc. sixthly, liberty and control go together in a society. Without liberty
man cannot develop his personality. Control upon an individual’s behaviour is not
meant to destroy his liberty but to promote and protect it.
Society is not just a mere agency for the comfort of the beings but it is the whole
system of social relationships. The social relation of mother and child, for example,
is revealed in their attitude towards each other. It is this social fact and not the
biological fact which constitute society. The true nature of society consists not in
the external factors of interdependence of likeness or authority but in the state of
mind of the beings which compose society. It is the pattern, not the people, which
is termed society. It is not a group but a process of relationships. It is said society
is the extension of individuality, the transcendence of self-closedness, the vehicle
of personal identity, the means of the continuation of personality through the
generations, the nurse of youth, the arena of manhood and womanhood.
All societies, as is clear from the above discussion, involve a certain level of
association, a level closer and lesser complex than an organism. Like an organism,
a society also is a system of relations, but in the society this relation exists between
organisms rather than between “cells”. The constituent parts of society give to it
a continuity and structure of its own so that the study of society cannot be reduced
merely to a study of its individual members. Some social thinkers like Spencer,
Radcliffe-Brown and Durkheim have sought to compare society to an organism.
The analogy between organism and society is at best an analogy and not an
identity.
Sociologist Gerhard Lenski based on the level of technology, communication and
economy had differentiated societies into: a) hunters and gatherers, b) simple
agricultural, c) advanced agricultural d) industrial, and e) special (e.g. fishing societies
or maritime societies). This classification is more or less similar to the system
earlier developed by anthropologists like Fried and Service. They classified societies
as foraging or hunter gatherer, horticultural, agricultural, industrial, and then
information-age (post-industrial) societies. In order of increasing size and complexity,
there are bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and state societies. Societies may also be
organised according to their political structure. These structures may have varying
degrees of political power, depending on the cultural geographical, and historical
environments. The term society is currently used to cover a number of political
and scientific connotations as well as a variety of associations.
Reflection and Action

Use your learning material to write a brief definition of society and its characteristics
based on what you have just read.

1.3 THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE

Culture is a word, all of us use in our day to day parlance. In its daily usage, the
8
term culture refers to polished behaviour, personal refinements as classical music; Concept of Society
and Culture
the fine arts and world of philosophy etc. But anthropologists define and use the
term in quite a different way. The term culture is used in a much broader sense
by anthropologists as culture includes much more than just the “finer things in life.”
There is no differentiation between “cultured” people and “uncultured” people,
since all people have culture from the anthropological point of view.

1.3.1 Meaning and Definition of Culture

In an anthropological perspective every society has a culture, it is universal, though
in some societies it may be simple, while complex in others. Likewise every
human being is cultured and culture is an attribute of the genus Homo. Culture is
design for living. It is the basis of human life. It rests on biology but is not
biological. It is human biology such as a developed brain, nimble hands, and freely
moving tongue which helped humans to acquire a design for living. What has been
acquired as a design for living is not biological. It is a totality of mental, rational
and material, technological processes and products. This totality is what
anthropologists call culture.
It is not possible for human beings to live without the minimum material objects
(tangible). Without a network of social relations among people, human life is
impossible. Human existence is impracticable without ideas, rules, ideals, symbols
and patterns of thinking (intangible). Symbols, ideas, rules, ideals, and patterns of
thinking, network of social relations and material objects together comprise the
mental, rational, and material, technological processes and products. They are
integrated into a whole, the design of living. This design of living is called culture.
It is the total way of life of the human being. Culture serves as a potential guide
for human living. As a guide, it aids the human being to know what is good and
bad, desirable, important and unimportant, rational and irrational.
Culture is a historically created design for living. Generation after generation
new things are added to it and this is accountable for the development and change
in culture. The culture we have at present combines what has been first created
by our ancestors with what has been added to it by subsequent generations. To
be brief, culture is dynamic in that, as time goes by, new items are added to those
already existing.
Culture is unique to the human species. No species has ability like human
beings in its complexity, i.e., to learn, to communicate and to store, process and
use information to the same extent. Culture has moral force which serves as a
guide for human action how to behave in a society. Neither monkeys nor apes
have moral force in their life. Morality is a part of culture. Therefore human culture
has moral foundation, but primate life has no moral basis.
Culture is a product of social learning rather than biological heredity which means
Culture is non-genetic. It cannot be inherited by offspring from parents, but it
can be transmitted socially from parents to children. Like animals, human cannot
inherit behaviour. Animal behaviour is inborn. Animals inherit behaviour or at most,
proto-culture, but humans acquire culture.
All people have culture, though not similar. Different groups of humans or societies
have different cultures. This shows cultural diversity that means Culture has unity
as well as diversity. All humans have culture, but all cultures are not alike. In this
context, it is necessary to draw a distinction between “a culture” and “culture”.
The term culture signifies the way of life of human societies as a whole and the 9
Society and Culture term “a culture” signifies the way of life of specific part of human society which
is technically called a society.
Culture is the basic concept of anthropology and is central to all the sub-branches
of anthropology. Anthropologists have been discussing and debating definitions of
culture since the origin of the discipline in the 19th century. The classic definition
of culture is given by E.B.Tylor in his book Primitive Culture in 1871. He stated
‘Culture or Civilization, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief,
art, morals, law, customs, and any capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of society’ (p.1). This is a very broad definition of culture, encompassing
almost everything about a person’s overall way of life, from “knowledge” to
“habits”. Herein, emphasis is on the fact that culture is something individuals
acquire as “a member of society,” meaning that people obtain their culture from
growing up with and living among a particular group. The major contribution of
Tylor’s definition is that he was able to establish the differences between biologically
determined characteristics and those attributes which are socially learned. The
phrase “acquired by man as a member of society” in his definition is very important.
It is not any habit or capability of man as a biological being, but man as a member
of a social group. The acquisition of culture is not through biological heredity but
through socialisation which is called enculturation. Enculturation is specifically defined
as the process by which an individual learns the rules and values of one’s culture
which begins at the family level right from the moment a child is born.
From the beginning of the discipline hundreds of definitions have been proposed,
and their number continues to grow steadily. Today there are more than 200
definitions of culture. Different definitions of “culture” reflect different theoretical
bases for understanding, or criteria for evaluating, human activity. Below a few
definitions of culture are given for your understanding.
Reflection

Definitions of culture given by Anthropologists

Malinowski defined culture as an “instrumental reality, and apparatus for the satisfaction
of the biological and derived need”. It is the integral whole consisting of implements
in consumers’ goods, of constitutional characters for the various social groupings, of
human ideas and crafts, beliefs and customs” (Malinowski, 1944:1)

“…Culture in general as a descriptive concept means the accumulated treasury of

human creation: books, paintings, buildings, and the like; the knowledge of ways of
adjusting to our surroundings, both human and physical; language, customs, and
systems of etiquette, ethics, religion and morals that have been built up through the
ages” (Kluckhohn and Kelly, 1945: 78)

“Culture…refers to that part of the total setting [of human existence] which includes
the material objects of human manufacture, techniques, social orientations, points of
view, and sanctioned ends that are the immediate conditioning factors underlying
behaviour” or in simple terms he says culture is the “Man made part of the environment”
(Herskovits, 1948:17).

A culture is the total socially acquired life-way or life-style of a group of people. It

consists of the patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that are
characteristic of the members of a particular society or segment of a society (Harris
1975: 144).

“The concept of culture as everything that people have, thinks, and does as members
of a society. This definition can be instructive because the three verbs correspond to
the three major components of culture. That is, everything that people have refers to
material possessions; everything that people think refers to those things they carry
10
 Concept of Society
around in their heads, such as ideas, values, and attitudes; and everything that people and Culture
do refers to behaviour patterns. Thus all cultures comprise (a) material objects, (b)
ideas, values, and attitudes, and (c) patterned ways of behaving” (Gary Ferraro,
1992:18-19).

Irrespective of the various definitions, conceptions and approaches to the

understanding of the concept of culture, it is however agreed that culture is a way
of life and morality is a part of culture. Practically all modern definitions share key
features. Anthropologists say that culture is –
 Learned, as each person must learn how to “be” a member of that
culture
  Shared,  as  it  offers  all  people  ideas  about  behaviour
  Symbolic,  as  it  is  based  on  the  manipulation  of  symbols
  Systemic  and  integrated,  as  the  parts  of  culture  work  together  in  an
integrated whole
While summarizing the definition Bodley (1994) says culture is made up of at least
three elements or components: what people think, what they do, and the material
products they produce. The problem with defining culture as shared values and
beliefs, as some anthropologists do, is that there can be a vast difference between
what people think they ought to do (value) and what they actually do (behaviour).
Moreover, we get much of our evidence for what people do from what people
make – that is, from material things (what archaeologists study). Besides these
components, culture has several properties or characteristics. So there are many
elements and characteristics in a definition of culture. We shall discuss these
elements and characteristics of culture in the next section.
Reflection and Action

Define culture based on the definitions that you have just read in the discussion above.

1.3.2 Elements of Culture

A culture is more than the sum of its parts. A mere listing of customs and norms
and the material objects associated with them would by no means give a true
picture of the culture. For the sake of anthropological analysis, culture may be
broken down into the following main elements. These elements or components
are: types of norms, sanctions, values, culture trait, culture complex and culture
pattern.
Values
What is considered as good, proper and desirable, or bad, improper or undesirable,
in a culture can be called as values. It influence people’s behaviour and serve as
a benchmark for evaluating the actions of others. There is often a direct relationship
between the values, norms, and sanctions of a culture.
Norms
Norms refers to a standard pattern of behaviour that is accepted by a society.
Norms may differ from society to society. Generally there are two types of norms
formal norms and informal norms. Norms that are written down and violation of
which can lead to punishment is referred to as formal norms. By contrast, informal
norms are generally understood and followed by a society though not recorded in
black and white. 11
Society and Culture Sanctions
Sanctions consist of both rewards and penalties. It includes rewards for conducting
the norms of the society as prescribed or penalties for defying the concerned
social norms. Adherence to a norm can lead to positive sanctions such as a medal,
a word of gratitude, or a pat on the back. Negative sanctions include fines,
threats, imprisonment, and even unpleasant stares for contempt. The most cherished
values of a culture will be most heavily sanctioned, whereas matters regarded as
less critical will carry light and informal sanctions.
Culture Traits
Culture traits are the smallest (simplest) units of a particular culture. They are the
building blocks of culture. Each trait can be material or non-material and it is
analogous to the unit of the human body, the cell. Each cultural trait has a form,
use, function and meaning. As several cells form a tissue, several traits form a
complex culture.

1.3.3 Characteristics or Attributes of Culture

The classical definition of culture by Tylor was a turning point in the theoretical
interpretation of culture, which attracted the attentions of various scholars from all
over the world. Tylor postulated the theory of unilinear development of human
culture ranging from savagery, barbarism to civilization, this sense of unilinear
development attracted the attention of the like-minded scholars, who formed a big
school of evolutionists, which will be discussed in detail in Block 3 unit I.
The study of Culture took a significant turn after Malinowski’s fieldwork among
the Trobriand Islanders. Malinowski’s definition of culture (as discussed above in
definition paragraph) emphasised on the biological aspect of culture and explained
the biological characteristics of human behaviour. He made distinction between
“need” and “impulse” and emphasised on the satisfaction of need, which leads to
a number of functions, Malinowski’s interpretation of culture was not accepted by
some of his contemporaries. Radcliffe-Brown for instance totally disagreed with
Malinowski in the biological interpretation of culture. Radcliffe-Brown did not
agree with the use of the word “culture” in studying social institution, but his
analysis of “social structure” amounts to the wider perspective of culture, as it
appears from the contents and themes of the subject dealt with on the social
structure. Again, while discussing the social system in social structure he emphasised
more on the arrangement of persons, who are the ultimate components of the
study, rather than on the arrangement of activities (discussed in detail in Block 3
unit 2).
While the above British anthropologists were making different interpretations of
culture and social systems, their counterparts in America emphasised more on the
integral and psychological aspects of culture, which helped them develop various
meanings and interpretations of culture, which led to the development of “pattern”
and “culture and personality” school of thought (discussed in detail in Block 4
unit 1).
In the interpretations and study of culture in anthropology, anthropologists have
identified several characteristics or attributes of culture which imply the qualities
of culture and convey different meanings, which have further enriched the theories
of culture. Some of these important concepts are given below for the benefit of
learners.
12
Culture is socially learned Concept of Society
and Culture
Culture is a natural outgrowth of the social interactions that constitute human
groups whether in societies or organisations. Whenever and wherever people
come together over time, culture develops. Culture is learned from our parents,
surroundings, and friends and others through enculturation. And the learned
behaviour is communicated in the group through forms of socialisation such as
observation, instruction, reward, punishment and experience. The learning takes
place in individual situation of experiences, social situation of imitating others and
cultural situation of symbolic communication.
Culture is symbolic
Symbolic thought is unique and crucial to humans and to culture. It is human ability
to give a thing or event an arbitrary meaning and grasp and appreciate that
meaning. Symbols are the central components of culture. Symbols refer to anything
to which people attach meaning and which one uses to communicate with others.
More specifically, symbols are words, objects, gestures, sounds or images that
represent something else rather than themselves. There is no obvious natural or
necessary connection between a symbol and what it symbolizes. Culture thus
works in the symbolic domain emphasising meaning, rather than the technical/
practical rational side of human behaviour.
Culture is integrated
Elements or traits that make up a culture are not just a random assortment of
customs but are mostly adjusted to or consistent with one another. Traits of a
culture are attitudes, values, ideals, and rules for behaviour. All aspects of culture
function as an inter-related whole. If one part of a culture changes it tends to affect
another part.
Culture is adaptive and maladaptive
People adapt themselves to the environment using culture. The ability to adapt
themselves to practically any ecological condition, unlike other animals, makes
humans unique. This ability is attributed to human’s capacity for creating and using
culture. Culture has also maladaptive dimensions. That is, the very cultural creations
and achievements of people may turn out to threaten their survival. When we see
the contemporary problems of the environments, the side effects of rapid growth
and in science and technology, etc, we see that culture is also maladaptive.
Culture is all-encompassing
Culture encompasses all aspects, which affect people in their everyday lives.
Culture comprises countless material and non-material aspects of human lives;
thus, it includes man- made objects, ideas, activities whether those of traditional,
of the past or those created lately. Culture is the sum total of human creation:
intellectual, technical, artistic, physical, and moral.
Culture is inculcated
All animals are capable of learning but humans alone seem to have considerable
measure to pass on their acquired habits to their children. The process known as
enculturation has been discussed earlier.
Culture is gratifying
Culture always and necessarily satisfies the basic biological and social needs of
human beings. Cultural elements continue so long as they satisfy the needs of
humans. If they fail to fulfill the wants of humans, they may be changed or replaced 13
Society and Culture by new ones to secure the satisfaction of human wants. Gratification of needs
reinforces, strengthens and perpetuates cultural elements.
Culture is structured
Culture has a definite and proper structure. This implies that there is definite
arrangement of its components and units. The structural components of culture are
called traits and complexes. A given culture has many traits and these traits form
into complexes, and each one acts as a unit. These traits and complexes are
arranged in a systematic manner. This arrangement is the plan or structure of a
culture.
Culture is patterned
According to Ruth Benedict cultures are not haphazard collection of customs and
beliefs, but are integrated, patterned systems. The parts are interrelated. Culture
is an integrated whole, that is the parts of culture are interrelated to one another.
No one single cultural trait has its meaning outside of its integrated context.
People use culture creatively
There is difference between ideal culture and real culture. What culture-rules say
and what people do may be different; cultural rules tell us what to do and how
to do it, but we don’t always do what the rules dictate. We use culture creatively.
Culture is stable and yet it changes
Culture is stable when we consider what people hold valuable and are handing
over to the next generation in order to maintain their norms and values. Cultures
are dynamic they are ever-changing. The change in a society can be of two types:
internal changes (invention) and external changes (cultural diffusion).
Culture in Region
Socio-cultural anthropologists talk about culture region which is the geographical
territory in which a particular culture prevails. It is marked by all the characteristics
of a culture, including modes of dress, building styles, farms and field and other
material manifestation. That is there are sub-cultures, regional cultures, national
cultures, and international cultures.
Cultural Universals, specialties and alternatives
Cultural universals are features that are found in every culture, those that distinguish
Homo sapiens from other species. Anthropology assumes that all human beings
are fundamentally alike and they share the same basic biological, psychological,
social and other characteristics. People all over the world have certain common
obligations towards one another. All people are members of a single community;
they all have the same root and destiny. This belief is either explicit or implicit in
most of the great world religions. Certain biological, psychological, social and
cultural features of human beings are universal; others are merely generalities,
common to several but not to all human groups. Still other cultural features are
particularities unique to certain cultural traditions (for details see Hammond, 1971).
Culture Shock
All of us, to some extent or other, take for granted the cultural practices of our
society. As a result, it can be surprising and disturbing to realise that other cultures
do not follow the same way of life. Culture shock can be set off either by the
physical items of an unfamiliar culture or by the ways that people act. Yet we can
experience culture shock even in our own society. Culture shock is the psychological
14 and social maladjustment at micro or macro level that is experienced for the first
time when people encounter new cultural elements such as new things, new ideas, Concept of Society
and Culture
new concepts, seemingly strange beliefs and practices. No person is protected
from culture shock. However, individuals vary in their capacity to adapt and
overcome the influence of culture shock (Ibid, Angeloni, 1998; Howrad and Dunaif-
Hattis, 1992).
Overtness and covertness
Overtness and covertness refer to the qualities of culture as detected by an observer.
The observer may be an anthropologist, or a member of a society who is unfamiliar
with certain parts of the culture. Overt means easily detectable qualities of a
culture. These include artifacts, actions, utterances, which can be perceived directly.
Artifacts include houses, clothes, books, tools etc. actions imply postures in various
situations, curing practices, sports, externally manifested signs of respect etc.
utterances include speech, songs, proverbs etc. An observer can easily detect
these qualities because one has plenty of opportunities to see them, experience
them and record them. On the other hand covert implies those qualities of culture
which are not easily detected by an outsider. Sentiments, beliefs, fears and values
are some of the cultural items which cannot be easily detectable i.e., they are
covert. They are not amenable to direct observation and moreover people cannot
always explain what they feel. It is generally difficult to express these abstract
ideas.
Explicit and implicit
According to Kluckhohn explicit means the people’s awareness of existence of the
cultural items. Implicit implies the people’s dim awareness or unawareness of
certain cultural items. Explicitness and implicitness concern the experience of people
possessing the culture, while overtness and covertness refer to the view of the
observer. Explicit cultural items can be verbalised or criticized readily by the
persons who possess them. But there are certain items of culture about which
people are only dimly aware or unaware of. Hence they cannot give any clear
accounts on such cultural items. These are implicit items of the culture.
Ideality and reality
Ideality of culture refers to how people say they should behave, or the way they
would like to live. Reality is the actual way people behave. There is generally a
discrepancy between ideality and reality.
Ethos and Eidos
Kroeber has drawn attention to these two aspects of culture. Ethos refers to the
effective or emotional quality of a culture expressed in series of beliefs, thoughts
and behaviour. It acts as a central force, interest theme or pattern and colors
every item of culture. As it determines what people should have, do, think, and
feel, prepares all the people in a culture to express the same emotional tone in all
acts, thoughts and feelings. Whereas Eidos is the formal appearance of a culture
derived from its constituents. Through cognitive processes operating within, a
culture acquires its formal appearance or eidos. Eidos is the totality of items of
culture. On the contrary ethos is the emotional quality coloring this totality. Ethos
is affective but eidos is cognitive.
Organic and Superorganic
Culture is organic in the sense that it is ultimately rooted in the biological nature
of human organism. Without humans to act, to think, to feel, or to make and use
things, there would be no culture. Thus culture is organic. Culture is superorganic 15
Society and Culture while it is organic. Once created, culture acquires a superorganic quality or the
quality by virtue of which culture exists on a level above that of the individuals who
create and carry it. According to Kroeber, culture becomes a phenomenon in its
own right, with its own laws and processed apart from the human carriers who
sustain it. Culture is superorganic to the extent that it outlines the particular
generation of people who carry it and so persists from one generation to another.
This does not mean that its origin is other than biological. Culture is created by
humans and it is dependent on human choice for its continuity. Culture can be
altered through the decisions of human beings. But this does not mean it is easy
to change culture. The superorganic may be injurious to the organic. Some cultural
traits for instance, are definitely harmful to the organic life of the humans. The
superorgannic is an order of phenomenon different from the organic and goes its
way with a certain amount of independence from the organic.
Universal and unique
Culture is universal in the sense that every man experiences it and uniqueness of
culture implies its regional variations. Some cultural traits are necessary to all
members of the society. These cultural traits are called cultural universals like for
e.g. Incest taboo.
Civilization and Culture
The civilization represents a particular type of culture. The term “civilization” has
been used almost synonymously with culture. This is because civilization and culture
are different aspects of a single entity. Civilization can be viewed as the external
manifestation, and culture as the internal character of a society. Thus, civilization
is expressed in physical attributes, such as tool making, agriculture, buildings,
technology, urban planning, social structure, social institutions, and so forth. Culture,
on the other hand, refers to the social standards and norms of behaviour, the
traditions, values, ethics, morality, and religious beliefs and practices that are held
in common by members of the society. Both culture and civilization have been
developed by the same human processes. Both are complimentary to each other.
Culture needs a civilization for further growth. Civilization needs culture even for
its vital force and survival. The two are therefore interdependent. Civilization
cannot survive without strong stimulus and motive, however high may be its
achievements in science.
Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism
The two concepts ethnocentrism and cultural relativism occupy key positions in
socio-cultural anthropology. They are the most sensitive and controversial issues
in sociology and socio-cultural anthropology. The general pattern is to judge the
behaviour of other people in other groups by the standards of our own culture.
In his book “Folkways” Sociologist William Graham Sumner coined the term
ethnocentrism to refer to the tendency to assume that one’s culture and way of
life are superior to all others. (Sumner 1906).
The ethnocentric person sees his or her own group as the center or defining point
of culture and views all other cultures as deviations from what is “normal.”
Anthropologists endeavor as far as possible to avoid ethnocentrism. Cultural
Relativism/ Cultural determinism approach was first formulated by Franz Boas
in North America in 19th century. He says no culture should be judged by the
standards of another. Cultural relativism views people’s behaviour from the
perspective of their own culture. It places a priority on understanding other
16 cultures, rather than dismissing them as “strange” or “exotic.” Any part of a culture
must be viewed from within its cultural context-not that of the observer or the Concept of Society
and Culture
notion that there are no universal standards by which all cultures may be evaluated.
Cultures must be analyzed with reference to their own histories and culture traits
understood in terms of the cultural whole.
Reflection and Action

Do you think some cultures are ‘superior’ while others are ‘inferior’? Discuss.

1.3.4 Culture and Society

Culture is the sum total of learned, shared and socially transmitted behaviour that
includes ideas, values, and customs of groups of people. A fairly large number of
people living in the same territory constitute a society. Members of a society
share a common language, which facilitates day-to-day exchanges with others and
participate in a common culture. Nadel in his work says it is necessary to make
a distinction between “Culture” from its companion term “society.” According to
him culture is the way of life of the people; while a society is an organised,
interacting aggregate of individuals who follow a given way of life. In simple terms
a society is composed of people; the way they behave is their culture. (Nadel,
S.F. 2006)
Since the time of Boas, culture became a tool for understanding and describing the
exotic society. Anthropological study on cultural relativism allows a comparison of
culture without assuming evolutionary hierarchies. It means that every culture has
in its own rights to be different and does not stand for the purpose of other
culture. In other words, all cultures express validity in their perspective of the
world. Thus, it could be in-appropriate to judge cannibalism activity among society
even if we use universal notion on violence. What we can do is try to understand
the reason and rationalise such activity.
Early notion of culture was popularised among Anthropologist in order to understand
homogeneous societies. In the modern world the relationship between culture and
society is a complex one. Culture is produced and reproduced within the society
and society acts in certain way in a culture. But how does culture work in the
complex societies? Early Anthropologists used culture as the set of practical and
contingent significations, while postmodernists use it to mark the domain of signifying
practices.
According to Pertierra, (2004) society can be seen as the collection of individual
members pursuing their interest in the context of formal rules administered by
specialists and implemented by the state. It was also a constant state of self-
constitution, whose members are engaged in individual life projects marked by
purposive and value rationality. Society consists of individuals mostly unknown to
one another but nevertheless linked through abstract categories such as class,
nation, or gender. In this case society assumed as the real place or arena, an
institution in which individuals play their roles in order to achieve their different
objectives. When we see the relation between society and culture, society and
culture are two elements that are complementing each other. Society expresses
itself through culture. We can associate the group of people or society from the
culture they practice, such as Asian society is characterised by Asian culture, or
Javanese society with its Javanese culture.
Furthermore, culture is manifested in the socio economic structures as frames for
the organisation of social relationship, it is embedded both in the material setting
17
Society and Culture and the social institutions of society. Material experiences are organised and group
relations are structured through culture. But culture has also the medium through
which the social world is experienced, interpreted and understood. In this sense,
culture is something more basic than ideological superstructure. Culture is produced
in a given society within the framework set by the socio-economic structure. The
cultural process perpetually occurs among the different groups and classes in a
society, and also affects social structure (Erna Herawati 2006).

1.4 SUMMARY
In this unit we have studied the anthropological meaning of the concept society
and culture. It is derived from the Latin word socius which means companionship
or friendship. We have come to know that a society comprises of a group of
people who share a common culture, live in a particular area and feel themselves
to constitute a unified and distinct entity. Society or human society is a group of
people related to each other through persistent relations such as kinship, marriage,
social status, roles and social networks. By extension, society denotes the people
of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole.
Culture is one of the basic concepts of anthropology. Anthropologists have been
discussing and debating definitions of culture since the origin of the discipline in the
19th century. To review, we may say that culture is— Learned, as each person
must learn how to “be” a member of that culture, Shared, as it offers all people
ideas about behaviour, Symbolic, as it is based on the manipulation of symbols,
and Systemic and integrated, as the parts of culture work together in an integrated
whole.
References
Angelloni, Elvio. 1998. ‘Anthropology’. Annual Additions. Slvice Dock: Dushkin/
McGraw-Hill.
Bodley, J.H. 1994. Cultural Anthropology: Tribes, States and the Global
System. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Ferraro, Gary P. 1992. Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective. St.
Paul, New York: West Publishing Company.
Harris, M. 1975. Culture, People, Nature: An Introduction to General
Anthropology. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.
Herawati, Erna. 2006. Sociology, Anthropology, and Modernity. Paper Submitted
to Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Ateneo De Manila University
Herskovits, M. 1948. Man and His Works. New York: Knopf.
Howard, Michael C and Janet D.H. 1992. Anthropology:Understanding Human
Adaptation. New York: Harper Collins.
Kluckhohn and Kelly. 1945. ‘The Concept of Culture’. In The Science of Man
in the World Crisis, Ralph Linton ed. New York: Columbia University Press.
Maclver, R. M. 1931. Society - Its Structure and Changes. New York: Hay
Long and Richard Smith Inc.
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1944. The Scientific Theory of Culture. Oxford: Oxford
18
University Press.
Nadel S.F. 2006. ‘The Typological Approach to Culture’. Journal of Personality. Concept of Society
and Culture
Vol. 5. Issue 4, April
Pertierra, Rahul. 2004. Introductory Lecture: Course Overview.
Sumner, W. G. 1906. Folkways. New York: Ginn.
Tylor, E.B. 1871. Primitive culture. London: J. Murray.
Suggested Reading
Hammond, Peter. 1971. An Introduction to Cultural and Social Anthropology.
New York: The McMillan Company.
Keesing, Roger M. 1981. Cultural Anthropology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston.
Kottak, Conrad P. 2002. Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity.
9th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Sample Questions
1) Define anthropological meaning of the concept of culture.
2) Discuss the key characteristics or attributes of culture.
3) Discuss the relationship between society and culture.

19
 UNIT 2 SOCIAL GROUP
Contents
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Primary Group
2.2.1 Characteristics of Primary Group
2.2.2 Importance of a Primary Group

2.3 Secondary Group

2.3.1 Characteristics of Secondary Group

2.4 Community
2.5 Association
2.6 Organisations: Formal and Informal
2.7 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

After studying the unit, you will be able to:
 understand what a group is, its formation and types;
 know about primary and secondary group and their characteristics;
 define a community;
 identify an association; and
 differentiate between formal and informal organisations.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Humans are social beings. They live together and form a society. Although they
make society, neither they can see it nor can they touch it. But what all they can
do is that they can perceive the society, they can feel the presence of society all
around them. It is the basic reason behind calling society as an abstract entity. But
if society is abstract, how can we study that abstract article?
Now, let us think of these aspects from different point of view.
When a human being takes birth, he or she has certain needs to fulfill for which
he/she depends on other individuals. In this process, he/she interacts with other
individuals of society and establishes social relationships. These social interactions
take place between two or more individuals. The whole collection of individuals
in which social interaction takes place is called as ‘Social Group’. It is the group
in a form or the other which fulfills various needs of an individual. It provides a
medium for social interaction.
A person can easily identify those groups with which he makes relations in order
20 to fulfill his needs. It means we can see the individuals that form a group. In other
words, through these groups, we can experience the society which is considered Social Group
as abstract in itself. So we can say that even though group is small, still it is the
true representative of society, reflection of society.
Till now three things are very clear regarding the group:
One, group is the basic element of society and is a concrete phenomenon; second,
a group requires more than one individual; and third, there is a compulsory
interaction between the individuals forming a group i.e. social relationships.
The elaboration of idea of social relations within a group of individuals can be seen
in the writings of German Sociologist Max Weber. He opines that it is the mutual
awareness or mutual recognition that establishes the relations among the group
members. And it is the system of social relations that serves as a mean to fulfill
the common interests of all the members. Talcott Parsons (1951) considers culture
as a basic element behind social relationships. It is the culture which defines the
patterns of behaviour in a group which are shared by all the members of the
group. These shared norms or patterns define the roles of the members and
differentiate them from non-members.
Anderson and Parker (1966: 102) give a comprehensive definition of group,
“Groups are units of two or more people meeting in the same environment, or
overcoming distance by some means of communication, who are influencing each
other psychologically. The distinctive bond of the group is reciprocal interaction.
Friends in conversation, a committee in action and children playing together are
examples.”
This definition of group implies that the relations among group members are not
temporary, they are recurrent and influence the other members of the group i.e.
members are conscious about the presence of other members. This consciousness
of membership influences their behaviour and also differentiates a group.
Hence, Group is not only a physical collection of people or an aggregation; while
it is a collection of people who shares common characteristics and organised
pattern of persistent interaction and are aware of each other’s presence.
Recurrent nature of interaction among the group members makes the group one
of the most stable social units of the society. They endure for a longer period and
make the society sustained. They are important for both to their members and for
the society at large. As we have already discussed, groups fulfill the needs of its
members. They also perform a number of functions like socialisation necessary for
the maintenance of the society.
To sum up, we can say that social group is a social unit which has the following
basic elements: a) an aggregation of two or more individuals, b) definite relations
among the members comprising it, c) mutual awareness or consciousness.
Since, group is a collection of interacting individuals, the level of interaction can
be of many types and group membership can be acquired in a number of ways.
So social groups can be classified in a variety of ways. Different scholars have
seen group from different point of views and classified groups in different ways.
There is broad range of facts on whose basis groups have been classified. Some
of the chief basis include functions, size, stability, status, rule of membership,
degree of interaction and many more.
A very important classification of groups was made by C.H. Cooley (1909). On 21
Society and Culture the basis of his works two types of groups were identified i.e. PRIMARY and
SECONDARY groups. Although, Cooley has never mentioned the term ‘secondary
group’ in his writings but other scholars have popularised the term secondary
group to those groups which do not fall in the category of primary groups.
Now, we would deal with these two types of groups in detail and would see their
importance in social life.

2.2 PRIMARY GROUP

Primary group are those groups in which a small number of persons come into
direct contact with one another. There is sense of mutual co-operation,
companionship and sharing of personal feelings. They are small groups and every
person necessarily belongs to any of the primary groups. Due to their important
nature, they form the nucleus of the social organisation.
We have already mentioned that primary groups, for the very first time, were
recognised by C.H. Cooley (1909) in his very famous book ‘Social Organisation:
Human Nature and Social Order’. He has observed intimate and close social
relations among the members of certain small groups and termed those groups as
Primary groups. In his analysis of primary group he defined it in term of face-to-
face interaction, co-operation and association, emotional involvement, identification
and sentiments of loyalty. In primary groups emotions and sentiments carry more
importance than the size of the group. Primary group is considered to be a
product of long and intimate informal interactions. The relations among the members
of primary groups are as in themselves not a mean to those ends.
For Cooley primary groups mean those characterised by intimate face-to-face
association and co-operation. They are primary in several senses, but chiefly in
that they are fundamental in forming the social order and ideas of the individual.
He further adds that the result of intimate association psychologically, is a certain
fusion of individualities in a common whole, so that one’s very self, for many
purposes at least, is the common life and purpose of the group. Perhaps the
simplest way of describing this wholeness is by saying that it is a ‘we’, it involves
the sort of sympathy and mutual identification for which ‘we’ is the natural expression.
One lives in the feeling of the whole and finds the chief aim of his will in that
feeling.
Cooley considers family, playmates of children, neighbourhood and community
groups and groups of elders as primary groups. He believes in the universal
presence of these primary groups in all the times and all the stages of development.
He argues upon the presence of some degree of primary relations in all sorts of
groups. This primary association create consensus which further adds a ‘we’
feeling among the group members. Thus primary association is seen in all the
groups and cannot therefore be used as the bases of differentiation between
primary and secondary groups.
A large number of people cannot interact in highly personal and face-to-face
manner and they tend to break down into small, more intense cliques. So a
primary group consists of a small number of people who interact in intense, direct
and personal manner. The relationships between the members carry an emotional
depth and the group is likely to endure for a longer time. The members know each
other at personal level and share their experiences, gossip agreeably and fill the
need for intimate human companionship.
22
Three essential conditions have been identified for a primary group formation: Social Group

 Close face-to-face proximity

 Smallness of the group
 Durability of the bond
For intimacy to develop, physical proximity is a necessity that is provided best by
face-to-face association. Talking and seeking each other makes easy the exchange
of ideas, feelings, opinions and sentiments. Physical proximity provides opportunity
and conducive conditions for the development of primary groups.
Group size is also important. Sensory contact is not possible with many people at
the same time. Small group tends individuals to come closer and facilitates personal
interaction. The smaller the group the more intimate it will be. As the group
becomes larger, it dilutes its intensity of relations among members and individuals
also lose their individuality.
Intimacy is determined largely by the frequency and intensity of association. The
longer people are together, the deeper the contacts between them. Gradual and
regular interchanges of habits and ideas deepen the social ties.
Physical proximity, smaller size and long duration are the conditions that facilitate
the development of close relationships. All the three conditions are not mandatory
for the origin of a primary group rather they define the most favourable conditions
for the development of high level of primary relations.

2.2.1 Characteristics of Primary Group

Characteristics of primary groups can be divided into two broad categories i.e.
external characters and internal characters
External characters include following aspects:
 Physical proximity among group members
 Small size of the group
 Stability and durability
 Continuity in the relations
Internal characters include:
 Common objectives of the group
 The relations are ends in themselves
 Relationships are spontaneous
 Personal relationships
 Inclusive relations among members
 Control over the members
Primary groups are essential for social life. They play a very important role in an
individual’s life. They are significant at both individual and social level. They provide
the medium through which we learn our culture and patterns of behaviour. Some
of the main points regarding the importance of a primary group are given below. 23
Society and Culture 2.2.2 Importance of a Primary Group
At the level of individual, a primary group
 Helps in development of personality
 Increases the efficiency of an individual
 Fulfills the psychological needs.
At the level of society, a primary group
 Transfers the culture from one generation to another
 Carries cultural norms of the society within the society
 Provides means of social control and helps maintaining the social order
 Ensures the performance of social roles in accordance with society norms.
Though primary relations and primary groups seem to be very important for the
society, it would be over imperative to consider them as ideal for social interactions.
At times primary groups interfere with other elements of the society. At the time
of making objective decisions, primary relations create hurdle. For example, if a
teacher shows leniency towards a student and gives him high marks which he does
not deserve, it would be considered as dysfunctional.
Many situations arise in modern society where primary relationships are
inappropriate at best and harmful at worst. In large bureaucratic structure, so
necessary to contemporary organisations, impersonality is more appropriate than
intimacy, routine is more important than spontaneity, and division of labour more
necessary than versatility. Societies and sub-societies composed of tight network
of primary relationships are often more tolerant of differences, more resistant to
change, and less receptive to freedom than societies where relationships are more
casual (Merill, 1969).
Moreover, primary group asserts its control over its members in the form of
restrictions, conformity and reactions. For example, a family provides liberties to
its members and at the same time imposes restrictions on them; a peer group
fosters the conformity in the group. Primary group also resists the intellectual,
industrial and educational changes in order to maintain its hereditary ties.
Reflection

Typical examples of primary group

 The Army Group: Soldiers form primary groups with their commandants and form
informal relationships within formal settings in order to defend its members against
the arbitrary authority of officers.

 The Peer Group: Boys and girls of the same age group and approximately same
social background, as in a class, form a primary group and have personal social
interaction which also helps in their personality development.

 The Clique: It is a form of friendship developed between two or more persons which
bring them into joint activity. It satisfies the emotional needs of a person to be loved
and respected by his peers. example, clique of Indian students in Australian
universities.

In this discussion, we learnt that primary groups are the basic groups of the
society. A human being starts life from the primary group, develops personality in
primary group and throughout life one remains a part of one or another primary
group. But there are other groups which are important equally if not more in an
24
individual’s life. They are distinguished from primary groups and are called as Social Group
secondary groups.
Now, let us read some more about secondary groups and the reason behind their
formation.

2.3 SECONDARY GROUP

Primary groups play a vital role in a person’s life; however, there are secondary
groups which fulfill their maximum needs in life. Cooley did not provide any
terminology for the groups other than primary groups and many writers came to
speak of ‘secondary groups’ the tendency has been to consider secondary groups
as those which depend for communication on indirect media, such as newspapers
(Faris, 1937).
In secondary groups, the relations are formal, impersonal, segmental and utilitarian.
These groups are less intimate as the level of interaction is restricted at a formal
level. They do not give close identity to its members as primary groups do. In
secondary group, we very often interact with people of diverse background because
we need their services and we have certain obligations to fulfill. In case of utilitarian
or contractual obligations, there is no need to develop personal relations. These
relations remain based on reciprocal needs. Hence, members of these groups
regard each other as means not an end in themselves.
MacIver and Page (1952) has pointed out that primary group relations are
characteristics of simple or primitive societies. As the population and territory of
a society increases, interests would have become diversified and so the needs. It
gave rise to the need of indirect, impersonal and utilitarian relations. He called
these newly emerged impersonal relations as ‘great associations”. They are result
of expansion of population and perhaps primarily, of growing cultural complexity.
He considers secondary group a character of industrialised and urbanised complex
societies. In these societies due to complexity in the nature of work, more
complicated relations develop which provides a very limited scope for intimate
relations.
Ogburn and Nimkoff (1966) say that the “groups which provide experience lacking
in intimacy, can be called as secondary group.” Here by experience he means the
interaction with the varied kind of people in day to day life. At one hand secondary
groups fulfill majority of the needs of an individual, on the other hand they also
separate individuals’ activities from the rest of the activities because in secondary
group context every individual is supposed to play his own part. It also segments
individuals’ personality in contrast to primary groups where his whole personality
reflects.
Reflection

Typical examples of secondary group

 A group of co-workers: A group of people working together in the same organisation

form a secondary group as they have impersonal relations but spends most of the
time together in the organisation.

 Clubs: Clubs are formed in order to fulfill some of the requirements of social life as
fun clubs or sport clubs for entertainment, charity clubs for contributions or donations,
hobby clubs for leisure pursuits and many more. These clubs are utilitarian in nature
and form a secondary group as members of the group are less intimate.
25
Society and Culture
 University or college: University or a college also form secondary group as they are
segmental in nature. People are dependent on colleges for educational requirements
but it reflects just a part of their personality and people form formal contacts.

In order to understand secondary group in more appropriate manner, let us look

into their characteristics.

2.3.1 Characteristics of Secondary Group

 Dominance of secondary relations: Secondary group relations can be
seen in reference to primary relations. Secondary group relations are
impersonal, indirect, non-inclusive and utilitarian. Members are connected to
each other through contractual obligations or interests. Due to self-interest,
individuality develops among the members.
 Voluntary membership: Individuals are free to join or leave the group at
any point of time i.e. membership of these groups are predominantly voluntary.
But in case of secondary groups like ‘state’, membership becomes compulsory.
 Large in Size: Unlike a primary group, physical proximity is not the condition
for secondary group and so size of secondary group becomes large. They
might spread all over the world. For example, members of PETA (People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals) are scattered all over the world.
 Goal Oriented: Secondary groups are formed in order to fulfill the needs of
the individuals. They serve the special functions in the society. Every secondary
group emerges in response to specific purpose and joins the people having
same type of need.
 Indirect communication: Mode of communication among the members of
secondary group is indirect. In many of the cases, group members seldom or
rarely or never come into direct contact to each other. They rely on different
forms of mass media communication which include radio, telephone, television,
newspaper, movies, magazines, post and telegraph etc.
 Role decides a person’s position: In secondary groups, position of a
person depends upon his role. Socially achieved status and its corresponding
role remains the key factor behind the position of a person in the secondary
group. His position is not being decided by his ascribed status neither he is
treated on the basis of his birth.
However, an individual fulfills its majority of the needs through the secondary
group, yet these groups are not exclusive and cannot replace the importance of
primary groups.
In modern society, many of the former functions of the primary groups have been
assumed by large, impersonal, goal-oriented groups. Each of these secondary
groups creates a new network of primary groups that provide intimacy and personal
response in many impersonal situations also. So we should not see both of them
mutually exclusive.
The inflexible classification of groups into primary and secondary is not preferable
as there is much overlapping of the two. Kingsley Davis (1957: 289) writes that
“Cooley’s emphasis on ‘we’ feeling cannot be taken as the distinctive element in
the primary group as such feeling to some extent is necessary for any enduring
community.” In between primary group like the family and a formal and rigid group
26
like army there are hundreds of groups, some of which are more primary than Social Group
others. Even in modern organisations, efforts are made to create a friendly
atmosphere among the employees.
Hence, we can say that in modern societies both primary and secondary groups
are important and it is not easy to substitute one for the other.
Action

1) Identify the various people with which you interact often and try to categorise them
into primary and secondary group members in your reference.

2) Classify the following groups into primary and secondary groups

Nuclear Family Co-Workers
Sports Team Church Congregation
FCCI Mafia Brothers
Alcoholic Anonymous Democratic Party
Unmarried Partners Polo Club
Fraternal Groups College Clique
Army Battalion Boy Scout Troop
Neighbourhood Watch Rotary Club
Cancer Support Club Senior Citizen Club

2.4 COMMUNITY
We have understood the concept of group in the above discussion. The elementary
point of a social group is the presence of social relations. Now, just think of a
group in which an individual spends most of the time of his life and what if this
group is restricted to a particular locality or place or geographical area? It becomes
a community in which people spend most of their time and keep a feeling of
belongingness with it.
A community is called as a collection of people with residential ties to particular
locality. It is the territorial boundary which differentiates a community with other
groups because the concept of group is not restricted to a particular locality. It
may be considered as a permanent local aggregation of people having diversified
as well as common interests.
Word ‘Community’ is comprised of two Latin words namely ‘com’ and ‘munis’.
In English ‘com’ means together and ‘munis’ means to serve. Thus, community
means to serve together. In implies that the purpose of a community is to serve.
According to MacIver and Page (1952: 9) “Community is a group of people who
live together, who belong together, so that they share, not ties or that particular
interest, but as a whole set of interests, wide enough and complete enough to
include their lives.” Kingsley Davis (1957) has defined community as the smallest
territorial group that can embrace all the aspects of social life. These definitions
give emphasis on the structural and functional aspects of the community. While we
should keep in mind that community is not an exclusive entity, it should not be seen
as a separate part of society. They are within the society and form their integral
part.
An individual cannot live his whole life within an organisation or an association
while he can live his life in a village or in a city. So we can say that community
provides the individual a conducive environment to live wholly within it and also
summarize his social relationships within it. 27
Society and Culture In the simple societies, communities are considered as self-sufficient but in modern
time character of community has become very complex. Moreover, community is
a relative term. People live within a greater community such as a village within a
district, a district within a region, a region within a state and a state within a
country.
Sometimes, it becomes difficult to differentiate a community from other social form
like society and groups. But, there are some basic characteristic features of the
communities.
Characteristics of a Community
 Definitive geographical area: Community is a spatial entity. A community
is always considered in relation to a physical geographical area or territory.
It is a compulsory condition for a community. But it should not be confused
with those groups who live together without any separate physical boundary.
As four friends living in a room do not form a community. Community is a
broader term.
 We feeling or community feeling: It is home instinct which lays the foundation
of people’s attachment to their house, community or nation. It’s the ‘we’
feeling through which people recognises their community and themselves.
Community sentiments develop during a period of time within community.
 Common culture and common life: Life of the people in a community is
more or less same. Due to their common ecological conditions, they develop
same type of culture, habits and behavioural patterns. Cultural uniformity and
uniformity in their mode of life can be observed.
 Close relationships: As a person mostly lives in a community, proximate
relations develop. Collective participation becomes a common affair which
brings people together and gives a chance to primary relations to develop.
Thus, the psychological feelings of a community become more important.
 Completeness of life: Community covers all the aspects of life. Community
helps in the socialisation and also helps in developing the community sentiments
in a person as well.
 Permanent nature: Communities are never formed with any particular aim
or objective. It grows itself spontaneously and so it is durable.
 Not a legal body: A community is not a legal body i.e. it cannot sue, nor
it can be sued. In the eyes of law, community has no rights and duties.
Apart from these basic elements, community shares feeling of one-ness and has
a particular name. Though a community does not form with a particular aim, its
ends remain wider and natural.
MacIver and Page (1952) has considered village and tribal societies as the best
examples of community. Apart from it, they have also kept asylum and prison into
the category of community.

2.5 ASSOCIATION
In our day to day life, we come across a number of associations like trader’s
association and urban development association etc. but we hardly pay any attention
28
to what an association is? In anthropology, association represents a group created Social Group
for fulfillment of common needs.
Human beings can fulfill their needs through three ways. One, independently;
second, through conflict with one another and third, on co-operative basis i.e. in
company. This co-operative pursuit may be determined by customs of the community.
So when a group organises itself especially for the purpose of pursuing certain
interests, an association is born.
As MacIver and Page (1952: 209) says that “an association is an organisation
deliberately formed for the collective pursuit of same interest or set of interests,
which its members share.” This definition clearly indicates the nature of association,
its structure and functions.
Hence, it can be said that an association is a group of people organised for a
particular purpose. It implies that there are certain conditions to constitute an
association:
Firstly, there must be a group of people; Secondly, the group of people should be
organised i.e. there must be certain rules for conduct; Thirdly, there must be
common purpose of the specific nature to follow.
Since, men have several interests and several purposes to pursue; they establish
many associations to fulfill them. For example: political associations to serve the
political motives, student associations to give out student welfare, professional
associations like ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), FICCI (Federation
of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) to serve the interests of concerned
people and international associations like Rotary Club, Y.M.C.A. (Young Men’s
Christian Association) etc.
As society moves towards complexity, needs of the human beings also become
diversified and this finally lead to more and more number of associations. In
contemporary times, associations perform more than their conventional functions.
Now people use associations to discharge their social obligations. Society is
considered as a combination of associations and healthy associations represents
a healthy society.
Characteristics of association
 Association requires at least two individuals. It is considered as a concrete
form of group.
 Association has its own aims and objectives. No association can be formed
without any aim. Aim can be broad or particular.
 Association is always a result of deliberate action. Like communities, they do
not grow spontaneously. They are deliberately created by men in order to
fulfill certain aims.
 In an association, membership remains voluntary. Members can join the
association or establish an association as per their needs.
 There are certain rules to get membership of an association. Every association
establishes on the ground of certain rules and regulations. It also contains
code of conduct for the members. On any contradictory action or disobeying
the regulations, a member may be expelled from the membership.
29
Society and Culture  Associations are subjected to be terminated. The life of an association is upto
the achievement of the aim for which it has been created. The existence of
the association after the achievement of the objectives becomes meaningless
and immaterial.
In simple societies, where there is less division of labour, there are a few
associations and they are more inclusive. Thus, they lack specific limited functional
character. They take such forms as age groups, kin groups and sex-groups etc.
while in modern societies; associations are tend to be specialised so that each
stands for a particular type of interest.
So we see that associations are formed to achieve certain general goals and in
order to attain these goals, certain rules and regulations are developed. Formation
of an association can be understood from the following example:
In a society, everybody needs a house to live. It is everybody’s aim but can we
achieve it by our own exclusive efforts and resources? The answer is ‘No’ and
for that purpose Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) was
established. Associations are formed in this manner only. As needs increased,
people kept on making associations to meet those needs.
Hence, we can say that associations are those functional units of society through
which a man fulfills his basic social needs. They are deliberately formed in order
to attain certain purposes.
Reflection and Action

Are family, school and hospital associations?

If we observe them carefully, we find that all of these three have following characteristics:

i) More than one member

ii) A definite structure

iii) Have specific aims and objectives

iv) Voluntary membership (after certain period of time, one can decide that whether he/
she wants to stay in the family or not)

On the basis of above features, family, school and hospital can be considered as
associations.

Activity

1) Differentiate between community, association and society.

2) Make a list of all those associations to which you belong.

2.6 ORGANISATIONS: FORMALAND INFORMAL

Now, we know about social groups, communities and associations. We learnt in
association that they are organised groups with a specific purpose. While
organisations are those associations of individuals through which certain value
oriented interests are satisfied. They are systematically arranged units of individuals
in which each person has a formal status and role, (Anderson and Parker, 1966).
Organisations are principally formed in order to attain certain goals. They emerge
‘when explicit procedures are established to coordinate the activities of a group
in the interest of achieving specific objectives. The collective effort of the members
30 of the group may become formally organised either because all of them have some
common interests or because a sub-group has furnished inducements to the rest Social Group
to work on behalf of its interests. Trade unions, government bureaus and army are
few examples of organisations.
In modern society, needs of human being are diversified and so a number of
organisations exist. Organisations provide a medium for expressing the interests
like education, architecture, music, sports, cultural activities, etc. Parsons (1960:
9) says that “organisations are social units that are deliberately constructed and
reconstructed to pursue specific goals.” The government, trade unions, sports
authorities and clubs are social structures formed to achieve certain objectives
with special purposes. These all are counted as organisations.
Generally, organisations can be divided into formal and informal organisations.
An organisation is developed when there is collectivity of people associated with
one another. But, mere collection of individuals does not form a formal organisation.
The defining criteria of a formal organisation is the existence of procedures for
mobilising and coordinating the efforts of various, usually specialised, sub-groups
in the pursuit of joint objectives.
Formal organisations are further divided into four types on the basis who benefits
from the organisation. One type is mutual benefit organisations where the members
are beneficiaries, for example a labour union. Another type is represented by
business concerns where the main beneficiaries are owners. Third type is client-
centered as in case of service organisations. The fourth type is the common-wealth
organisations which are meant for the benefit of the public. Formal organisation
has fixed set of rules of intra-organisation procedures and structures. These rules
are set out in writing leaving a little scope for interpretations. In some societies or
in some organisations, such rules may be strictly followed; in others, they remain
at the level of formalisation only. The informal organisations are informally organised
by the participants themselves, and they compliment those formally organised for
them by the management. It is the interlocking social structure that governs how
people work together in practice. It is the aggregate of behaviours, interactions,
norms, personal and professional connections through which work gets done and
relationships are built among people who share a common organisational affiliation.
It consists of a dynamic set of personal relationships, social networks, communities
of common interest and emotional sources of motivation. Informal organisation
originates or evolves spontaneously in response to changes in the work environment.
Characteristics of formal organisation
 Enduring unless deliberately altered
 Static
 Very specified written rules
 Equates person with roles
 Hierarchical
 People are bounded together with formal rules and procedures
While informal organisations have following characteristics:
 Evolve or emerge spontaneously
 Dynamic and responsive 31
Society and Culture  Rules are not specified if written
 Treat people as individuals
 No hierarchical relations
Membership of an organisation along with its privileges entails duties and
responsibilities. It is just like availing a new status in order to make the individual
aware of his new responsibilities and status; many organisations go through the
initiation ceremony along with oath taking process. Some organisations maintain
secrecy which builds a kind of social distance between members and outsiders for
example Mau Mau, a secret organisation of West Africa (Verghese, 1992).
In a large organisation, many smaller organisations exist. These smaller organisations,
which are themselves formal organisations, work as sub units of larger network.
This whole network of organisations and its sub units is known as ‘complex
organisations’. Etzioni (1961: 464) opines, “Complex organisation constitutes one
of the most important elements which make up social web of modern societies.
Most citizens of modern societies are born in a hospital, educated in school, work
in one organisation or another; and to the degree to that they participate in religious
and political activities, these two, frequently take place in complex organisation.
In short member of modern societies obtain a large part of their material, social
and cultural satisfaction from large scale organisations”.
Activity

1) Name five formal and informal organisations found in your society

2) Find out the characteristics of bureaucratic organisation of your society

Modern organisations differ in three ways with social groups (i) division of labour;
(ii) power centers; and (iii) substitution of personnel. Contemporary organisations
are specialised and are likely to be formed when there is a complimentary or
common interest which may bring the members together for activities of mutual
interest.

2.7 SUMMARY
In this unit you have learnt about social groups including primary and secondary
groups, communities, associations and formal and informal organisations. Social
groups are based on social interaction and the degree of interaction decides the
nature of the group. While community is a spatial phenomenon having ‘we’ feeling,
on the other hand associations and organisations are formed in order to fulfill
certain purpose with specific objectives. These concepts would help you in
understanding the society and its structure in a better way.
References
Anderson, W. A. and F. B. Parker. 1966. Society. Princeton: Van Nostrand Co.
Cooley. C. H. 1909. Social Organisation: Human Nature and Social Order.
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Davis, Kingsley. 1957. Human Society. New York: Macmillan.
Encyclopedia of Social Sciences Vol. XI, 1972. New York: Macmillan.
Etzioni, A. 1961. Complex Organisations: A Sociological Reader. New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston
32
Faris, Ellsworht. 1937. The Nature of human nature: and their essays in social Social Group
psychology. York, P.A: Mc Graw-Hill Book Company Inc.
MacIver, R. M. and C.H. Page. 1952. Society: An Introductory Analysis. New
York: Macmillan.
Merill, Francis E. 1969. Society and Culture-an introduction to Sociology. N.J:
Prentice Hall Inc, Englewood Cliffs.
Ogburn, W.F. and M. F. Nimkoff. 1966. A Handbook of Sociology. New Delhi:
Eurasia Publications house.
Parsons, Talcott. 1951. The Social System. Glencoe: IL, Free Press.
Parsons, Talcott.1960. Structure and Process in Modern Societies. Glencoe:
The Free Press.
Verghese, K.E. 1992. General Sociology. Chennai: Macmillan India Ltd.
Weber, Max. 1920. The theory of social and economic organisation. New
York: Simon & Schuster
Suggested Reading
MacIver, R. M. and C.H. Page. 1952. Society: An Introductory Analysis. New
York: Macmillan.
Parsons, Talcott.1960. Structure and Process in Modern Societies. Glencoe:
The Free Press.
Sample Questions
1) Primary Groups play a pivotal role in a person’s life. Explain.
2) Primary Groups can be formed within the secondary groups. Comment.
3) How is a community different from an association?
4) Organisations form a network of roles and duties. Elucidate.

33
 UNIT 3 SOCIAL IDENTITY AND
MOVEMENTS
Contents
3.1 Introduction: Identity
3.1.1 Society, Self and Identity
3.1.2 Culture and Identity
3.1.3 Identity, Self Recognition and Meaning
3.1.4 Identity: Reasons and Choice

3.2 Transformation of Identity

3.2.1 Identity and Domination
3.2.2 Identity, Power and Changing Society
3.2.3 Identity in Networked Society

3.3 Collective Actions, New Identity and Social Movements

3.4 Resurgence of Multiple Collective Identities in India
3.5 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

After reading this unit, you will be able to:
 elaborate the concept of identity;
 discuss the process of transformation of identity;
 analyse the process of rejuvenation of identity in the context of social
movement and its transformation; and
 delineate the resurgence of multiple collective identities as taking shape in
grassroots movements in India.

3.1 INTRODUCTION: IDENTITY

In general sense of the term, it is widely stated that an identity is what “I am” or
“we are”, “he is” or “they are”. The “I” and “we” similarly “he” and “they” is
neither independent/autonomous social product nor remain fixed forever. One’s
identity is constructed through the processes of interaction, and daily engagement
both with the local and global society. These processes of construction get widely
influenced by the social and cultural institutional arrangements of the society like
the caste, religion and ethnicity, class, political party, state and the like. Thus the
process of identity construction get negotiated both with the localised
conditionalities, historical experiences and inter connections with the wider society.
It is a complex and dynamic process through which individual collective self gets
constructed, reformed and rejuvenated. Hence the summations of identity represent
the collective self. Generally speaking human beings are born in society and
34 societal conditions widely shape the identity.
3.1.1 Society, Self and Identity Social Identity and
Movements
The issues of ‘self’ and ‘identity’ are frequently used in the symbolic-interactionist
theories. To them ‘self reflects society’, i.e., ‘society shapes self which shapes
social behaviours’ (Mead 1934; Cooley 1902; Blumer 1969). Society however is
not a homogenous undifferentiated identity. It is having eclectic dimension. Hence
the structural symbolic–interactionist visualises societies as ‘highly differentiated
yet organised systems of interactions and relationships encompassing a wide variety
of crosscutting lines based on social class, age, gender, ethnicity, religion and
more’. Here ‘self’ must be seen as ‘multifaceted, as comprised of a variety of
parts that are sometimes interdependent and sometimes independent of other
parts, sometimes mutually reinforcing and sometimes conflicting and that are
organised in multiple ways. Self is conceptualised as sets of discrete identities or
internalised role designations. It is also argued that identity varies in their salience.
That a given identity can be invoked in a variety of situations or it ‘can be defined
as differential probability’. Thus choice between or among behaviours expressive
of particular roles will reflect the relative location of the identities associated with
those roles (Stryker 1990: 873–74).

3.1.2 Culture and Identity

Philosophically identity is not a universal but a culture-specific discursive
construction. Hall (1990) talks about cultural identity that is formed continuously:
‘Cultural identity is not an essence but a continually shifting description of us’.
Hall’s (1996) argues that there is no automatic connection between various
discourses of identity, namely, class, gender, race, age, etc. as they can be articulated
in different ways. In this connection, the issue of multiple identities as propagated
by several social scientists is highly relevant. To Barker and Galasinski (2001) ‘we
may reflect on the multiple identities of the contemporary subject, that is the
weaving of the patterns of identity from the discourses of class, race, gender, etc.
We can thus conceive of people as operating across and within multiple subject
positions constituted by the intersections of discourses of race, gender, age, nation,
class, etc. Thus there is an element of plasticity in the formation of identity. Here
to Hall (1996), it is the very plasticity of identity that makes its cultural and
political significance, for the shifting and changing character of identities chronicles
the way that get transformed over time and as a result, they tend to be subjective
construction of mainly their objectively fixed phenomena (Hall 1996).

3.1.3 Identity, Self Recognition and Meaning

Furio Cerutti (2001) is of the view that the change in self-perception of the actor
plays a crucial role both in the formation and transformation of identity. To him
‘there is a symbolic interaction (before and above any calculations and sometimes
against the same calculations) that explains the development of the actor’s self, his
actions, his transformations and his undoing’. The resurgence of identity also signifies
a shift in attention ‘from structure to agency’.
Reflection

Cerutti (2001) emphasised two important dimensions related to the process of establishment
and transmission of identity: (a) it creates a source of meaning to provide legitimacy to
the decisions, action and unity of the group’s existence, and (b) it also defines the outer
limits of group solidarity.

Identity in question thus, should be considered as an evolving identity and not a

static one. Thus collective identity is a dynamic process and is a social construction. 35
Society and Culture Such a construction also involves the social production of boundaries reflecting the
process of inclusion and exclusion. Self-recognition is an essential aspect of identity
formation, which is produced by collectively operated individualisation of value,
norms, life forms, etc. (Furio Cerutti 2001).
To Castells (1997) identities are sources of meaning for actors themselves, and by
themselves constructed through a process of individuation. Identity refers to the
process of construction of meaning on the basis of cultural attributes, or related
sets of cultural attributes that is/are given priority over sources of meaning by set
of social actors. Although identities can also be originated from dominant institutions,
they can only become identities only when and if social actor internalises them and
construct their meaning around their individuation. He distinguishes identities from
roles. To him identities are stronger source of meaning than roles because of the
process of self construction and individuation that they involve. In simple terms,
identities recognise the meaning while roles recognise the functions. He again
defines meaning as the symbolic identification of the purpose of action by a social
actor (Castells, 1997:7).

3.1.4 Identity, Reasons and Choice

While examining the problematic aspects of identity, Amartya Sen (1999) underlines
that the sense of community and fellowship relates closely to the idea of social
identity. According to Sen, ‘There are strong influences of the community, and of
the people with whom we identify and associate, in sharpening our knowledge and
comprehension as well as our ethics and norms. In this sense, social identity
cannot but be central to human life’ (Sen, 1999: 4). The centrality of human life
is conditioned by inherited socio cultural processes on the one hand and by
reasons and alternative choices on the other. Identity also shapes through societal
recognition. In the interactive world individuals are posted with varieties of choices.
This provides the opportunity to associate and to form and reform identities either
based on reason, tradition or else. Sen extensively examines the question as to
whether our identities emerge by choice or by reasoning or by passive recognition.
He mentions that the choice to be identified is not permanent in the society and
that there are limits to what we choose to identify with. He also mentions that one
can discover his or her identity. However, to him choices have to be made even
when discoveries occur. ‘Choices do exist, and any denial to this fact leads to the
uncritical and unquestioning acceptance of conformist behaviour with several
conservative implications. To him, ‘the unquestioned presumptions are merely
unquestioned not unquestionable’. The unquestioning acceptance of social identity
may also involve a radical shift in the identity having accepted as discovery rather
than reasoned choice. For example a shift from the holistic to sectarian identities
may be a product of unquestioning acceptance of coercive arrangement. This
unreasoned identity shift may lead to devastating effects, like in Rwanda or
Yugoslavia. Here he explains the phenomena of ‘new tyrannies’ in the form of
newly asserted identity that tyrannizes by eliminating other identities. These identities
may have a political role. However these may be oppressive if no room is given
to other claims. To Sen, ‘to deny plurality, choice and reasoning in identity can be
a source of repression; choice is possible and important in individual conduct and
social decisions even if we remain oblivious of it’ (Sen 1999: 22).

3.2 TRANSFORMATION OF IDENTITY

Social movements not only help generate new collective identity or common identity,
36
but also provide a broad field for the transformation of social identity [this lead
to the formation of a unified group out of scattered individuals e.g., transforming Social Identity and
Movements
serie into groups en fusion (Sartre 1960), or this may lead to the transformation
of a collectively into a self conscious groups for collective ‘class-in-itself’ to
‘class-for-itself’ (Marx 1974), etc.]. Sartre calls serie the normal state of crowds,
that is, a series of atomized individuals, each one seen as isolated in his or her
inner world and going his or her own way without caring about others’ ways.
What Sartre is pointing out is that whenever and wherever this figure is actually
doing something or even just walking in the street, it has a silent companion:
‘social control’. The public space is wholly under the control of the established
power. Every individual, whatever she or he thinks of the manifest public discourse
“All is well” and its latent content “Noting can be changed” (cf. Bertaux 1990:
150) whether he or she accepts the rule of this power or rejects it, does so
secretly, thus behaving as if accepting it. Therefore each one, looking at all the
others who work, comply and keep quiet, thinks they are alone in secretly rejecting
this social order. When, however, frustration mounts in each person individually,
it takes only a small event to trigger an instantaneous and massive change of state,
from serie to groupe en fusion. As soon as each person in a serialised mass
realises that some others contest the established power, as he or she takes one
step forward to openly express support, a chain reaction spreads through the
atomized series and transforms it into a fluid group (groupe en fusion) which
instantly moves from the status of subordinated passive object to that of subject
capable of action’ (cf. Bertaux 1990: 155–56). Indeed, social movements provide
the required platform for such transformation.
In the Marxian analysis transformation in the collective identity has been viewed
as transformation of class identities from that of ‘class-in-itself’ to ‘class-for-
itself’. An identity is constructed not only through objective economic conditions
but through a subjective consciousness about economic conditions that transform
the social collectivity into a self conscious entity to bring transform in the pre-
existing social order. The social collectivity with common economic position and
conflicting economic interest vis-a vis the other form objective basis of a class-in-
itself. This is social class without identity and it is incapable of collective action as
it lacks subjective consciousness. The class-in-itself acquires collective identity of
class-for-itself getting mediated through class-consciousness. In this analysis of
transformation of identity all pre-existing identities like caste, gender, race, ethnicity
etc are subsumed under the class identity.

3.2.1 Identity and Domination

To Longman (2010) in face of the structural crises, contradictions and dislocations
due to globalisation, there is often a migration from the political economic to
cultural/collective identity and emotional realms. Customary identities regarding
work, gender, gender orientation, religion etc. face economic and/or cultural
challenges and crises that in turn impact identities and cause emotional distress to
actors.
For Foucault, power and domination work through the inscription and control of
identity through various disciplinary/discursive practices. (cf. Buechler, 2000).
Gramsci’s notion of cultural hegemony depends on mediation though identity to
naturalise the historical (Langman, 2000). Thus a crucial aspect for certain
contemporary social movements is rejection or refashioning of identities/values, to
influence the future directions of a society. From what has been said, collective
identity can be seen as a contested terrain in struggles for hegemony. The historic
37
Society and Culture blocs in power defend their power and privilege by fostering identities in which
subjugation is cloaked and most people accept their domination (ruling block
interests) as “normal”, “common sense” and “in their best interests”. In other
words, the production of identities is a part of hegemonic processes that sustain
structures of domination at the level of the person. And the acceptance and
performances of those identities is not without certain emotional gratifications for
most people most of the time. The extent to which such identities are embraced
without question, and reproduced in performance over time, sustains the continuity
of the society. This has been the essential nature of the structuration process for
Giddens and the nature of the habitus for Bourdieu. Most notions of identity
locate the person/group within certain structures of hierarchy and domination. This
may be racial or ethnic. Colonisers impose subaltern identities upon on the colonised-
the acceptance of which empowers the coloniser-even if the colonised turns violence
on his/her self (Fanon, 1986). Women have been socialised to be subordinate to
men-but as Simone de Beauvior noted the suffering of women as Other, what
Freudian called the illness without a name. Gays have long suppressed their identities.

3.2.2 Identity, Power and the Changing Society

Identity is also linked to broad societal arrangement. Each of the societies—
primitive, agrarian, industrial and post-industrial is represented by their own variety
of identities. In recent years the process of construction of collective identity has
taken a complex shape in the wake of the initiation of new economic orders,
introduction of new technologies and unprecedented flow of new technology and
increasing flow of human and material objects across the globe. Manuel Castells
(1997) in his famous work The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture:
The Power of Identity elaborates the process of emergence of identity that
challenges the processes of globalisation and cosmopolitanism. To him:
“Along with the technological revolution, transformation of capitalism, and the
demise of the statism, we have experienced the wide spread surge of powerful
expression of collective identity that challenges globalisation and cosmopolitanism
on behalf of the singularity and people’s control over their lives and environment.
These expressions are multiple, highly diversified following the contours of each
culture, and the historical sources of formation of each identity. They include
practice of movements, aiming at the transforming human relationship at their most
fundamental level” (Castells, 1997:10).
Though it is easy to accept that identities are constructed, to him the real questions
are how and for what. He is of the opinion that the identities are constructed in
the context of power relationship and he proposes three forms of the origins of
identity building.
Legitimising identity: Introduced by the dominant institutions of the society to
extend and rationalise their domination vis-a vis social actors. Legitimising
identities sustaining the social order—typically these include patriotic, religious or
consumerist orientations. Such identities, the most typical in any society, maintain
the status quo.
Resistance Identity: Generated by those actors that are in positions/ conditions
devaluated and/or stigmatized by the logic of domination, thus building trenches of
resistance and survival on the basis of principles different from or opposed to
those permeating the institutions of society (Castells 1997) Resistance identities
attempts to retain or restore waning identities that oppose globalisation and its
impacts. For example, the fragmentation of community, often tied to economic
38
decline, leads some people to turn away from the global and embrace reactionary Social Identity and
Movements
movements from nationalisms to fundamentalisms that would restore a [mythical]
lost world or “Golden Age” of strong communities of the past and defend a
particular cultural framework that would secure heretofore privileged, traditional
identities. In some cases, there may be progressive forms of resistance albeit
romantic and anarchic, and so individualistic; they are unlikely to foster mobilisations
(Longman 2010).
Project Identity: When social actors on the basis of whatever cultural materials
available to them build a new identity that redefines their positioning in society, by
so doing, seek the transformation of the whole structure (Castells, 1997:8). For
our purposes, the most important, if often least frequent pattern are the project
identities that challenge the hegemony of the dominant class at several levels, not
the least of which are proposing alternative identities that typically resist
rationalisation and/or commodification and consumerism. These project identities
pose fundamental challenges to late capitalist modernity in which rational
technologies, as forms of domination, colonise the life world as well as collective
identity, child rearing, family life, work, organisational spheres and even the pursuit
of pleasure (Giddens 1991, Habermas 1975, Hochschild 1997). The attempts to
re-negotiate and/or fashion new forms of tolerant democratic identities that embrace
alternative futures, in turn act to impel progressive social transformations. Such
people seek to transform people and society in terms greater equality, freedom
and democracy. But these project identities are emergent in the interaction of
struggle, they are neither a priori nor clearly envisioned as goals.
He again maintains that “identities that start as resistance, may reduce project and
may also along with the course of history, become dominant in the institution of
the society, thus becoming a legitimising identities to rationalise their domination.
Thus to him there is per se no progressive or regressive identities except its
historical context. However in his each type of identity process leads to a different
outcome in constituting society. Legitimising identity generates a civil society, i.e.
a set of organisation and institutions as well as a series of structured and organised
social actors, which produce albeit sometimes in a conflict manner the identity that
rationalises the source of structural domination” (Castells, 1997:2). This is indeed
the original concept of civil society as formulated by Gramsci. The Gramscian
sense of civil society is formed by a series of apparatuses such as the church,
unions, parties etc on which on the one hand prolonged the dynamics of the state,
on the other hand deeply rooted among the people.
The identity for resistance leads to the formation of communes or communities. It
constructs forms of collective resistance against other unbearable oppression, usually
on the basis of the identities that were apparently defined by history, geography
or biology making it easier to essentialise the boundaries of resistance”. Here the
examples of are religious fundamentalism, nationalist self affirmation, etc the
expressions being exclusion of the excluded by the excluders.
The project identity according to him produces subjects. They are collective actors
through which individuals reach holistic meaning of their experience. In this case
the building of identity is a project of different life… expanding towards the
transformation of the society (Castells, 1997:10).

3.2.3 Identity in Networked Society

To him, the dynamics of identity is central to the network society and herein he
accepts the tenets of Gidden’s characterisation of identity in the late modernity.
39
Society and Culture Locating self-identity within the interplay of local and global he accepts Giddens
view that “self identity is not a distinctive trait possessed by the individual. It is the
self as reflexively understood by the person in terms of his/her biography… To be
a human being is to know both what is one doing and why one is doing it... In
the context of the post industrial order, the self becomes a reflexive project…
Reflexively organised self planning...becomes a central feature of the structuring of
the self identity” Giddens (1991).
To Castells, however the raise of network society calls into question the process
of construction of self identify. It is because the network society is based on the
systemic disjunction between local and global for most individuals and social
groups. Therefore, reflexive self planning becomes impossible, except for the elite
inhabiting in the timeless space of flows of global network and their ancillary
locals.
Under such new conditions, civil societies shrink and disarticulate because there
is no longer continuity between the logic of power making in the global network…
The search for meaning takes place then in the reconstruction of defense identified
around communal principles. Most of the social actions becomes organised in the
opposition between unidentified flows and secluded identities… (and) that the
condition of the subject at the heart of the process of social change takes a
different route to one we knew during modernity and late modernity: namely
subjects if and when constructed, are not built any longer on the basis of civil
societies, that are in the process of disintegration, but as prolongation of communal
resistance… This is the actual meaning of the new primacy of identity politics in
the network society (Castells, 1997:11).
Castells while explaining the process of emergence and transformation of social
movements in the context of the network society states that information technology
is transforming the world and it is causing disintegration of existing mechanism of
social control and political representation. All over the world, there is perceived
loss of control over lives, environment, jobs, economies, governments, countries
and ultimately over the fate of the earth. There is an emerging new global order,
and alternative projects challenge the logic embedded in the new global order.
Now there are unexpected ways of reactions and mobilisations. In his view social
movements can be categorised by three principles: the movements identity, the
movements adversary and the movements goal which was originally propagated
by Touraine (1966). The identity refers to the self definition of the movement of
what it is, adversary refers to the principle enemy, as explicitly defined by the
movement; and the social goals refers to the vision of the social order the movement
would wish to attain.
To him in the information age, bypassed by global network of wealth, power and
information, the modern nation state has lost much of its sovereignty. In this age
the legitimising identities are drained away. He however has visualised the emergence
of a powerful resistance identities both retrench in the communal heavens and built
around proactive social movements’ which choose to establish their autonomy in
their communal resistance’ for example the women’s and the environmental
movements. In the network society together with the state apparatuses, global net
works, and self centred individuals, there are also communes formed around
resistance identity. However their logic excludes each other.
In this backdrop he visualises the emergence of project identities from the
40 development of the resistance identities that arise from a commune. The commune
of resistance defends their space, and their places against the placeless logic of the Social Identity and
Movements
space of flows characterising social dominations in the information age. In the
network society power is diffused in the global network of wealth, power and
information, and images. The social movements according to Castell are emerging
from the communal resistance to globalisation, capitalist restructuring, organisational
networking, uncontrolled informationalism and patriarchalism. Such of them are of
ecologist, feminists, religious fundamentalists, nationalists, and localists.

3.3 COLLECTIVE ACTIONS, NEW IDENTITY AND

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Among the new social movement scholars the issue of collective identity formation
has got a place of prominence whereby issues such as collective participation,
group solidarity, and cultural integration and so on have been widely emphasised.
How are these identities formed? What are their implications for a social movement?
To Pizzorno the direct participation in collective action is an essential component
of collective identity formation. This participation in the collective action, to him,
need not be seen in terms of gain or loss, but in terms of production of solidarity.
These kinds of action are ‘connecting a process of formation for an identity’
(Pizzorno, 1978: 293).
It is now imperative for us to look into the nuances of identity perspective that has
been widely used in West European countries to study social movements since
early 20th century. This intellectual tradition has emerged backdrop of proliferation
of preponderant labour movements, development industrial democracies, Fabian
socialism and welfare state in the UK and other countries on the one hand, and
mobilisations of nationalist feelings in the countries like Germany on the other.
Indeed institutionalisation of reformist and social democratic labour movement in
Western Europe affected the way social movements were conceived by social
scientists in these countries (Eyerman and Jamison, 1991:17-18).
However since 1960s, going away from the economic determinism and newness
were the major thrusts to study social movements. Touraine (2006) makes it very
explicit: “After the World War II and even very recently—especially in the 1960s—
many people, including myself tried to discover new forms of collective actions in
a so called, at that time, post-industrial, society and what we call now an information
society …I was convinced at the end of the twentieth century and beginning of the
twenty- first century, the social and the political scene would be dominated by the
growing role of these new and the cultural movements… Many people were
convinced that priority should be given to the formation of what I had myself
called ‘new social movements” (Tourine, 2006: 89-92).
It was widely realised that not merely the empirical and the economic class position,
but rather the issue of values, culture, subjectivity, morality, empowerment etc.
have also played crucial roles towards the formation of new collective identities
in these movements. Touraine (1981, 1983) observed ‘new social movements as
potential bearers of new social interests’ and that social movements are characterised
by the realisation of historicity, by self-conscious awareness and collective identity.
Bertaux (1990) has added the view that “subjectivity” and “idealism” are essential
elements of social movement and that “subjectivity refers to the subject in its
totality…it concerns with the drastic change in the fabric of social life that takes
place when a new movement is born.” (Bertaux, 1990:153). Social movements
help generate sense of collective identity and new ideas that recognises the reality 41
Society and Culture from new perspective. Collective identities are formed as an achieved definition of
a situation, constructed and negotiated through the constitution of social networks
which then connect the members of a group or movement through collective action
to provide distinctive meaning to collective action. Thus social movements grow
around relationship of new social identity that are voluntarily conceived “to
empower” members in defense of this identity (Melucci 1992, 1996). To Melucci
‘newness of the new social movements is a relative concept and it had a temporary
function to indicate the comparative difference between the historical forms of
class conflict and today’s emergent form of collective action. ‘The reality in which
we live has in entirety become a cultural construct and our representations of it
serve as filters for our relationship with the whole world… Social movements too
seem to shift their focus from class, race, and other more traditional issues towards
the cultural ground……’ (Melucci, 1996:8-9).
In the world of cultural interactivity and co-construction social movement provides
public spaces for generating new thoughts, activating new actors, generating new
ideas. ‘Thus by producing new knowledge, by reflecting on their own cognitive
identity, by saying what they stand for, by challenging the dominant assumptions
of the social order, social movements develop new ideas those are fundamental to
the process of human creativity. Thus social movements develop worldviews that
restructure cognition, that re-cognize reality itself. The cognitive praxis of social
movements is an important source of new social images and transformation of
societal identities’ (Eyerman and Jamison 1991: 161-166). Thus social movements
involve actions for ‘doing’. ‘The involvement in an action is a matter of conscience
and emotion, of responsibility and intention, of reflection and (com) passion, it is
basically moral, global and individual (Hegedus, 1990: 266).
Social movements are also linked however not only to the understanding of common
social identity but also of common interest (Scott 1991: 6) With the growing space
for globalism and informationalism while the notion of identity has emerged to be
idealistic and hegemonic at one end, it is also tending to be diluted, fragmented
and self oriented on the other. In view of the changes in the contemporary society
critiquing the domination of the identity theory has also been a possibility and
necessity. It is widely delineated that, with the technological revolution, transformation
of capitalism, and the demise of the statism, informationalism is disintegrating the
existing mechanism of social control and political representation. With the exception
of a small elite of global politics (half beings, half flows), people all over the world
recent loss of control over their lives. In the network society, “thus on the one
hand the dominant global elites inhabiting in the space of flows tend to consist of
the identity less individuals (citizens of the worlds); while on the other hand,
people insisting economic, cultural, and political disfranchisement trend to be
attracted to communal identity” (Castells, 1997).
Hence the concept of collective identity has also become an obstacle to explore
the forms of mobilisations increasingly taking place in the networks, scapes and
flows. The fluid like characteristics of emerging society with increasing unequal
flows of people, information, money, images risks, practices and emotions with no
clear beginning or the end points. Within these emerging complexities social systems
increasingly manifest fluid-like characteristics and become increasingly subject to
shockwaves fluidarity rather than solidarity, public experience of self rather than
collective identity are the emerging paradigm of contemporary social movements
(Urry 2000 cf. McDonald, 2002).
42 These emerging phenomena have induced a good deal of complexities in
comprehending social movement theoretically, and in understanding the nature of Social Identity and
Movements
collectivities on which the very foundation of social movement is laid. Social
movement group is understood as a variant of social collectivities and is usually
understood within the conceptual formulation of ‘community’. Now it has also
been understood as collectivity of informal networks which mobilise about conflictual
issues through the frequent use of various forms of protest” (della Porta and Diani
1999:16). Moreover, there are diverse types of adherent in social movements i.e.
activists, participants, sympathisers (Neidhardt and Rucht. 2002). Social movement
collectivities are loosely formed many a times independent of geographical boundary.
Their collective identity is formed based on temporarily perceived articulated ideals
and common interests, and that many participants tends to be members of more
than one collectivities simultaneously Significantly many of these collectivities do
have contradictory interests and goals. Hence, it is inevitable that membership is
fluid and are of varying strength. Thus the fluid and the fuzzy membership and the
emerging fluderity of identity make the social order of social movement in
communities very weak. The emergence of net work society adds more odds with
the concept of community.
Though the identity theorists locate identity within the broad interactive social
processes, they also simultaneously advocate the notion of autonomy of identity.
Their focus has been on the theme of political autonomy against ideological
determinism, personal autonomy, and autonomy from localised formulation. Away
from the perspectives of these theorists, autonomy is also understood as process
of formulation from below. E.P Thompson (1963) in his seminal history from
below underlined the autonomous discourse by popular strata. To him, two
processes are to be integrated to define popular movements; integration in the
collective action of the popular strata, definition of an autonomous and independent
discourse. ‘If such a definition is general, encompassing different historical realities,
it might be useful as a methodological suggestion to attempt the interpretation of
the actual, located in the time and space…’ Indeed the issue of autonomy has
emerged to be an integral part of social movement analysis in the context of
emerging fluderity of identity, emergence of resistance from below and formation
multiple identities both at the global and the local levels.
Notwithstanding their contradictory theoretical positions from those of the political
process and the new social movements theorists, the dependency theorists now
recognise that in the world system there have existed multiple identities and varieties
of social movements- the socialist, labour, women, nationalist liberation, peasant,
ecology even some religious movements- within the capitalist world economy.
Since late 1960s these have been “primarily triggered by the sense that the old
movements – the social democrat, the communist and the nationalists had failed
in many of their objectives… and that there has been a major crisis in the anti
systemic social movements” (Wallenstein 2002). It is again pointed that the anti
systemic movements “overshadowed the ever present other social movements
who are now gaining significance while the performances and promise of other
social movements are declining. ….. The increasing failure of the state/ political
parties labour movements/ parties, socialism/Marxist parties as well as people’s
increasing refusal to be manipulated by these, now also increasingly draws the new
other social movements” (Gunder Frank and Matra Fuentes 2002:177). “In the
present moment of the society is ‘marked by the appearance new problems and
new social movements which can no longer be explained by invoking another
order of the phenomena- the laws of the capitalist development or the consequences
of modernisation..’ It is also a different intellectual moment ‘causing to the inability 43
Society and Culture to the ‘traditional left’ to understand social and the political events’ of this era. Our
most urgent need is to learn how to name and analyze the new social practices
and the new forms of collective action which are shaping the societies of today
and tomorrow” (Tourine (2005)11-12, 25).
In the changing society while most of the social movements have remained
institutionalised, working class movements are also on a decline and have emerged
to be incapable of rising to the level of historicity to challenge the over all control
of the major orientations of collective life, new forms of social movements are also
in the making to articulate new forms of identity and interests Significantly enough
the end of cold war and emergence of new phase of economy with globalisation
has marked the proliferation of ‘global movements’ involving numerous struggles
on the question of environment, human rights, vision of ‘another world’ demand
of recognition of cultural identities and so on [Wieviorka(2005)]. In the changing
world conflict is now getting institutionalised and social movements becoming
permanent component of political interest mediation, and legitimate factors in
contemporary societies. All these are leading to the conspicuous formation of the
‘movement society’. All these indicate the trends of potential emergence and
sustenance of plurality of social movements taking up long term and permanent
positions in society on diverse issues and interests (Rucht and Neidhardt 2002).
With the emergence of multiplicity of social movements in the movement society,
social movements are to encounter its inverted image— “the social anti movements
which instead of promoting a social or a cultural identity, champion of some
abstract entity, essence or symbol, and speak in the name of a purity or
homogeneity. Again instead of building relationships with other actors, agreeing on
the principles of debates and negotiations, they champion absolutes, and adopt do
or die attitudes. And if they appear in an arena where social movements also exist,
they try to destroy these movements, and fight against them” (Wieviorka 2005:18).
In the wake of globalisation and the emerging interplay of several new forces a
large part of the society is undergoing a profound process of socio-cultural de-
contextualisation. These have generated new varieties of social change and mobility
and have led to the articulation of diverse interests and identities; and expression
of diverse varieties of protests, conflict, collective mobilisation and social movements.
Significantly many of the processes are intertwined with each other. Societies in
India are experiencing fast processes of transformation in response to global forces
and internal fluid situations which has resulted in emerge of various new movements.

3.4 RESURGENCE OF MULTIPLE COLLECTIVE

IDENTITIES IN INDIA
In recent years societies in India have borne witness to the proliferation and
resurgence of varieties of identities. These are widely caused by increasing quantum
of interconnectivity, social mobility and interpenetration of new technologies on the
one, and persisting poverty, unemployment, ill-health, livelihood insecurity, social
subordination and coercion of the dominant section of the population on the other.
Hence many of the pre-existing identities have got redefined and rejuvenated in the
changing context to become protest identities in the contemporary society.
Societies in India now widely experience the proliferation of fluidity of collective
identity. The conventional and the pre-existing patterns of vertical social mobility
have been diluted in the wake of decline in the land man ratio, and the increase
44 in the occupational diversification and rural to urban migration. Vast segment of the
population are now horizontally mobilised from agriculture to non agricultural activities Social Identity and
Movements
and a good number of them from rural to the urban areas. It has widely contributed
to the increasing informalisation of Indian economy to accommodate 92% of the
work force who can’t spend Rs 20 per day towards consumption. Indeed in spite
of occupational mobility, the economic vulnerability of the marginalised segment of
the population has not been altered. The vast segments of the population, due to
the lack of proper education, training and social capital, look for alternative avenues
of employment not by choice but by compulsion. This has lead to the emergence
of multiple employer-employee relationship even in rural areas. The pre-dominant
and stable forms of agrarian employer employee relationships (landlord-tenant or
land lord-agricultural labourer etc) are now being replaced by unstable, infrequent
relationship with multiple employers or the service users. The traditional structure
of authority and the primordial form of domination has been widely questioned
with the emergence of NGOs activities and the functioning of Panchayat Raj
institutions at the grass roots. Now gender, caste and ethnic identities are articulated
to frame collective mobilisations against the hostile forces of patriarchy, feudalism
and caste and ethnic hegemony. The struggles of the Dalits and the tribes for
economic emancipation have been extended to the areas of struggles for political
empowerment and to the struggles for their caste and ethnic identity. The practice
of democracy at the grass-roots has generated a space for self-assertion among
the marginalized groups on diverse issues and have contributed to the continuity
of the culture of collective mobilisations and re-articulation of regional, ethnic,
gender etc identities. For example the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh which
has visualised the proliferation of peasant movements (viz. the Telangana 1948-52,
Naxalite movements 1972 onwards) has now seen the proliferation of numerous
collective mobilisations at the grass roots through the resurgence of multiple identities.
For example the resurgent separate Telangana statehood movements based on
the ethnic identity of the Telangana people, mobilisation of the agrarian poor and
sustained agrarian conflict spear headed by the CPI(ML), (Peoples’ War Group)
and various other Naxalite outfits, mobilisation for the protection of civil rights of
citizen by Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), Organisation for
the Protection of Democratic Rights, Citizens Forum etc, mobilisation of scheduled
Tribes by Thudum Debba (a militant organisation of the scheduled tribes),
mobilisation of Madiga (a scheduled caste) by Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi
(MRPS) for re-categorisation of the scheduled castes into four groups based on
their contemporary educational and economic status for the purpose of reservations
in jobs, education, etc.), moblisation of cultivators by Roytu Seva Samithi, Jala
Sandhana Samithi (demanding irrigation facilities for the peasants), anti arrack
movement to mobilise women against production and consumption of liquor and
also for women’s liberty, political participation and social development and so on
are the contemporary realities of collective mobilisations in rural Andhra Pradesh.
Similarly, West Bengal which has experienced the proliferations peasant and class
identities through the Tebhaga (1946-47) Naxalite ( 1967-71) Operation Barga
movement (1977 onward) has been experiencing the rejuvenation of Gurkhaland
Movements 1980s of the Gurkha hill tribes for a separate statehood, Kamtapur
movement of the Rajbanshi (Scheduled Castes) since 1980s for the recognition
separate statehood, movements against acquisition of agricultural lands by the
Krishi Jami Suraksha Committee (Committee to Protect Agricultural lands) in
Singur and the Bhumi Ucced Pratorodhi in Nandigram, Tribal villagers resistance
against police oppression in the Midnapore District and several other grass roots
mobilisations. Indeed all these movements have constructed distinctive protest
45
identities against domination of various forms.
Society and Culture It is again that the state now has provided the liberal democratic space to articulate
issues, interests, and identities for collective mobilisations. Within this available
space many of the radical mobilisations have got transformed to be institutionalised,
co-opted, and have sustained them being partially reformative. Evidences from
West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh show that sustained mobilisations have opened
up the possibility of articulation of new issues, identities and mobilisations of the
marginalised sections of the population.
The society now sees the cropping up of several new issues, new patterns of
conflict, mobility and mobilisation, while many of the old ones have taken a new
shape in the present context. In the emerging scenario the relationship between
social mobility, conflict, mobilisation and social movements have been extensive
and implicit. Within the emerging dynamics the pre-existing forms of social
collectivities got a significant place not only to protect their identity, but also their
social, economic and political interests. These identities have also been encapsulated
as a project to attain specific political goals. Hence they not only question the
bases of legitimacy of pre-existing arrangements but also assert for a share in the
social, economic and political spheres in the established order. These identities
and conflicts however are not fixed. Even as the tribal and the Dalit identities are
constructed in the Telangan region of Andhra Pradesh for getting better share of
protective discrimination, they are simultaneously linked with the whole of Telangana
regional identity. Similarly gender identity also cut across the caste and the ethnic
identity. Thus collective identities are in a state of flux. They get articulated and
rejuvenated both synchronically and diachronically on diverse issues in diverse
context. They move like a pendulum in these mobilisations getting fixed at one end
and liberated at the other (Singharoy 2004).

3.5 SUMMARY
Collective identity is constructed through the process of interaction and engagement
with contemporary social processes on the one hand and historical experiences on
the other. As, this engagement and experiences are historically circumscribed there
have been diverse processes of construction and transformation of social identity.
Though at times identities operate in silence, it also becomes idiom of public
projections of collective solidarity becoming parts of organised and spontaneous
social movements. As social collectivity, human beings respond to varieties
situations, articulate multiple identities and get associated with multiple networks
cross cutting the predefined boundaries of given social groups. Herein, the process
formation and transformation of social identity is complex and fluid. This unit
besides providing you conceptual clarification on identity, its formation and
transformation has also discussed the location of identity within the local and wide
social processes. We have learnt the intertwining between society, self and identity,
relation between culture and identity, the interface of identity with reasoning and
available social choices. As identity gets transformed its gets interlinked with process
of formation, rejuvenation and reconstruction of identity. This unit has also discussed
the emerging facets of fluidity in identity in the wake of the fast transformation of
societies caused globalisation and emergence of network societies. Besides
discussing the theoretical issues, this unit has also provided you a glimpse of the
emergence of multiple identities as reflected in the grass roots collective action in
rural India.

46
References Social Identity and
Movements
Barker, C. and D. Galasinski. 2001. Cultural Studies and Discourse Analysis:
A Dialogue on Language and Identity. London: Sage.
Bertaux, S. 1990. ‘Oral History Approaches to an International School Movement’,
in E. Oyen. (ed.). Comparative Methodology: Theory and Practices in
International Social Research. London: Sage.
Blumer, H. 1996. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Boundien, Paud Wacquant, L. 1999. ‘On the Cunning of Imperialist Reason’.
Theory Culture and Society. Vol. 16. No. 1: 41-50.
Castells, M. 1997. The Rise of the Network of Society. Oxford: Blackwell.
Cerutti, F. 2001. ‘Political Identity and Conflict: A Comparison of Definition’, in
Cerutti, F and R. Ragiorieri (ed.), Identities and Conflicts: The Mediterranean.
New York: Palgrave.
Colley, C.H. 1902. Human Nature and Social Order. New York: Scribner. (op.
cited Stryker 1990).
della Porta, Donatella and Mario Diani. 1999. Social Movements. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Eyerman, R. and Jamison. 1991. Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach.
Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fanon, F. 1971. The Wretched of the Earth. Middlesex: Penguin Books.
Frank, A.G and M. Fuentes. 1990. ‘Civil Democracy: Social Movements in Recent
World History’, in S. Amin, G. Arrighi et al. (ed.). Transforming the Revolution:
Social Movement and the World System.
Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and Self-identity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Gramsci, A. 1998. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. (reprint). Chennai:
Orient Longman.
Habermas, J. 1975. Legitimation Crisis. Boston: Beacon Press.
Hall, S. 1990. ‘The Question of Cultural identity’ in Hall, D. Held and T. Mcgraw
(eds.), Modernity and its Future. Cambridge: Polity Press.
_________ 1996. ‘Who needs Identity?’ in Hall and P. du (DU) Gay (eds.) in
Questions of Cultural Identity. London Sage.
Hardt, M. and A. Negi. 2000. Empire. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Hegedus, Z. 1990. ‘Social Movements and Social Change in Self-creative Society:
New Initiatives in the International Arena’, in M. Albrow and E. Kings. (ed.)
Globalisation, Knowledge and Society. London: Sage.
Hochschild, A. 1997. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home
Becomes Work. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Langman, L. 2000. ‘Identity, Hegemony and the Reproduction of Domination’ in
Altschuler, R. (ed.). Marx, Weber and Durkheim. New York: Gordian Knot
Press. Pp 238-90.
47
Society and Culture Larana, E., Johnston, H. and R. Guesfield. 1984. ‘Identities, Grievances and New
Social Movements’, in Larana, E., Johnston, H. and R. Guesfield (eds.), New
Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity. Philadelphia: Temple University
Press.
Longman, L. 2010 ‘Global Justice as Identity:Mobilisation for a Better World’. in
D.K. SinghaRoy (ed) Dissenting Voices and Transformative Actions, Social
Movements in Globalising World. New Delhi: Manohar Publication.
Marx, Karl. 1976. (rpt) Selected Writings. Moscow: Progress Publication.
Mc. Donald, K. 2002. ‘From Solidarity to Fluidarity: Social Movements Beyond
Collective Identity: The Case of Globalisation of Conflict’. Social Movement
Studies. Vol-1, No:2.
Melucci, 1996(a). Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information
Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
_________ 1996. ‘The Symbolic Challenge of Contemporary Movements’, in
Buechler, S.M. and F.K. Cylke Jr. (eds.), Social Movements: Perspectives and
Issues. California: Mayfield Publishing Company.
PizzornoA. 1978. ‘Political exchange and collective identity in industrial conflict’.
In The Resurgence of Class Conflict in Western Europe since 1968, ed. C
Crouch, A Pizzorno, pp. 277–98. London: Macmillan.
Rucht, D. and F. Neidhardt. 2002. ‘Towards a Movement Society? On the
Possibilities of Institutionalising Social Movements’, in Social Movement Studies.
Vol 1, No-1:1-30.
Sartre, J. 1960. Questions de Methode. Paris: Gollimer. (cf. Bertaux, D. ‘Oral
History Approaches to an International Social Movement’, in E. Oyen (ed.).
‘Comparative Methodology: Theory and Practices’, in International Social
Research. London: Sage.
Scott, A. 1991. Ideology and New Social Movements. London: Unwin Hyman.
Sen, A. 1999. Reasons Before Identity. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
SinghaRoy, D.K. 2005. ‘Peasant Movements in Contemporary India’. Economic
and Political Weekly. Dec. 24.
_________ 2009. Peasant Movements in Post Colonial India: Dynamica of
Identity and Mobilisation. New Delhi: Sage Publication.
_________ 2010. ‘Changing Trajectory of Social Movements in India: Search
for an Alternative Analytical Perspective’ in D.K. SinghaRoy (ed.) Dissenting
Voices and Transformative Actions, Social Movements in Globalising World.
New Delhi: Manohar Publication.
Stryker, S. 1990. ‘Identity Theory’ in E.E. Borgatha and M.L. Borgatha (eds.)
Encyclopeadia of Sociology. Vol : 2. New York: Macmillan Publishing.
Thompson, E.P 1963. The Making of the English Working Class. London:
Victor Gollancz.
Touraine, A. 1981. The Voice and the Eye. An Analysis of Social Movements.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Urry, John. 2000. ‘The Importance of Social Movements’. Social Movement
Studies. Vol-1, No-1: 185-203
48
Wallerstein, I. 1990. ‘Antisystematic Movements: History and Dilemmas’. In S. Social Identity and
Movements
Amin, G. Arrighi et al. (ed.). Transforming the Revolution: Social Movement
and the World System.
Wieviorka, M. 2005. ‘After New Social Movements’. Social Movement Studies.
Vol-4. Issue-1: 1-19
Suggested Reading
Cohen, J. 1985. ‘Strategy or Identity: New Theoretical Paradigms and
Contemporary Social Movements,’ in Social Research. 52(4), 663-716.
Gaetano Mosca, 1939. The Ruling Class. New York: McGraw Hill.
Jenkins, C. 1983. ‘Resource Mobilisation Theory and the Study of Social
Movements’. Annual Review of Sociology. 9, 527-53.
Marris, A and C. McClurg Mueller. 1992. ‘Master Frames and Cycles of Protests’,
in A. Marris and C. McClurg Mueller (eds.) Frontiers of Social Movement
theory. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Sample Questions
1) What is Identity?
2) Describe the relation between Society, Self and Identity.
3) State the causes leading to transformation of Identity.
4) Delineate the Collective Actions New identity and Social Movements.
5) Discuss the resurgence of Multiple Collective Identities in India.

49
 UNIT 4 SOCIAL CHANGE IN INDIAN
CONTEXT
Contents
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Colonial Rule and its Impact
4.3 Hinduisation and Sanskritisation
4.3.1 Sanskritisation
4.4 Westernisation and Modernisation
4.4.4 Modernisation
4.5 Multiculturalism and Globalisation
4.5.1 Globalisation
4.6 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

Once you have studied this unit, you should be able to:
 understand the nature of social change in Indian society;
 describe Hinduisation, Sanskritisation, Westernisation, Modernisation,
Globalisation and Multiculturalism; and
 understand how these processes are responsible for social change in India.

4.1 INTRODUCTION
Like any other society Indian society, too, has been changing. However, the pace
of change increased rapidly since the advent of British rule in India. British colonial
rule had a profound impact on Indian society. This change took place both in its
structure and functioning. Then came independence and what makes the social
change in the contemporary Indian society specially significant and noteworthy is
the fact that, to a great extent, it is planned, sponsored, directed and controlled
by the state. Since the last decade or so Globalisation has entered into the economic,
social-cultural, and political spheres of Indian society adding yet another dimension
to social change in Indian society.

4.2 COLONIAL RULE AND ITS IMPACT

In any discussion or discourse on social change in Indian society the impact of the
British colonial rule occupies an important place. British rule, Christian missionary
and English education played very important role in changing the face of Indian
society. At this juncture, it is prudent to understand and distinguish the impacts of
pre-capitalism colonialism/imperialism and colonialism during the age of capitalism.
Pre-capitalism colonial rulers though derived all the benefits and advantages through
exploitation of their colonies, but could never intervene effectively in the economic
base of the societies they ruled. They simply dominated and subordinated the
traditional economies and sustained their rule. The British colonial rule was based
50 on the capitalist system and hence was in a position to make radical interventions
in the economic systems of their colonies which facilitated its expansion. They not Social Change in
Indian Context
only changed the land tenure systems changing the nature of land ownership, they
also intervened effectively in the selection of crops, production system and their
distribution.
The British colonial rulers, in order to bring about desired changes in the points
of view of the people, brought out a new system of education. In the initial stages
the British rule influenced the port and coastal cities. They brought out changes in
the legal, cultural and even in the field of architecture. A new system of education
was introduced to achieve the goal of nurturing a class in India which would
sustain the British rule. But significantly, the same western education became
instrumental in the development of national consciousness and anti-colonial
movement. As K.M Pannikkar (1966) points out, the most important achievement
of British colonial rule was the unification of India for a better administrative
system to serve the colonial interests but it served the purpose for uniting India for
the future freedom movement. To serve their own interests the British rule introduced
a new western education, new means of transport and communication, new
technology and a new system of judiciary. These, in turn released new forces of
change and the Indian society could never be the same again. Thus, in a way, the
British colonial rule may be seen as the agent of cultural and technological
modernisation of India. Since there is a lot of overlapping between the impact of
colonial rule and impact of westernisation and modernisation on Indian society
several issues not covered under the present heading shall be covered under
Westernisation and Modernisation.

4.3 HINDUISATION AND SANSKRITISATION

The process of Hinduisation has been all pervasive within the domain of Indian
civilization. However, in the context of tribal populations, it has been studied most
and most of the debate has been with reference to the Hinduisation of tribes. G.
S Ghurye (1963), by describing the tribal population as Backward Hindus, initiated
intense debate among the anthropologists and sociologists. Perhaps, his description
was in response or reaction against the missionary activities in some tribal areas
and he wanted the Indians to beware of religious conversion into Christianity.
However, his apprehensions did not come true as even today the Christian tribals
may not be more than 5% of the total tribal population in the country.
N K Bose and Surajit Sinha looked into the phenomenon of Hinduisation with
more academic rigour. N K Bose (1975), in his landmark paper on Hindu method
of Tribal Absorption, based his thesis on the role of ‘Culture Contact’ or
‘acculturation’. He says that the Hindu method of tribal absorption is entirely
different from that of Islam, which involves complete conversion. Bose is of the
view that the Hindus generally exercised a policy of laissez-faire with regard to the
social, and religious practices of tribal people and moved on subtly.
Reflection
Bose’s observed three distinct features in the absorption of the tribal into the Hindu fold.
a) Although the policy was not to displace the original culture of the tribes, something
had to be done ‘to bring the tribal cultures in line with Brahmanism’.
b) Once the tribe comes under the influence of the Brahmanical people a strong
tendency was set up with it to remodel its culture more and more closely in conformity
with the Brahmanical way of life.
c) However, the tribes could not be allowed to come very close to their superiors; the
Brahmins very often step in to check such progress. Thus, many forms of culture
come into existence.
51
Society and Culture However, Surajit Sinha took a different view. He opposed the existing idea that
tribes were an isolated people. On the basis of his study of Bhumij, Munda, Gond
and other tribes of Central India (1959, 1962, 1982), Sinha identified the urge of
Bhumij to move away from tribal base to acquire a Kshatriya status. In 1951,
when the Bhumij were labeled as one of the scheduled tribes of this region, they
were shocked and protested against this. Sinha realised that to understand tribes
in India, one has to put them in a proper perspective. He says that it was the
British scholars who felt that tribes were outside the frame of Varna-Jati system.
He further talked of ‘mutually adaptive strategies of Indian civilization’ vis a vis
tribal cultures. The civilization absorbed the tribes but maintained their identity and
also determined their isolation. The modern nation- state is trying to ensure full
participation of tribes as equals.
In contemporary India, tribal regions have become an arena for competitive faiths
to the detriment of tribal societies. Though the tribes, except those of north-
eastern region, have been moving towards a loose form of Hinduism which most
of them found compatible with their religious systems, the country in recent years
has witnessed “the most aggressive form of proselytization and communal
mobilisation of the tribals by Hindutva forces directed against the Christian missions
and the converts to Christianity in parts of Orissa, Gujarat and Chattisgarh leading
to loss of lives, arson, destruction of homes, and displacement of terrorised and
traumatised affected population” (Dharmendra Kumar and Yemuna Sunny, 2009).
This is a cleverly crafted campaign to not only reconvert the Christian tribal but
also to Hinduise the tribes which still practice their own animistic religions

4.3.1 Sanskritisation
Contrary to the ‘book view’ the Indian caste system has never been absolutely
rigid and static. This observation has led progressively to various attempts to
explain, in systematic terms, the manner in which change or more precisely mobility
occurs within it. The process of hypogamy may be the earliest attempt in this
direction. Broadly speaking, four approaches could be delineated in the study of
social mobility in India. These are (i) individual or family mobility approach, (ii)
corporate or group mobility approach, (iii) comparative approach and (iv) reference
group approach. M. N. Srinivas is the main protagonist of the corporate mobility
approach in India.
Although some stray attempts have been made to develop theoretical postulations
and methodological exercises during the pre-independence period, the first systematic
attempt to define, analyse and understand the process of social change in Indian
society was made by M. N. Srinivas in his significant and path breaking study,
Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India (1952).
The term Sanskritisation used by Srinivas in his study of Coorgs was primarily
meant to describe the process of cultural mobility in the traditional rural India.
Srinivas holds the view that Hindu caste system has never been so rigid that
individuals or castes cannot alter or raise their status. He defines Sanskritisation
as the “process by which a low caste or tribe or other groups takes over the
customs, rituals, beliefs , ideology and life style of a higher caste and in particular
‘twice born’ (dwija) caste” Srinivas, (1952). For instance, a low caste or tribe
or any other group may give up non-vegetarianism, consumption of liquor, animal
sacrifice, etc. and imitate the Brahmin’s life style in matter of food, dress, and
rituals. By following such a process, within a generation or two, they may claim
52 a higher position in local caste hierarchy. Originally, Srinivas used the term
“Brahminization” to denote this process, however, when he was confronted with Social Change in
Indian Context
other models of emulation he gave up the term ‘Brahminization’ in preference to
the term ‘Sanskritisation’. Moreover, Sanskritisation is much broader a concept
than ‘Brahminization’ because not only it encompasses non-Brahmin models like
Kshatriya model, Jat model, Vaishya model and models of other ‘twice born’
castes but also denotes a wide spectrum of values and life styles.
The talk of cultural imitation should be in concrete terms so that one could visualise
the scenario as it exists. Sanskritisation may result in the erosion of cultural autonomy
of the womenfolk which includes erosion in the freedom to choose life partner and
adoption of a rigid sexual morality. Changes in family structure include a movement
towards the orthodox Hindu joint family and the concomitant stronger authority of
father, monogamy, a stronger caste organisation with increased tendency of
outcasting/ostracism. Also, a rigid commensality prevails along with changed food
habits- outlawing beef and pork eating, and consumption of liquor, more emphasis
is placed on the acquisition of higher education, adoption of dowry practices
instead of the token bride price etc. In the realm of religion and religious practices,
it frequently results in the donning of sacred thread, giving up sacrifice of pigs at
the time of wedding and increased emphasis on pilgrimage etc.
Srinivas has further explained that political and economic factors have also affected
the process of Sanskritisation. With the establishment of British rule in India the
lower castes got more opportunities to sanskritise themselves and subsequently
raise their social status because the new rulers and a new political order were not
socially involved in the dynamics of caste hierarchy.
Sometimes, a lower caste aspiring to climb upward in caste hierarchy through the
process of Sanskritisation may have to face hostility from the higher castes especially
of middle strata. Sanskritisation refers to a cultural process but it is essential to
realise that it is usually a concomitant of the acquisition of political or economic
power by a caste. Both are parts of the processes of social mobility.
Talking of new agents of Sanskritisation, Srinivas, (1992) talks of the festivals of
the village deities and the calenderical festivals being increasingly sanskritised. Hari
Kathas, Yagna, Jagran etc. are being celebrated with much more ostentation in
Indian towns and cities. Religious figures, in ochre robes promising salvation or
more concrete things to the people, continue to appear on the Indian scene. In
fact, they enjoy audience which they could not have dreamt of before the
newspapers, the microphone and the radio/television became popular. Everyone
of them can be regarded as a Sanskritising agent. Indian films frequently make use
of religious themes taken from the epics and Puranas. The availability of low
priced books has enabled people to become acquainted with Hindu religious
literature in a way not possible ever before.
Sanskritisation as a process of social mobility may be observed empirically even
among the non-Hindu communities especially those with well defined social hierarchy
such as Muslims and Sikhs and in lesser degrees among other communities too.
Cultural emulation for the sake of status elevation has been the prime motive force
among the non-Hindu communities too.
When we talk of cultural imitation of the higher castes/dominant castes by an
aspiring lower caste we must not forget that in several cases the motive force is
not always cultural imitation per se but an expression of challenge and revolt
against socio-economic deprivation and frustration like in the case of a lower
caste insisting to carry his bride in a palanquin or the bridegroom riding a horse. 53
Society and Culture Because of erosion in the importance of the ritual component of our lifestyle,
especially in towns and cities, some observers make the comment that the process
has lost its’ relevance in determining social status. While it is true that power and
wealth are the main components of secular status, any status achieved by such
means is still sought to be legitimised through acceptance into a higher born social
group or by burying one’s community identity or birth origins. Thus, these new
principles of status operate contingently together with the caste principle of social
stratification and only rarely do they operate autonomously.

4.4 WESTERNISATION AND MODERNISATION

Westernisation seems to be a much simpler concept when compared with its’ twin
concept of Sanskritisation. It refers to all cultural changes and institutional
innovations in India as this country came into political and cultural contact with the
western nations specially Britain. More precisely, it is “the changes brought about
in Indian society and culture as a result of over 150 years of British rule. The term
subsuming changes occurring at different levels- technology, institutions, ideology
and values” Srinivas, (1972). He prefers to call this process westernisation and
not modernisation. On a wider plane westernisation includes a scientific approach,
emphasis on materialism rather on spiritualism, individualism, liberal approach
towards various problems of the society, humanism, equality, egalitarianism and
rationalism. Establishment of scientific technology and educational institutions, rise
of nationalism, new political culture and leadership in the country are all by products
of westernisation.
The impact of Westernisation on Indian society may clearly be observed in a
number of spheres. It has influenced caste system and the lessening rigidity may
be assigned, to a great extent, to the impact of Westernisation; it has promoted
the disintegration of joint family and it has induced a number of social reforms
movements. In the economic and political sphere it has disintegrated cottage
industries, promoted variety in cultivation, introduced new measures in land
management; it has promoted democratic values and ideals, national consciousness,
social justice, and a uniform administrative system in the whole length and breadth
of the country. To be more precise, emphasis on humanitarianism and rationalism,
as a part of Westernisation, led to a series of institutional and social reforms in
India.
Srinivas expresses the view that increase in Westernisation does not retard the
process of Sanskritisation; both go on simultaneously. Interestingly, in some cases,
increase in Westernisation accelerates the process of Sanskritisation. For instance,
the expanding means of communication like postal facilities, railways, newspaper,
western technology etc. have given fillip to pilgrimages, religious propaganda, and
caste and communal congregations. Moreover, a significant by product of
Westernisation is that under its impact many higher castes (who are more exposed
to Westernisation through English education) give up their traditional life style.
It is observed that usually the westernised ones live minimally in the universe of
caste and maximally within the universe of class; they may practice non-traditional
occupations, ignore rules of ritual pollution, dietary restrictions and may marry
outside the caste/region/religion; they may give up the practice of maintaining
gotra or caste names, adopt non-vegetarianism, give up the practice of eating in
the kitchen or chauka and may give up sacred thread. In other words, the
westernised ones tend to adopt western models and lifestyle. The lower castes
54 aspiring to attain higher status in the caste hierarchy try to fill this vacuum by
adopting the sanskritic models given up by the higher castes under the impact of Social Change in
Indian Context
westernisation. This is yet another instance of westernisation and sanskritisation
going together.
It may be observed that the lower castes spend a lot of energy on sanskritisation
while several higher castes turn to westernisation as a means of maintaining the
social distance between themselves and the lower castes which is no longer possible
within the old order in the face of the later’s current ability to sanskritise themselves.
Supplementing this line of argument further, Harold Gould (1988) comments that
if one is already sanskritised, as the Brahmins and the Rajputs are, then one
cannot go any higher up further in the traditional stratification system. If one cannot
maintain things as they are through the application of political and economic power,
then one can only go down or accept the notion of equality which means accepting
the nullity of caste system itself and hierarchical relationship in general. This is
patently impossible for the higher castes with the deeply embedded conception of
their inherent superiority and so they must ironically move outside the caste system
which spawned them in order to preserve their pretensions to paramount status in
Indian society. Meanwhile, “the lower castes keep chasing the mirage of equality
with the higher castes. But by the time they reach their destination, they discover
that the Brahman has himself vacated the spot and moved on to the higher hill of
westernisation where he still gazes contemptuously down upon them from an
elevated perch.” (Gould, 1988. ibid). Perhaps that is why in a number of cases
the well off and aspiring sections of the lower castes in towns and cities may be
going straight to westernisation. But for the majority of the lower caste population
the idiom of westernisation may be too complex, incomprehensible and difficult to
understand and adopt. Thus we find an important and dynamic interplay between
the processes of sanskritisation and westernisation.
However, the term westernisation itself is not free from controversy and
complications. Some scholars have advocated the term ‘de-sanskritisation’ for
westernisation. Moreover, Srinivas equates westernisation with the British impact
on India. This may not be a correct assessment when viewed in totality. The post-
independence period has witnessed a lot of Russian and American influence on
India. The Russian and American versions of modernisation in our economic
measures of far reaching importance have also influenced the Indian society to a
large extent. The continuing five year plans, emphasis on public sector and
nationalisation or socialisation (till recent years) in our economic planning are the
instances of distinct socialist impact. Of late, some Chinese impact is also
discernible in our health care measures especially in rural areas. To some other
scholars the term westernisation sounds value loaded because of its colonial
connotation. Hence, they advocate the term modernisation.

4.4.1 Modernisation
Modernisation has been a dominant theme after the second world war specially
in nineteen fifties and sixties and a central concept in the ‘sociology of development,’
referring to the interactive process of economic growth and social change.
Modernisation studies typically deal with the effects of economic development on
traditional social structures and values. The process of modernisation is related to
the industrialisation, urbanisation, high standard of living, development of civilization
and broadness of view point. Defining modernisation Eisenstadt (1966) says that
“from a historical viewpoint modernisation is the process of change towards those
types of social, economic, and political systems which were developed in Western
Europe and North America from the 17 th to 19th century and after that spread 55
Society and Culture over to South America. Asia, and Africa during the 19th and 20th centuries”. In the
context of contemporary times the concept of modernisation is the response of
western social science to the many challenges faced by the third World in the
decades immediately following the second world war. Therefore some scholars
considered modernisation to be the child of westernisation. In a brilliant analysis
of the ethical aspect of modernisation, S.C Dube (1988) says that “an attractive
feature of the concept was that it showed an apparent concern for the cultural
sensitivities of both the elites and the masses of the third world. The term
modernisation was much less value loaded than it’s predecessor westernisation”.
Most countries in the Third World were proud of their cultural heritage and deeply
attached to it. While desiring western standards of plenty they had no desire to
abandon their own life styles and values. The concept of modernisation recognised
the strength of roots; it did not pose any overt threat to the cultural identity of the
people aspiring for rapid change. To the elite of the third world the ideal of
westernisation was difficult to swallow; they accepted modernisation readily because
it did not appear to offend their cultural dignity. According to Lerner (1958), three
features constitute the core of modernised personality – empathy, mobility, and
high participation. Empathy is the capacity to see thing as others see them. All
societies possess this capacity in some measure but to sharpen and strengthen, it
can make a qualitative change in human interaction. Such a change is desired in
modernised societies. The second attribute, mobility, does not refer only to
geographical mobility- it is used in a more comprehensive sense. The imperatives
of change demand a capacity to assume, as occasions demand, new statuses and
learn to play associated roles. Unlike the traditional society, which had ascribed
statuses and roles, the modernised society has an open status system. The third
attribute-high participation- refers to the increased role of individuals in realising
social goals and objectives in more active ways; high participation requires the
capacity in individuals to visualise new goals or alter objectives and modify their
roles accordingly. In traditional societies social objectives are not open to question;
the core of modernisation is, of course, rationality.
One of the most significant features of modernisation is that modernised societies
operate through institutional structures that are capable of continuously absorbing
the change that are inherent in the process of modernisation. Let us see very
briefly as to how the contemporary Indian society is striving to adopt modernisation
for economic growth and social change. On the agricultural and industrial fronts
the country’s performance is not as poor as some of its critics make it out. Our
record in these fields is better than that of many Third World countries. But the
development has been lopsided and full of regional imbalances. The distributive
aspects of economic growth and the diffusion of the benefits of modernisation
appear to have received little serious thought. The growth of elitism is alarming
and it should be curbed. Rampant corruption and nepotism are the product of the
prevailing state of moral decay. All possible political and administrative steps
should be taken to arrest this trend. The cohesive bonds of society should be
strengthened.
As very rightly observed by S. C. Dube (ibid), “there is no standard model of
modernisation and no fixed path for its attainment. Developing societies can adopt
a model of their choice and can chalk out their own path for it’s realisation.” We
have chosen democracy and secularism as the basis of the aspired for modernised
Indian society. Adoption of modern science and technology alongwith a scientific
temper shall go a long way in the achievement of India’s cultural and technological
56 modernisation.
 Social Change in
4.5 MULTICULTURALISM AND GLOBALISATION Indian Context

‘Multicultural’ and ‘Multiculturalism’ are terms frequently used to describe the

ethnic diversity that exists everywhere in the world today. However, there is some
confusion about what precisely they signify. Terms like ‘plural’ and ‘diverse’ have
also been present in the discourse on multiculturalism. These terms are commonly
used to describe societies having different religions, ethnic groups languages and
cultures. Interestingly these words are used interchangeably; plurality suggests the
presence of ‘many’ but does not stipulate anything about the nature of ‘many’.
Does this simply describe diversity? We must be very clear as to why multiculturalism
has overtaken pluralism as the dominant concept. It was common in social science
before the rise of the word ‘multiculturalism’. Multiculturalism as a coherent theory
with its district conception of democracy and citizenship, has emerged only in
recent past. As Gurpreet Mahajan (2002) points out, “the simultaneous presence
of many cultures and communities within the same social space points to a plural
social fabric, but it should not be taken as the presence of multiculturalism. The
latter entails something more than the mere presence of different communities or
the attitude of tolerance in society. Multiculturalism is concerned with the issues of
equality; it asks whether the different communities living peacefully together, co-
exist as equals in the public areas”? Thus it is the emphasis on equality that
distinguishes multiculturalism from pluralism; pluralism remains silent about the
status of different groups or communities.
Extending the debate to more serious analysis David Theo Goldberg (1994) in his
seminal work writes “that multiculturalism stands for a wide range of social
articulation… The systematic sectoral division of the world into discrete spheres
of control and management of human population creates a severe challenge to
creating a truly democratic, equal, diverse, but coherent world.”
The term ‘multiculturalism has not been much used in India, except in the recent
times by the left-liberal intellectuals. When we look at the contemporary situation
in India we find that the Indian constitution is the main source of multicultural state
policies. It may be seen as the basic multicultural document in the sense that it
provides political and institutional measures for the recognition and accomodation
of the country’s diversity in the post- independence period. Right to equality, in
all respects, is the cornerstone of multiculturalism in India and it has unleashed
forces of social change, changing the fabric of hierarchical Indian society in which
all the groups never enjoyed equal share in the power structure. Creation of tribal
states and sub-states such as Tribal District Councils may be seen as the acceptance
of multiculturalism as state policy.
As Gurpreet Mahajan (1999) rightly points out, this concern for equality and non-
discrimination of people of minority communities links multiculturalism to democracy
in a fundamental way. The single most important value of democracy is non-
discrimination. Thus, the concept of multiculturalism contributes to the agenda of
democratisation and non-discrimination. It also provides safeguards against
‘majoritarianism’ coming in the garb of democracy. Till the time Indian democracy
becomes mature, the threat of majoritarianism shall always be there. Thus we can
say that how much flawed and immature Indian democracy may be, if the state
continues to follow multiculturalism, society in India will continue to change.

4.5.1 Globalisation
Globalisation is as fascinating a term these days as modernisation, development,
and change have been in the 20th century. Globalisation has emerged as one of the 57
Society and Culture most important and talked about phenomena of the present age with its social,
economic, and political dimensions. The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology (1985)
described globalisation as “a process in which social life within societies is being
increasingly affected by international influences based on everything from political
and trade ties to shared music, clothing styles and mass media”. Perhaps, the most
powerful form of globalisation is economic in which planning and control expand
from a relatively narrow focus such as a single firm doing business on a regional
or national basis to a broad global focus in which the entire world serves as a
source of labour, raw materials and markets.
Analysing the necessity of international economic and socio-political management
in the face of globalisation, Samir Amin (1997), a renowned and strong voice on
the issue of globalisation and its implications for the third world countries, says that
the globalisation of the capitalist system is certainly nothing new, but it has undeniably
taken a qualitative step forward during the most recent period. Rise of ethnicity
as a political response to economic globalisation is yet another important dimension
of globalisation. The rise of Hindutva forces in India pretending to be nationalist
but, in reality, opposed to pluralism and consequently anti-minority in character,
the emergence of Muslim fundamentalism in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and some other
nation-states exhibiting similar trends has been strengthened by the process of
globalisation; ethnic violence of the worst type is an alarming trend in the face of
globalisation.
When we analyse the impact of globalisation on Indian society in the sphere of
economy, the ‘new economic policy’, liberalization’, its consequences are accepted
as the direct fallout of globalisation. But, if we wish to see it in concrete sociological
terms, we find that it has impacted various social groups in a variety of ways.
Women in India have been badly affected by globalisation-economically and socially.
Because of scarcity of food and other necessities of life the poor, for sheer
economic reasons, feed their girl children less than their boys, as boys are perceived
as major bread earners. This also contributes to the widening gap in sex ratio.
With decreasing subsidy on food, the food security has been shrinking rapidly and
the poor women have to spend more hours on unproductive and meaningless
labour. With growing retrenchment of their men folk, women previously working
as agricultural labour are mostly consigned to the organised sector in urban areas
at starvation or less than starvation wages. Hiring women workers seems to be
more convenient for the employers because women workers face more difficulties
in getting organised than the male workers and hence more susceptible to
exploitation. On the other hand, upward climbing middle classes and elite are
getting more opportunities to take up diverse roles. Women entraprenuers are far
more visible now than at any point of time in the past.
While globalisation is making people more materialistic and money minded, the
greed for dowry is also increasing rapidly and the poor parents are being further
pushed into difficult and humiliating conditions. With increasing globalisation, a
frenzy has been created over the so called beauty contests. As Arvind (2002)
rightly point out, “while the benefits of this frenzy are reaped by the multinational
corporations who advertise their products via these phenomenon, the entire display
has had its impact on the minds of urban women particularly middle class and
lower middle class young women”. The vast proliferation of beauty parlours and
rapidly increasing cosmetics industry are the natural corollary of this phenomenon.
Equally, by the logic of the ‘market economy’ prostitution is a perfectly legitimate
58 activity – one more industry of the ‘service sector’. In this age of globalisation,
girls from even well to do families are going into prostitution and call girl profession Social Change in
Indian Context
either directly or through the so called beauty parlours, massage parlours and
‘make a friend industry’ through telephonic and internet communication. Market of
pornography has also expanded astronomically. Commoditization of women has
increased many folds. Consumerism and consumer culture has taken under its
shadow, first the urban India, and now the rural society is trapped in it.
Globalisation, no doubt, has impacted adversely the socially and economically
weaker sections of Indian society. The dalits and tribals are the worst sufferers.
Dalits belong to a large section of the society, which has been subjected to human
indignities on account of the caste differentiations perpetrated for centuries and
millennia. They still bear the burden of acute poverty and social degradation. The
increasingly lower allocations for social sector, in the wake of ‘new economic
policy’ and ‘liberalization’ adversely affect the poor – mainly dalits and the tribal
communities. It is the poor who depend largely on public services and any reduction
in budget allocations contribute to the reduction and availability of social services
and their consequent higher costs. In social-economic terms the small gains made
by the dalits through reservation are being reversed. More than 75% of the dalit
workers are still connected with land; only 25% of which are marginal and small
farmers. In urban areas, they mostly work in the unorganised sector. Under the
impact of the new economic policy, the direct fallout of globalisation, land reforms,
the key question for their development, are being pushed out of agenda and are
being substituted with corporatization of farming for the global agricultural market.
Tribal population of the country shares a number of features of the impact of
globalisation with the dalits. As with the dalits, the systematic cuts in welfare
expenditure, dismantling of the public distribution system etc. have also hit the
tribals hard. In the name of ‘development’ the tribal people are being driven off
their lands, their forests are being snatched, their sources of income are being
sapped, and they are, thus, being virtually pushed to death. The entry of multinational
companies into industrial mining and commercialisation of forest products are
likely to increase inequalities of income and consumption between regions and
peoples. The new agricultural policy enunciated by the government is capital
intensive; improved seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers are costly and subsidies are
being withdrawn. There is also encouragement to mechanized farming. This is
harmful to the tribal interests. Globalisation is also promoting over-consumption of
industrial and consumer goods, thus changing the life style of the tribal and other
deprived people, to their disadvantage. Disruption of their traditional crafts and
theft of their indigenous knowledge system by foreign companies is making their
life miserable. The tribal population has always been known for their strong
community life and collective spirit, and they have been using it as part of their
‘survival strategy’. This is rapidly being eroded through the promotion of private
rights at the cost of community rights. Thus, the tribal people are going to be the
worst sufferers and the most coveted sacrificial goat for globalisation.

4.6 SUMMARY
In this unit you studied various aspects of social change in India from colonial rule
to the advent of globalisation as an important factor of social change. It is true
that, like any other society, Indian society, too, has been changing even before the
advent of British rule. Yet, the British rule released such new forces of change that
contributed to much faster pace than ever before. It can be said that the British
rule contributed immensely to the cultural and technological modernisation of India. 59
Society and Culture The process of social mobility in Indian society cannot be understood without a
fairly good understanding of Sanskritisation as it has deeply affected the caste
system and its dynamics. Needless to say, caste system is one of the most important
social institutions in India and any change in it would affect the entire Indian
society.
Globalisation and Multiculturalism are comparatively new actors but they have
started impacting the Indian society in a variety of ways. Just to make it clear, the
impact of globalisation on various segments of Indian society such as tribal
communities, dalits, and women has been explained with the help of suitable
examples scattered all around us.
References
Amin, Samir. 1997. Capitalism in the Age of Globalisation: The Management
of Contemporary Society. London: Zed Books.
Arvind. 2002. Globalisation: An Attack on India’s Sovereignty. New Delhi:
New Vistas Publications.
Bose, N. K. 1975. The Structure of Hindu Society. New Delhi: Orient Longman
Limited.
Dube, S.C. 1974. Contemporary India and it’s Modernisation. New Delhi:
Vikas Publication.
Eisentadt, S. N. 1996. Modernisation, Protest, and Change. Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice Hall.
Ghurye, G.S. 1963. The Scheduled Tribes of India. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.
Goldberg, D.T. 1994. Multiculturalism: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Gould, Harold. A. 1988. Caste Adaptation in Modernising Indian Society.
New Delhi: Chanakya Publication.
Hasnain, Nadeem. 2006. Indian Society and Culture: Continuity and Change.
New Delhi: Jawahar Publishers and Distributors.
_________________2009. Indian Anthropology. New Delhi: Palaka Prakashan.
Johnson, Allan. A. 1995. The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Basil Blackwell.
Kumar, Dharmendra & Yemuna Sunny (ed.). 2009. Proselytization in India: The
Process of Hinduisation in Tribal Societies. New Delhi: Aakar.
Lerner, Daniel. 1958. The Passing of Traditional Society. Glencoe: The Free
Press.
Mahajan, Gurpreet. 1988. Identities and Rights: Aspects of Liberal Democracy
in India. New York: Oxford University Press.
_________________2002. The Multicultural Path. New Delhi: Sage Publication.
Panikkar, K. N. 1966. A Survey of Indian History. Bombay: Asia Publishing
House.
Sinha, Surajit. 1959. ‘Kshatriya Social Movement in south Manbhum’. Bulletin
60 of the Department of Anthropology. Calcutta: Government of India.
_________________ 1962. ‘State Formation and Rajpur Myth in Tribal Central Social Change in
Indian Context
India’; Ranchi: Man in India. 42. (pp-1).
_________________ 1982. Tribes and Indian Civilization: structures and
transformation. Varanasi: N.K Bose Memorial Foundation.
Singh, Yogendra. 1996. Modernisation of Indian Tradition. Jaipur: Rawat
Publication.
Srinivas, M. N. 1952. Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India.
Bombay: Asia Publishing House.
_________________ 1972. Social Change in Modern India. New Delhi. Orient
Longman Limited. First published in 1966.
_________________ 1992. On Living in a Revolution and Other Essays.
New Delhi: Oxford.
Suggested Reading
Singh, Yogendra. 1996. Modernisation of Indian Tradition. Jaipur: Rawat
Publication.
Hasnain, Nadeem. 2006. Indian Society and Culture: Continuity and Change.
New Delhi: Jawahar Publishers and Distributors.
Hasnain, Nadeem. 2009. Indian Anthropology. New Delhi: Palaka Prakashan.
Sample Questions
1) In what way the British rule contributed to social change in India?
2) How does Sanskritisation explain mobility in the caste system?
3) Distinguish between Westernisation and Modernisation.
4) Distinguish between Pluralism and Multiculturalism.
5) Deliniate how the process of Globalisation is affecting various segments of
Indian society?

61
 UNIT 29 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Structure
29.0 Objectives
29.1 Introduction
29.2 What is Social Stratification?
29.2.1 Dinlensionsor Bases of Social Stratification

f 29.3 Types of Social Stratification

29.3.1 Age-set Systein
b
29.3.2 Slave System
29.3.3 Estate System
29.3.4 Caste System

29.3.5 Class System

29.3.G Race and Ethnicity

29.4 Theoretical Approachesto the Study of Social Stratification

I 29.4.1 Functional Approach

I 29.4.2 Coilflict Perspective

I 29.5 Let Us Sum Up

29.6 Key Words
29.7 Further Readings -
29.8 Model Answers to Check Your Progress

I 29.0 OBJECTIVES
- - - -

[ M e r reading this unit you should be able to:

I define the concept of social stratification;

discuss its three dimensions;

I
describe six types of social stratification; and
give an account of the fbnctionalist and conflict thaories of social stratification.

1 29.1 INTRODUCTION
Social stratification is an aspect ofthe wider issue ofsocial inequality. The existence
of socially created inequalitiesis a feature of all known human societies, and, therefore,
it is an important subject for sociologiststo discuss. Social stratification is the last of
the major concepts in sociology, discussed in this book. It is related to the study of
social change, which is the focus of our next block in this course. This unit is also the
link unit between these two blocks.

I
This unit explains what social stratification is, and then discussesits general principles
in terms of the bases or dimensions of social stratification. An account of basic
Sori;~lStructure types of social stratification,is followed by a discussion ofthe current sr~ciological
theories on social stratification.

29.2 WHAT IS SOCIAL STRATIFICATION?'

stratification is a system of social ranking, involving relations of superiority and
inferiority. These relations between the units of rank are governed by a set of norms.
Analytically, stratification is conceived of as an evaluative ranking of social units.
Concretely, it refers to the empirical distribution of advantages and benefits in society.
It can be seen as a process, which is regulated by some principles. These principles
deterdine the bases ofthe distribution of social advantages in society.

29.2.1 Dimensions or Bases o f - ~ o c &Stratification

l
The bases or dimensions of social stratification refer to the different 11:vels of
differentiation which are made to allocate people in a given society. These c& be
listed as follows:
i
i) Class: It refers to differentiation at the level ofwealth. In this sense it can be
termed as economic differentiation. i
4

ii) Power : It refers to differential access to power in society. It includes political, 1

social and other types ofpower. 4

iii) Status : It refers to distribution of prestige or social honour.

In most cases, the three dimensions complement each other. However, Max Weber
(1947) draws a distinction between class, power and status. According to Weber,
class is an economic catego&, a product ofthe market situation. The status group,
on the other hand, constitutes the social order based on prestige or honour. Status

I
is determined bythe social prestige one enjoys. Social prestige is expressed tlvough
dift'erent styles of life. Analytically, class and status groups can be independent
rial St rueture Each of these systems offers clearly argued theories, to explain and justii its respective
system of stratification. In some cases, there is flexibility regarding social mobility
fiom one stratum to another. In other cases, there is little or no chance of mobility
out of a stratum. The followingdiscussion ofthe different types of social stratification,
will make clear what the distinct features of stratificationin human societies are.
29.3.1 Age-set System
Societies, which have been described as stateless type of Fortes and Evans-Prirchard
(1 940), lack centralised government. ?'hey have no office of chief, or if thqr have
such an office, it holds more ritual than secular power. Still, such societies are found
to be stratified on the basis of age. This type of stratification, is a characteri:sticof
certain east African societies. The principle of age is most prominent among the
Masai and Nandi in East Mica, where ranking on the basis of age, is put together
with the exercise of authority, on the basis of seniority. The ranks determined on the
basis of age are called age-sets. All the persons (basically men) born, within a range
or number of years, belong to one set. The first age-set may comprise as short as
six or seven years or as long as fifteen.
In most cases, usually around adolescence, the membership; of the first a p s e t
closes and recruitment to the next set takes place. At this stage, entry to the new
age-set generally involves an initiation rite, such as circumcision or other body-marks.
Thus, after going through the ritual, each member comes out ofchildhood, and takes
of fbll membership of his tribe. Each person, thus, belongs to an age-set, to which
he remains attached throughout his life. Along with other members, he moves 1 o the
next age-set. The age-sets in these societies, determine their social organisation,
because membership of these sets covers all areas of life. It directs a pers13nto
decide whom he may marry, what land he can own, and in which ceremonies he can
take part etc. Thus, membership of each stratum tells a person about his ranking in
society.
In most cases, where age-sets operate, a member of an age-set also belong:; to a
particular age-grade. These grades are clearly marked out fiom one another, so that
a person belongs to only one grade at a time. Generally, a person after childhood
would move &omjunior warriorhood to senior warriorhood. Then he would pcluate
fiom junior elderhood to senior elderhood. The warriors fight and defend their tribe
from attack, while the elders take decisions and settle disputes. They also
communicate with the ancestral spirits. Thus, the age-sets go through the difixent
grades in complete units. In other words, all the members of one particular age-set
move into one grade all at once. Thus, their social status also changes all at once. In
the kinds of societies we belong to, each person usually makes his or her own natural
transition fiom childhood to adulthood and finatly to old age. But in age-set societies,
these transitions are made on a corporate basis as members of large age-sets.
In terms of a system of social stratification,the age-set system providesfor an open
society, in which no one is allocated a particular position for life. Everybody in his
time does become old, and therefore gets a chance to hold decisive authority. Thus,
this is a system in which personnel change within the system, without changing;the
pattern of stratification itself
29.3.2 Slave System
The slave system of stratification does not exist any more. Slavery was abolished in
1 833 by Britain and 1865 by USA. This was characterised by a high degree of
institutionalisation, i.e. there was a solid legal framework to the system. The main
emphasis in this system was on econon~icinequality, wlich rendered certain groups
 phenomena, but in reality the two overlap with each other. The notion ofpower is
the keynote of Weber's theory of social stratification. Both the propertied and the
propertyless can belong to the same status groups. Thus, economically determined
power is not always identical with the social or legal power.
It has been said that Weber's theory of stratification, is a reaction to Marx's theory
of class. We can say that Weber is the founding father of stratification analysis,
which developed best in the U.S.A. M m ,on; the other hand, was not a stratification
theorist. For him the oppositions and contradictions found in modes of production,
were of central importance. In answer to Marx's ideas on Ass, Weber developed
his ideas on stratification. He ernphasised the distinction of theeconomic, social and
political bases of stratification. Thus, he provided amulti-dimensionalapproach to
the study of social stratification.In ESO-14, you will get an opportunity to learn in
detail, about various approachesto, and aspects ofthe study of social stratification.
Here, we discuss different types of social stratification, found in human societies.

Activity 1
Take a round ofyour colony/villageand note down the pattern of housing, such
as, where the richest and most powerfUl people livei, where the market is situated,
where the poorest people live. Write a one page assay on "Social Stratification
in my Community" Discuss your paper with other' students and your Academic
Counsellor at your Study Centre.
Check Your Progress 1
Note: a) Use the space given for your answer.
I b) Compare your answer with the one gden at the end of this unit.

1) What are the three bases of social stratification? Use one line for your answer.
..........................................................................................................

2) Distinguish between class and status group. Use three lines for your answer.

I 29.3 TYPES OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Broadly speaking, the following types of social stratification have been known to
exist:
i) the age-set system
j ii) slave system,
I iii) estate system,
iv) caste system,
v) class system, and
vi) racelethnic system.
1 Social S t r ~ ~ c t u r c The typical characteristics ofthe caste system are - i) the membership is hereditary
I and fixed for life, ii) each caste is an endogamous group, iii) social distance is
encouraged by the restrictionsof contracts and comrnensality wid1members of'other
castes, iv) caste consciousilessis stressed by caste names as well as by conformity
to the particular customs of the particular caste, and v) occu~pationalspecialis ation.
The system is rationalised by religious belief.
Caste operates at two levels. Firstly in terms ofan abstract classification into four
types of 'vama' : brahmin (priests), Kshatriya(lungs), vaishya (merchants) arid sl~udra
(workers). Secondly at the operational village level, there is a division of local
communitiesinto groupingscalled jati. The rigidity of this system is unchange:able.
Marginal upward social mobility, is possible by a process called sanskritisatica. In
this process, members of a lower caste adopt the manners and customs of a higher
caste, and sever their ties with their original caste. (For a descriptiveelaboration of
this concept, you are advised to read block V in ESO-12 and blocks of ESO-14).
Individual features of the caste system can be observed in other societies, which
follows strict segregation ofparticular groups. But caste system in its entirev is of
course, found in India, and outside India among Hindus settled abroad and within
India among non-Hindu groups. The stronghold of caste and the trends towards
change in its nature and hnctioning, have affected the pattern of social ~tratific~~tion
in India. You will learn about this process in ESO-14.

29.3.5 Class System

The class system is very different from the systems of stratification, we have so far
discussed. Social classes are neither legally defined nor religiouslysanctioned grc~ups.
Rather, these are relatively open groups which have been considered to be the by
products oftlle process of industrialisation and urbanisation throughoutthe world, in
all illodem industrial societies.

The class system of social stratification basically implies, a social hierarchy bilsed
primarily upon differences in wealth and income. These differences are expressed
in different life styles and hence different consumption patterns. In some case:; we
also find different manners in terms of speech and dress. As a general type, class-
systems are characterised by social mobility- upward and downward, both inter-
generational and intra-generational.

In studying the concept of class, we face two questions. Firstly, what criteria should
be used to identifjrclasses? Secondly, there is the subjective element, i.e., do people
with identical tangible material assets form a class, even if they are not perceived by
others and thenlselves as a conscious class? For the first problem of criteria, acconling
to Max Weber, the dimensions ofwealth, power and lifestyle are crucial in determiring
the class. Most sociologists geneidlyuse several criteria simultaneously &I detem~ir~ing
the class. For the second 'subjective' problem,'it is generally agreed that the issue
of class-consciousnessshould not be introduced as a definition oftlle class itself.
This is a matter for individual empirical investigation in each case.

Generally, most sociologislsa p e that in all industrial societies we find the existence
of the upper, middle and working classes. Similarly, in agrarian societies a noted
sociologist, Daniel Thorner has identified three classes in the n~ralcountryside in
India. These he called the class of 'malik', 'kisan' and 'niazdur' i.e., the proprietors
who owned land, the working peasants who owned small amount of land and the
labour class or mazdurs who did not own any land but worked on other peoples'
of people without rights. The article "slavery' in the Encyclopaedia oj'Social Social S t r a t i f i c a t i o n
Sciences ( 1 968) makesa distinctionbetween primitive, ancient, medieval and modem
slavery. Here we mention only two main types of slavery-ancient slavery and New
World slavery. Ancient slavery was prevalent in ancient Rome and Greece. Here
slaves were usually foreign prisoners of war. In New World slavery, the basis of
developnlentof slavery were colonial expansion and l-acist ideology. In this system,
the slave was designated as the master's property. The slave had no political and
social rights. He or she was compelled to work. ~ I v i n gupon slave labour, the
masters formed an aristocracy. It is said that the decline of slavery was primarily
brought about, by the inefficiency of slave labour. Some other scholars hold that
slave~ydeclined, because of continued opposition to the slave system by educated
and enlightened public in general, and the anti-slavery struggles organised by the
slaves themselves in different parts of the world at different times. The ancient
slavery was solnewhat reformed, by limiting the owher's right ofpunishnlent and
giving personal rights to the slave. The Christian C h ~ c in
I
h the Roman Empire also
supported the provision of n~anumissionto the slave.
29.3.3 Estate System
This type of social stratification, was characteristic of feudal societies of medieval
Europe. In this system we find hierarchy of social strata, which are distinguished
b d rigidly set off fiom one another by law and custom. The defining feature of the
estate system, was that the position held in the society, depended entirely in terms of
ownership of land. Though this system was less rigid than the caste system, it was
also characterised by hereditary transmission of social position. Each estate had a
clearly defined set of rights by law. At the top of the system existed a royal family,
and a hereditary military aristocracy, who were the landholders. Ranking on par
with this group were the priesthood or clergy, who were allied with the nobility.
Below this were the merchants and craftsmen, who 'were a small proportion of the
population initially, but later formed the nucleus for the emergence of the mipdle
class. At the bottom were the fiee peasants and the Serfs. Defined by a legal set of
rights and duties, each estate had a status. The differences between estates were
reflected in differences in punishments given for identical offences. Comparative
feudal systems and their connections with modem capitalist systems can be traced,
for example, in Japan.
As the nobility was supposed to protect everybody, the clergy to pray for everybody,
and the cominoner to produce food for everybody, the estates may be referred to
as a systenl of division of labour. Lastly, the estates also represented political groups.
In this way, one can say that in classical feudalism, there were only two estates, the
nobility and the clergy. It was only after the 12th century that European feudalism
had a third estate of the burghers, who first remaiqed as a distinct group and later
changed the system itself. Ifwe view the feudal estates as political groups, the serfs,
who did not possess ally political power, cannot bq considered as part of an estate.
This systenl of social stratification is best explaiilkd in terms of the nature of and
relationship between property and political authority in medieval Europe.
29.3.4 Caste System
The caste systein in India can be compared with other typewf social stratification
but it is unique in some senses to the Indian socieq. It is uniquely associated with
Indian agrarian society as well as, the urban conuntmnities like, the Aggarwals, Jains,
etc. It coilsists of essentially closed social groups larranged in a fixed hierarchical
order of superiority and inferiority. It represents the most rigid type of social
stratification in tenns of ascribed as well as socially accepted stratification.
I
point out that disi pearance of ethic identities through the process of assirnilation
is ofien hampered when the doininant groups do not allow the flow of social benefits
to certain groups, deemed to be powerless ethnic minorities. This situaticn gives
rise to ethnic contlicts. All such situations of conflict make the study of social
stratification very impoi$ant,and relevant for sociologists. That is why it is necessary
to also look briefly, at the various theories of social stratification. Here, we j'lscuss I

two major theories, namely, the functionalist theory and the conflict theory.
Check Your Progress 2
Note: a) Use the space given for your answer.
b) Compare your answer with the one given at the end of this unit.
1) What is the term given to ranks determined on the basis of age? Use one line
for your answer.
................................................................................................................
2) Naine two maill types ofslave system. Use one line for your answer.

3) Which form of social stmtification is defined il terms ofi-elationshipto ow:rsllip

of land? Use one line for your answer.

4) Name the two levels at which the caste system in India operates. Use four
lines for your answer.

5) Which ofthesix types of social stratification,is comm'onlyfound in indmtrialised

societies? Use one line for your answer.
................................................................................................................
6) Give the sociological definition of race. Use three lines for your answer.

29.4 THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO THE

STUDY OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION -
At least four social processes are associated with stratification. These processt:s
are discussed below:

i) Differentiation refe~sto allocatioilof 1-oles,rights and responsibilities. Through

differeltiation of statuses tasks are clearly defined anddistin~yislled.Motivation
and rewards are provided for fulfilment of expected roles and responsibilitiei;.
 land. (Thomer, D. in Gupta (ed.) 1992; pp. 265). On the questions of the role of Social Stratification

classes in society and their in- and interlinkages,sociologists have adopted different
approaches and developed different theories of social stratification. About these
I
approaches and theories we will tell you briefly at the ehd of this unit. You can get
more details on these issues in ESO-04 & ESO-14.
,
b

,r In industrial societies, we find that social classes coexist with status groups. This
i
I observation led Max Weber to distinguish between the two, and to look at their
linkages with each other. Max Weber argued that social classes are ranked according
to their relation to the ways of producing and acquiring goods. Status groups however
are ranked according to the ways of consuming goods. This way of understanding
f
, the difference between classes and status groups is an over simplification. Since
Weber's formulationof this distinction. many socio1oE;istshave made studies of the
i notions of class and status. At this stage it will suffice to say that analysing social
stratification in industrial societiesis a very difficult task. In the context of developing
societies, it is an even more difficult task, because in these societiessocial class is
only one coinponent and the elements of status group$,castes or caste-like groups,
racial and ethnic groups exist side by side. ,

29.3.6 Race and Ethnicity

The remaining type of social stratification is the on? based on race and ethnicity.
Race, as a biological concept, refers to a large category of people who share certain
inherited pl~ysicalcharacteristics- colour of skin, type of hail; facial feahires, size of
head etc. Anthropologistsinitially tried to arrive at a classification ofraces, but ran
into problems, because more advanced studies of racial types showed the near
absence of pure races. Thus, the latest thinking is that d l humans belong to a common
group. Recent genetic research indicate that 95 per cent of DNA (gene-rating)
n~oleculesare the samefor all l~umans.The remaining 5 per cent are responsible for
differences in appearance. Outward differences are also seen as varying within a
race rather thaw across the races. Thus, the classification of races floundered at the
scientificlevel.
For sociologists, a race is a group of people who Ne perceived by a given society,
as biologicallydifferent from the others. Thus, people are assigned to one race or
another, by public opinion which is moulded by that society's doininant group, rather
than on any scientific basis. In racist societies, for example South Africa, physical
characteristics are believed to be intrinsically related to moral, intellectual and other
non-physical attributes and abilities.
At the theoretical level, sociologiststalk about race relations as forms of stratification.
These are characterised by unequal access to wealth and power, on the basis of
physical characteristics. We find in this situation a e presence of racial ideologies in
one forin or the other,
Looking at etl~nicity,it can be said that whereas race is based on popularlyperceived
physical traits, ethnicity is based on cultural traits. Ethnic group is thus defined as a
common group of peoples with a common cultural heritage (leanled, not inherited).
This group inay s11a-e a common language, histoiy, national oiigin, or lifestyle.
~

The factor of migration on a massive scale in the lpst century, provided sociologists
an opportunity to exaillinethe fate of ethnic ideqtities. For example, the Chicago
School of Sociologists found that over several gknerations,ethnic identities were
lost and later revised. Gellner (I 964 : 163) aptly describes the situation thus : the
grandson tries to remember what the son tried to forget. However, sociologists also
Social S t r u c t u r e
Activity 2 1
Think about your local community and the kind of social inequality fouuid in it.
I Now read carefu~llythe section 29.4 of this unit and write an essay on which
1 approach you think is more suitable, the functionalist or the conflict approach
towards the uhderstanding of your community. Discuss your answer with the
students and Academic Counsellor of your Study Centre.

29.4.2 Conflict Perspective

According tothe conflict perspective, stratificationoccurs not because it is hnctional,
but because groups compete for scarce resources. Thus, rather than performing a
hction, stratificationreflects an unjust allocation of resourcesand power LI society.
,Those having power exploit the rest in the competition for resources and power in
society. Those having power exploit the rest in the competition for resources. The
unequal distribution of rewards reflects the interest of the powefil groups rather
than the societal needs. Conflict theorists also say that the use of ideology by clominant
groups justifies their dominance. Further if a system is to survive and reproduce
itself, the subordinate group must also follow the system. It would otherwise lead to
instability ofthe society.
The conflict perspective is understood easily when one looks at the history of
stratification systems. Tuniin (1969) looked at the hctional theory from a conflict
perspective. He felt that far from being functional, stratification systems are
dysfunctional. Firstly, stratification limits the opportunitiesofthe under-privi leged or
subordinate groups in society. This limitation of opportunities represents a loss of
talent to the wider society. Secondly, stratification helps to maintain the stiltusquo
even when the status quo has become dysfunctional. This is because the privileged
class is able to impose upon society the idea that tlie existing inequalities are natural,
logical and morally right. Thirdly, because stratification systems distribute rewards
unjustly,they encouragethe less privilegedto becomehostile, suspiciousand di:mtfid.
This results in social unrest and chaos. ,
Although, Marx was not a stratification theorist, much of conflict theory came up in
response to his approach to classes and class conflict. According tcl Marx,
development of material production forms the basis of progress. In order to achieve
production, classes come into being. A class, due to historical factors, gains control
of the productive forces (the means of production) in a society. The others then
become subservientto tli9class,and this leads to antagonistic relations amongclasses.
In Marxist theory, social classes have a decisive role in the process of social change.
Those attitudes make sure that widespread ideology in society is that which suits
them most. This situation gives rise to conflict between classes. Within the conflict
theory, Marx's ideas were criticised by many sociologists. Social Stratification
(ESO-04 and ESO-14) deals in detail with various aspects ofthe conflict tlieoiy.
Check Your Progress 3
Note: a) Use the space giben for your answer.

b) Compare your answer with the one given at the end of this unit.

1) Name the four social processes associated with stratification. Use two lines
for your answer.
I ii) Ranking of statuses is based on personal characteristics, trained skills and Social Stratification
consequences of tasks performed.

I i

iv)
Evallrafionof ranks depends upon values cherished by a society. Evaluation
is also based on prestige and preferability attacHed with a given status.
Reward and punishment depend upon perforpance as well as society's
evaluativeconsiderations.
A number of theoretical approaches have been put forward for studying these
processes, involved in stratification. Of these, functiqnal and conflict approaches
occupy a place of prominence. I

29.4.1 Functional Approach

I

Differentiation based on division of work is considered an inevitable state of &airs

in all human societies. One person obviously canndt perform all or most of the
fbnctions in a society. One has to depend upon other ptrsons for some tasks, which
one does not or cannot perform. Similarly,others d e ~ n upon d him or her for those
tasks which he or she performs. Thus, for different fiinctions,persons of different
intent and ability are required. These by sheer ldifferentialintent, ability and
perfomlance become different b m each other. Their fipctionsare valued differently.
They are rewarded according to the values attached to their functions. It is this
differential reward pattern which gives rise to stratification and hierarchy.
Functional theorists of stratification, such as Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore
stress the necessity of stratification in the hctional s$nse. They observe that it is a
universal phenomenon,and go on to argue that it must &rve a usell positive function,
and be necessary for societal survival. For them, it is the mechanism by which
society ensures, that the most perfect positions m carefdlyfilled, bythe most qualified
and able persons in society. They observe that sincethese top positions require a
substantial period of training and deferral of gratification, they also receive higher
rewards, in ternls of prestige and monetary reward$. These act as motivational
factors to perform efficiently in the job. Thus, according to this theory, the unequal
possessioil of talents is handled by the system of stratification. This theory provides
us an understanding of the present system of stratification. With the help of this
theory, the parts of a society can be related to the whole of it.

II
I
However, sociologists, such as Tumin (1969) and Dahrendorf (1 959), have
challenged the basic assumptiollsof this theory. Fok example, Davis and Moore
(1945) have been criticised for confusing social stratification with the existence of
specialised roles or division of labour. In fact, stratification refers to a system of
~~llequallyprivileged groups and individuals, rather than the differentiationbased on
division of labour.
The Davis-Moore approach is too general to explain 'the specific nature and causes
of social inequality. It ignores the possible negative Consequencesof stratification
and differential opporhmitiesfor mobility.

I
I
I

Ralph Dahrendorf(l959) observes that stratificatioboriginates from the "closely

related tiinity of nom~,sanction and power". A sociaty has an authority structure to
sustaiil its system of norms and sanctions. It has a systdm of"ilstitutiona1ised power".
It is the possessioll of this power in terms of "coercio@'and "coerced" that explains
social stratification. According to Dahrendorf the functional theory does not

I
specificallyexplain the distribution ofpower, authorityand privilege as the basis of
social stratification.
P

I
Social Structure process of attempting to change one's rank by giving up
attributes, that define acaste as low and adoptmgattributes
that are indicative of higher status, has been called
Smkritisation. \

Serf : A person, belonging to a servile feudal class, bound to

the soil and the master,
Slave : A person held in submission as the chattel of a mmter.

Social Mobility : A change in status within the ranked social levels of a

society.

29.7 FURTHER READINGS

Beteille, Andre, (ed.) 1976. Social Inequality. Penguin Books : London. 11
Bottomore T.B., 1965. Classes in Modern Sociely. George Allen and Unwin :
London.
11
Tumin, Melvin M., 1969. Social Irtrati#cation. Preiltice Hall of India : Delhi

29.8 MODEL ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR

PROGRESS -
Check Your Progress 1
1) The three bases of social stratification are:
i) class, ii) status, iii) power.
2) Class is an economic category, based on one's income while status group is
determined by the social prestige one enjoys.
Check Your Progress 2
1) Ranks determined on the basis of age are called age-sets.
2. The two main types of slavery are - Ancient slavery and New World slavery.
3) Estate - system of social stratificationis determined on the basis of one's
relationshipto ownership of land.
4) Caste operates at two levels. Firstly, at a1All-India level, caste is understood
in terms of a four-fold classification of varnu-Brahmin, kshatriya, Vaish;va
andShudra. secondly,it operates at the village level in terms of "jati".
5) Class system is the most commonly found system of social stratification ~n
industrial societies.
6) In sociological terms, race can be defined as a group of people who are
considered by a given society as biologically different fiom the others.
Check Your Progress 3
1) The four processes ii~volvedin social stratification are :
i) differentiation, ii) ranking, iii) evaltlationand iv) rewarding
3) The functionalist theory helps one to understand the existing system of social
stratification in society. Secondly, it helps in lzlating the pats of socieh to the
whole and one part to another.
4) According to conflict theogr, social stratification occurs in society because
68
groups compete for scarce resources.
 Social S t r r t i f i c r t i o ~ ~
2) Give two ways in which the functionalist apbroach to the study of social
stratificationhelps a sociologist. Use three. linbs
1 - for your answer.
................;..............................................................................................
3) Give, in one line, the main reason why, accbrding to the conflict theory,
stratification occurs in society.

I 29.5 LET US SUM UP

I
I
After definingsocial stratificationas a system of social mnking involving relations of
superiority and inferiority, we have discussed its tlbee dimensions, namely, class,
status and power. Then we described the six types pf social stratification;namely,
i)
3
the age set system,
slave system,
I
) estate system,
I
, iv) caste system,
v) class system, and
vi) racdethnic system;
.existing in human societies. This unit outlined theoretical approaches for studying
various processes involved in social stratification. We concluded the discussion
with an account of the fhctionalist and conflict,approachesto the study of social
. stratification.

29.6 KEY WORDS

: An upper class, comprising an hereditary nobility.

: Inhabitants of borough or a town.

Commensality : The relationship involving those who habitually eat

together. I
d

Commoner : One of the ordinary deople, without a noble rank.

: The extent of one's idterest in land or a person's property
in land and tenements or a landed property.
Evaluative Ranking : Determining a rank on the basis of its high or low value.
: The relation oftloid to vassal (a person under the
protection).
Manumission : Fonnal release fiow slavery,

New World : The westernhemisphere, especially the continents of north

and south America.
Sanskritisation : At some time or the other, most castes try to raise their
rank in the local hierarchy, by giving up their attributes
and trying to adopt those of castes above them. The
I
S t ~ c i : ~Structure
l Merton, R.K., 1957. Social Theories andsocial Structure. The Free PI-ess:
Glencoe. Chapter IX, pp. 281-386.
Mitchell, J.C., 1969. Social Network in Urban Situations. Manchcster
University Press : Manchester.
Nadel, S.F., 1957. lhe Theory of Social Culture, Colen and West : London.
Newcomb, T.H., 1969. Communiy Roles in Attitude Formation. American
Sociological Review No.1.
Radcliffe-Brown, A.R., 1952. Sti-uct~lreand Function in Primitive Sociezy.
The free Press : Glencoe, Chapter IX, pp. 178-187.
Southall, Aidan, 1959. On Operational Theory ofRole. Human Relations 12 :
17-34.
Thorner, Daniel 1992. Agrarian Structure in Dipankar Guptq (ed.) Social
StratQkation. Oxford University Press : Delhi.
lhmin, M., 1969. SocialStratificatio?~.
Prentice Hall of India : New Delhi.
 Social Stmtifir:~titba
REFERENCES
reference.^ cited in Block 7 : (These are given here for those students who wish to
I
follow up certain points in detail)
Banton, Michael, 1965. Roles: An Introduction td the Study of Social Relations.
Tavistock Publications : London Chapters 3,4,5 and 7, pp- 42-126 and 151-
,
171. I

Bottomore, T.B. 1962. Sociology: A Guide to Prqblems andliterature. Vintage

Books : New York. I
I

Cohen, Percy, 1968. Modern Social 7heory. Heineman Educational Books

Ltd. : London. Chapter 3,34-68.

I Cuff, E.C. and Payne, G.C.F., (ed.) 1984. Perqectives in Sociology (Second
Edition). George Allen and Unwin : London. pp. 28-30.
Da hrendorf, 1959. Class and Class Conflict inlIndustria2Soceity. Routledge
and Kegan Paul : London.
Davis K., and Moore W., 1945. Sonze Principles of Stratification. American
Sociological Review 10 : 242-249.
Dumont, L., 1970. Homo Hierarchic~ds.The Upiversity of C h i c a g :~Chicago.
I

Durkheim. E., 1915. The Elementary Forms ofthe Religiozrs Life. (Trans. J.S.
Swain in 1965). The Freee Press : Glencoe.
1964 (reprint). The Division ofLahour in ~ouiety.
The Free Press : Glencoe.
Chapter I, pp. 49-69.
' 1982 (reprint). The Rz4le.s qfSociologicalMePhod.(First Published in 1895).
Macmillan : New York.
I

Evans-Pritchard, E.E., The Nzrer. Clarendoh Press : Oxford 1940.

I

Firth, Raymond, 1956. Elements of Social O&anisatior~.Walts and Company

: London.

Fortes, M., and Evans-Pritchard, E.E., 19401African Political Sy.~tem.s Oxford

University Press : London.
Gellner, E., 1964. Thoughf andchange. Weidenfield and Nicolson : London.
Leach Edmund, 1968. Social Str~lctzrre.Iq David 1. Sills (ed.) Internaitonal
Encycolopaedia ofSocial Sciences. MacmiQanCompany and the Free Press
: Glencoe.
I

~ e v Stl-auss,
i C. 1953. Socicrl Structure id A.L. Kroeher (ed) Anfhropology
Today Ail Ei ~cyclopr~dicinventory.The University of Chicago Press : Chicago
and London. pp. 524-553.
Linton, R, 1936. The Stlrdy ofMan. D. Appleton Century Co. : New York.
Chapter VlU, pp. 113-131.
Malinowski, B., 1922. Argoncr~rfs
ofthe Wfsternl'acific. Routledge & Kegan
Paul : London. 69
UNIT 3 MARRIAGE
Contents
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Concepts, Meaning and Definitions
3.2.1 Prescribed and Preferential Marriages
3.2.2 Types of Marriages
3.2.3 Ways of Acquiring a Mate
3.2.4 Divorce

3.3 Functions of Marriage

3.4 Changing Dimensions of Marriage
3.5 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives

After reading this unit, the students should be able to:
 define the different rules and types associated with marriage;
 outline the various functions of a marriage; and
 discuss changing aspects of marriage in the contemporary times.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Marriage is a phenomena found in all types of societies though the pattern of
marriage differs in different societies. The first section of the unit would introduce
the students to the concept, definition and meaning of marriage, the various types
of marraiges that are prevalent in different societies. Herein, we would be able to
answer the question as to why marriage rules though not similar among the different
societies yet have almost the same functions. With the changing times, marriage
too has come under the hammer and the institution itself is going through various
changes. These would be discussed in the last section of this unit.

3.2 CONCEPTS, MEANING AND DEFINITIONS

Marriage by most anthropologists has been described as a universal phenomena
yet the debate continues as to how marriage came into existence. In the early
year’s social thinkers and anthropologists basically the followers of the theory of
evolutionism were of the opinion that human beings lived in a state of promiscuity
where individual marriage did not exist. In such a society all the men had access
to all the women and the children thus, born were the responisbility of the society
at large. This slowly gave rise to group marriages to bring regulation and general
order in the society where either many men were married to several women or
sereval men were married to a single woman and vice- versa. However, later in 29
Kinship, Marriage and the day the natural instinct of jealousy imbedded in human beings has been assumed
Family
as the reason behind single marriages to restore harmony in a society. So far in
the theoretical part Block 3 unit 1 Classical Theories, and also in Block 1 unit 2
Philosophical and Historical Foundations of Social Anthropology, we have discussed
that the earlier societies were nomadic and the rule of the age was anarchy, so it
is impossible to state exactly where and when marriage first originated. While
anthropologists like Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht (1861), McLennan Primitive
Marriage (1865) and others were of the view that society emerged out of mother
right, there were others like Sir Henry Maine through his work Ancient Law,
(1861) postulated that since the emergence of soceity the rule was partiarchy. So
far this goes, the debate continues. Leaving this aside let’s start with understanding
what the term ‘marriage’ stands for, instead of trying to focus on how marriage
originated, through some of the definitions provided by anthropologists who had
worked in this field.
George Peter Murdock (1949) has defined marriage as a universal institution that
involves residential co-habitation, economic co-operation and the formation of the
nuclear family. While Westermarck had emphasised on marriage as a recognised
union between a man and a woman, that the spouse live together and that the
couple have clearly recognised mutual sexual rights. These definitions could not be
considered as universal definition of marriage as it failed to encompass types of
marriages such as polygynous and polyandrous marriages. Such definitions also
did not take into account marriages where the spouses lived in separate residences
and societies where the responsibility of the child lies with the mother’s brother
rather than with the biological father. These are some of the aspects which we
would take up in later part of the unit.
Kathleen Gough (1959) in her study of the Nayars has defined marriage as a
‘relationship established between a woman and one or more other persons, which
provides that a child born to the woman under circumstances not prohibited by
the rules of the relationship, is accorded full birth-status rights common to normal
members of his society or social stratum’. This definition of marriage by Gough
took into consideration polyandry which was missing in the earlier definitions.
While, Edward Westermarck in a later edition of his book, The History of Human
Marraiges, fifth edition rewritten 1921 due to the criticisms levied redefined
marriage as a social institution which may be defined as a relation of one or more
men to one or more women that is recognised by custom or law, and involves
certain rights and duties both in the case of parties entering the union and in the
case of the children born in it. However, among the Azande of Sudan where
marraiges based on homosexuality is a prescribed norm it does not find a place
in the above definitions of marriage.
William N. Stephens defined marriage as ‘a socially legitimate sexual union, begun
with public pronouncement undertaken with the idea of permanence, assumed with
more or less explicit marriage contract which spells out reciprocal economic
obligations between spouses, and their future children’. This definition also fails to
take into considertaion the taboos that exist in various societies related to marriage.
Thus, for the convinience of anthropological discourse we would refer to the
definition of marriage as in Notes and Queries (given below) to understand the
types of marriages acceptable and practiced in 80% of the societies across the
world. The other forms of marriages would be taken up as variations from the
prescribed norm as they are acceptable only in a few societies.
30
“Marriage is a union between a man and a woman such that the children born to Marriage
the woman are recognised as legitimate offspring of both partners” (Notes and
Queries on Anthropology 1951: 111).

3.2.1 Prescribed and Preferential Marriages

Societies have their own norms when it comes to marriage whom to marry and
who is out of bounds. In certain societies there are certain rules of suitability based
on which a person has to acquire a mate. While selecting one’s mate one has to
follow certain rules and choose the bride/groom within these norms. A man/woman
might be prohibited from acquiring a mate who does not fall under the suitable
category as for example in the Hindu society a woman belonging to a higher caste
cannot marry a man belonging to a caste lower than her. Such, rules when strictly
followed even though when very few members of the suitable category are available
is termed as prescribed norms. The rules which are preferred but not strictly
followed are known as preferential norms. Cross cousin marriage in many societies
is seen as a preferential norm.
Incest taboo is a universal norm for almost all societies, which pertains to restrictions
in marriage and sexual relations among certain categories of close relatives generally
related by blood like father and daughter, mother and son and sometimes also
parallel cousins. Though, incest taboo was not prevalent among the earlier Greek
and the Hawaiian royal families where it was a prescribed norm for marriage. In
these ancient royal families it was believed that royalty could only be passed down
to the child of two royal family members, usually a brother and sister. The Tallensi
of Ghana also does not strongly prescribe to the norm of incest taboo between
brother and sister while a relationship between a man and the wife of a lineage
mate is an unpardonable sin (Mair, 1997).
The rules of either endogamy or exogamy are also prescribed norms in many
societies to which a man has to adhere while acquiring a mate. Endogamy refers
to marriage within a group, while exogamy means marriage outside the group.
Endogamy encompasses marriage within the believers of the same faith or religion,
caste in Hindu society and within members of the same tribe.
In societies where endogamy is prevalent parallel cousin marriage is the preferential
norm. Among such societies marriage between first cousins is permitted, though
where the rule of lineage exogamy is practiced cousin belonging to different lineage
is preferred. For easy understanding; the children of siblings of opposite sex
(brother- sister) - are called cross-cousins; while the children of siblings of the
same sex (brother-brother) are called parallel cousins. In many of the Islamic
societies a man marries his father’s brother’s daughter known as parallel cousin
marriage which is a very rare form of endogamy. The Kurds of eastern and
southeastern Turkey still continue with the practice of parallel cousin marriage.
Cross-cousin marriages are the preferential norm in societies where the rule of
exogamy is adhered to. A man’s lineage is traced either through his mother’s or
father’s side. If the lineage is traced through the father than marriage with his
aunt’s (father’s sisters) daughter is the preferred norm and when lineage is traced
through the mother than the preferred norm for marriage is mother’s brother’s
daughter. When a man marries a daughter of his mother’s brother it’s a matrilateral
cross-cousin marriage while if he marries a daughter of his father’s sister then
it’s a patrilateral cross-cousin marriage.
31
Kinship, Marriage and Matrilateral cross cousin marriages are common in many of the matrilineal societies
Family
like the Kachins and the Purum as described by Edmund Leach in his work ‘The
Political System of HighLand Burma: A Study of the Kachins Social Structure’
(1970), while Meyer Fortes had described the Ashanti and Tallensi of Ghana. In
such societies the rules of descent and authority lies with the mother’s brother and
as such marriage to his daughter puts an end to all such questions of inheritance,
authority and it is a way to avoid conflicts which we would discuss more fully later.
Besides the above mentioned prescribed and preferential marriages, levirate and
sororate at times form a prescribed norm for widows and widowers in a few
societies. Levirate is a marriage form, in which after the decease of an elder
brother the younger brother is obliged to marry the widow. The term levirate is
derived from the Latin word levir meaning husband’s brother. This is a type of
marriage often seen in societies where exogamy is not prevalent. Sororate on the
other hand is a practice in which a widower marries’s his dead wife’s sister.
Reflection and Action
Find out the various preferential and prescribed norms for marriage in your own society
and also reflect upon the reasons for the same.

3.2.2 Types of Marriages

Depending on the type of society, the marriage pattern and style also vary. Before
going into the depth of the topic let’s outline the types of marriages universally
found which are (a) Monogamy and (b) Polygamy. Monogamy is a form of
marriage in which the practice is to have only one spouse at one time. In the
western world the divorce rate is increasingly higher and serial monogamy is
witnessed. Serial monogamy pertains to a state where a man has a series of
wives one after the other, but only one wife at any given point of time. Thus, in
the United States where divorce rate is high but only monogamy is legal, serial
monogamy is widely noticed. In societies like the Hindu society of India monogamy
pertains to non-serial monogamy where a man has a single wife throughout his
life. In such societies the divorce rate is rare and as such it is the preferred norm.
Polygamy is a term derived from the Greek word polys gamos meaning often
married. It is a form of marriage in which an individual has more than one spouse
at any given time, or married to more than one individual. In polygamy when a
marriage involves one man with many women it is known as polygyny. The wives
of a man if sisters or related then such a marriage is known as sororal polygyny.
In many of the Islamic countries this practice is prevalent. In some Australian
Aboriginal societies, the elder brother often marries the two eldest sisters. While
the younger sisters of the wives’ would also marry their sisters’ husband’s younger
brother or brothers. This is said to create a clear advantage in power and self-
sufficiency in these societies. The Swazi society of Africa practice sororal polygyny.
In societies practicising sororal polygyny it is believed that two sisters have better
chances of getting along with one another rather than two unrelated women who
have not grown up together. It is a resilient approach because sisters are assumed
to have less of a competitive approach towards their husband’s affection because
as sisters they would be more inclined towards maintaining harmony and live in
mutual understanding.
The rules of residence in sororal polygyny differ from society to society. In some
societies the wives co-habits like among the Zulus of South Africa, while in the
Swazi society each wife sets up separate residence. Upon death of a husband, the
32 marriage does not come to an end. A blood relative of the husband assumes full
responsibility of providing domestic, economic, and material support for the Marriage
women.  If the wives of a man are not rleated such a marriage is known as non-
sororal polygyny. In the Coromo islands non-sororal polygyny is practiced (Madan
& Majumdar, Mair et.al).
Polyandry derives its name from the Greek word poly ‘many’ and andros ‘man’.
Thus, in this type of marriage a woman is married to more than one man. Societies
where polyandry has been found are Tibet, Canadian Arctic, northern parts of
Nepal, Nigeria, Bhutan, parts of India and Sri Lanka. It is also encountered in
some regions of Mongolia, among the Mosuo people in China, and in some
societies of Sub-Saharan African such as the Maasai people in Kenya and northern
Tanzania and American indigenous communities. Polyandry has been practised in
several cultures — in the Jaunsar-Bawar region in Uttarakhand, among the Nairs,
Theeyas and Todas of South India, and the Nishi of Arunachal Pradesh. Indian
examples would be detailed in Unit 5 Kinship, Marriage and Family in India, of
the same block. The Guanches, the first known inhabitants of the Canary Islands,
practiced polyandry until their disappearance.
Fraternal polyandry refers to a marriage in which a woman is married to two
or more brothers also known as adelphic polyandry. The term fraternal has its
origin in the Latin term frater- ‘brother’. Account of Fraternal polyandry in Indian
Hindu society is seen in the great epic Mahabharata where the five Pandava
brothers were married to princess Draupadi. Polyandry is found in certain regions
of Tibet and Nepal as a socially accepted practice.
The type of marriage where a woman is either married to a number of non-related
men or related kinsmen (clan brothers) such a marriage is known as non-fraternal
polyandry. In the recent past the Todas’ of southern India practiced both fraternal
and non-fraternal polyandry where the husbands were either brothers or related
kinsmen but with the changing age monogamy has made inroads into this society
and is fast becoming a part. Though among the Nayars of Malabar Coast of
Southern India the husbands were not related they had to belong to a social strata
equivalent to that of the woman as prescribed by the society. In societies where
polyandry is practiced, when a woman becomes pregnant the paternity is not
ascribed to the biological father (genitor) but is accepted through a ceremony
wherein any one of the brothers as sociological father (pater) can assume social
responsibility of the child by paying the midwife, as in the case of the Nayars of
Southern India. While in some cases the eldest brother assumes the responsibility
of the child in case of fraternal polyandry (Gough 1959, Mair 1997).
When the husbands of a woman are father and son such a marriage is known as
familial polyandry. It is a very rare form of polyandry and has been found
prevalent among the Tibetians. There are many speculations for such a marriage
and one of them relates to the small population size of the tibetians and the high
altitude in which they live. A wife if taken from other communities who live in the
low lands, it becomes difficult for her to adjust to the harsh climatic conditions and
as such sharing a wife by father and son is taken up as an option.
Polygynandry another variety of polygamy pertians to a marriage where several
men are married to several women or a man has many wives and a woman has
many husbands at any given time. Such marriages were prevalent among the
Marquesans of Polynesia and also among the Todas of the Nilgiri hills and the
Khasas of Jaunsar Bawar of India.
33
Kinship, Marriage and
Family
3.2.3 Ways of Acquiring a Mate
Marriage as the term implies has a lot of connotation in different societies. It does
not just mean a man finding a girl to be his wife. Even when a man chooses a mate
for himself he has to ascribe to the norms of the society while claiming his bride.
Herein, we would outline some of the prescribed customs in societies through
which a man can acquire a mate.
Marriage by negotiation is a very frequently practised way of acquiring a mate.
It is found in most of the simple societies like the Ituri of Congo region in Africa,
Siwai of Soloman Islands, the aboriginals of Australia, Andamanese of Andaman
Islands and also in complex societies like the Hindu society of India, China, Japan,
Europe and America. In such a system either the girl’s family or the boy’s family
(as per the custom) puts forward a propsal for marriage through a thrid party or
mediator. This third party is generally someone known to both the would be bride
and groom’s family. In Indian context it is also known as arranged marriage. In
earlier times the bride and groom meet each other only during the wedding, but
this rigidity is being relaxed now a days. In such a system bride price, bride
wealth, dowry also has an important role to play and it is usually a long drawn
process where consensus of the bride and groom’s family is all done by the
mediator.
Bridewealth is usually the compensation given upon marriage by the family of a
groom to the bride’s family. Varieties of currencies and goods are used for paying
the bridewealth depending upon the societies. Mostly the bridewealth is movable
property given by the groom’s family. For example reindeers are given as
bridewealth by the reindeer-herding Chukchee, sheep by the Navajo, cattles by
the Nuers, Maasai and Samburu of Africa, spears in Somalia etc. The amount of
bridewealth to be paid is based on various factors of which some are related to
the status of the broom’s family and others on the bride and her social acceptance
as prescribed by the society. For example: if a woman has given birth to a pre-
nuptial child than her bridewealth is very low whereas among the Kipsigis of
western Kenya if the distance of the brides natal home is very far away from the
marital home than the bride wealth is very high as she is able to spend less time
at her natal home and devote more time to the domestic chores in the husbands
home. In some cases if the groom’s family is not able to pay the bridewealth than
compensation is made in the means of bride service in the form of labour wherein
the groom goes to the brides house and helps in the hunting, farming and other
related activities. The time span of the bride service varies from society to society
and it might last from a few months to several years (Nanda et.al). Dowry on the
other hand is the transfer of goods and money from the bride’s family to the
groom’s family. Previously a practiced norm in the Hindu society, the tradition of
dowry was prohibited in 1961 under Indian civil law and subsequently by Sections
304B and 498a of the Indian Penal Code. The move was made to protect the
women from dowry related harassment and domestic violence.
Marriage by exchange also forms a part of the marriage by negotiation system.
Herein, such a system the bride price or bride wealth, whichever is applicable to
the society, is waived off by marriage through exchange. This happens generally
if there are daughters or sisters for exchange for the grooms. This helps in not only
forming an alliance but also strengthens the bond between groups. Examples of
such excahnge is seen is societies of Australia, Melanesia, Tive of Nigeria and also
in the some of the tribes in India- Muria Gonds, Baiga of Bustar and the Koya
34 and the Saora of Andhra Pradesh. (Majumdar 1986, Jha 1994 et.al)
Marriage by service is found among some of the tribes in North East India. Marriage
Among the Naga’s of North East India the bride wealth forms a part of the
marriage negotiation and if the groom’s party is not able to pay the bride wealth
then the compensation is through service. The boy works for the bride’s family
and only when the brides family is satisfied that the marriage is solemnised.
Marriage by probation invloves the consent of the brides parents alongwith the
girls consent wherein the groom stays at the brides place on trial basis. Herein,
the groom is allowed to stay with the girl so that they both get to know each
others temperament and if the girl likes the boy the marriage takes place, else the
boy has to pay compensation in cash to the girl’s family. Among the Kukis of
Manipur of India such a marriage is a practised norm (ibid).
Marriage by capture is found in many societies. The capture can be a physical
capture or a ceremonial one. Among the tribes of Yahomamo of Venezuela, Northern
Brazil and the Nagas of Nagaland in India during raids the men from one village
capture and take home females of the other village and marry them as wives. Such
a situation is ascribed as physical capture. In ceremonial capture a boy desiring
to marry a girl propositions her in a community fair or festival and makes his
intentions towards her known by either holding her hand or marking her with
vermillion as in the case of Kharia and the Birhor of Bihar (ibid).
Marriage by intrusion is a type of marriage wherein a girl forces her way into
the boy’s house and forces him to accept her as his spouse. Such marriages are
seen in Birhor and Ho of Bihar and also among the Kamars of Madhya Pradesh.
Marriage by trial is a process in which the groom has to prove his strength and
valour while claiming his bride. In the two great Indian epics Mahabharata and the
Ramayana we have examples of how Draupadi and Sita were claimed by Arjuna
and Lord Rama after they proved their skills in the swayamvar (a gathering where
the eligible males are invited to prove their strength to claim the bride). Such
marriages by trail are still found in many societies in India and some of the
examples are the Bhils of Rajasthan and the Nagas of Nagaland.
Marriage by Elopement is a customary marriage in some societies whereas
looked down in others. In societies where a huge amount of wealth is required for
the marriage rituals and which is usually difficult for the families to bear in such
societies marriage by elopment has come up as a customary practice. Such marriage
is quite in vogue among the Karbis of Karbi Anglong district of Assam. In other
cases marriage by elopment takes place when either of the prospective groom or
bride’s family does not approve of the wedding or when marriage is fixed with a
distasteful partner. In such a case, the would be bride elopes with the partner of
her choice. Such marriage by eleopment is seen in almost all parts of the world
(ibid).

3.2.4 Divorce
Divorce is the situation wherein the husband and wife separates and gives up the
vows of marriage. It can happen due to many reasons and the most common one
is incompatibility of the two partners. Divorce is a situation which can be unpleasant
and painful for both the parties as it leads not only to physical separation of two
people, but all that has been build up during the time together like family, children
and material objects. Divorce is also a universally accepted norm as marriage but
still it is looked down in many societies more so in the case of the wife in a
patrilineal society. 35
Kinship, Marriage and
Family 3.3 FUNCTIONS OF MARRIAGE
Marriage is a sanction for two people to spend their lives together and it has many
implications and functions related to it. Some of the functions are mentioned
herein.
Biological Function
The most important function of a marriage is to beget children. The society gives
recognition to children born out of wedlock and the children thus born are ascribed
status as per the norms of the society. A society basically channelizes the sexual
rights through the institution of marriage and it helps in mating within the rules and
regulations as ascribed by a society. This helps in maintaining the norms of incest
taboo also.
Economic Functions
In order to do away with the discrimination of labour by sex, marriage comes in
as a protective measure wherein the men share their produce with the wives.
Marriage leads to an economic co-operation between men and women ensuring
the survival of every individual in a society.
Social Function
Marriage is the way to forming a family. A marriage sanctions the status of both
husband and wife in a society and thus, they are also collectively accepted by
society as husband and wife. In many societies there are norms where only a
married person can take part in the rituals. For example in the Hindu society there
is a ritual during wedding in which the bride is blessed with oil. In this ceremony
atleast seven married women hold a ring with the tip of their right hand forefinger
on the brides head. Oil then is poured on this ring by the married women. It is
believed that the oil which pours down from the head to below takes away all the
evil and brings in good luck to the would be husband and wife. Normally, widows
and divorcees do not take part in such rituals. Marriage helps in forming new
kinsmen and widening his network.

3.4 DEVIATIONS IN MARRIAGE

Till now we have discussed the general trend that we had seen in the societies so
far that has been observed and written by anthropologists at different times. Herein
this section we would discuss about the deviations in the marriage rules and the
coming up of new types of kinship and family due to a change in the pattern of
mate selection. In the present era two new types of relationship has emerged
which were not prominent in the earlier days – lesbian and gay relationship. A
lesbian relationship is based on the liking of a girl for another girl instead of a man
as it happens in the normal course. Anthropologist Gill Shepherd explored female
sexual relationships among Swahili Muslims in Mombasa, Kenya, and found that
relationships between females were perfectly acceptable, as were relationships
between men. Women were allowed to choose other women as sexual partners
after they are married; so many such women also have a husband at home, or are
widowed or divorced (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cultural_Anthropology/
Marriage,_Reproduction_and_Kinship#Lesbianism_in_Mombasa accessed on 23rd
March, 2011). In other cases in the present day a women has sanction by law to
take up another women as legally wedded. Such marriages are certified by law
in a few American States like Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
36 Vermont, plus Washington, D.C. and the Coquille Indian Tribe in Oregon. In 2005
Canada through the enactment of the civil marriage act became the fourth country Marriage
in the world to accept same sex marriages.
On the other hand a ‘gay relationship’ is based on a man having a liking for other
man commonly known as homosexual relationship. In Nicaragua, the ideal for
masculinity is “machismo”, and being described as a man who is dominant, active,
and violent. While, in the U.S., the term machismo refers to a man dominating his
female partner, often described as male chauvinism. However, in Nicaragua, this
can also be applied to the sexual relationship between man. Greek mythology and
Greek history is galore with reference to homosexual relationships. One example
is the story of Apollo and Hyacinthus; Apollo fell in love with a mortal boy,
Hyacinthus, and became a mentor to the youth. He taught Hyacinthus the art of
war and sports and visited him often. Other Greek gods and Greek heroes have
stories attributed to them about their same-sex relationships, Zeus and Hercules
among them.
When talking about movements for homosexual rights Brazil emerges as the first
country to take up this issue. What sets them apart however is the promenience
with which same-sex rights is being fought for in their culture. SOMOS was the
first organised homosexual group formed in 1979 in Brazil. As of today there are
over 70 groups that are interested in gay rights operating within the country. The
São Paulo Gay Pride Parade is also one of the largest in the world, with over 2
million particpants a year. Even the Brazilian President, Luiz Lula, has been fighting
to pass a ‘homophobia law’ which would count criticizing homosexual behaviour
as a crime (ht t p://en.wikibo o ks.o rg/wiki/Cult ural_Ant hropo lo gy/
Marriage,_Reproduction_and_Kinship#Homosexuality_in_Brazil accessed on 25th
March, 2011). Nepal on the other hand has accepted same sex marriage and
thus, many same sex people from different countries come to exchange their
marriages vow’s, which otherwise is banned in their own country.

3.5 SUMMARY
We can sum up the unit by stating that marriage is a universal phenomena ascribed
and prefered in all human societies. The type of marriage and ways of acquiring
a mate varies from society to society. Marriage has a legal sanction to it and the
children born of wedlock are always accepted by the society. It is the means of
achieving economic and social security for the wife and the children. In course of
time marriage has seen many changes like the lesbian and gay weddings but till
date it is very much a part of society, though at times debates have arised for the
need of marriage when two people are willing to live together.
References
Bachofen, Johann J. (1861) 1948. Das Mutterrecht. 2 vols. 3d ed. Edited by
Karl Meuli. Basel: Schwabe.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1951. Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
________________ 1956. Nuer Religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Ferraro, Gary and Susan Andreatta. 2010. Cultural Anthropology: An Applied
Perspective. Eight edition. USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Fortes, Meyer. 1945. The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
37
Kinship, Marriage and Fox, Robin. 1967. Kinship and Marriage. An Anthropological Perspective.
Family
Baltimore: Penguin.
Gough, Kathleen. 1959. The Nayars and the Definition of Marriage. “Journal
of the Royal Anthropological Institute”, 89: 23-34.
Hutter, Mark. ed. 2003. The Family Experience: A Reader in Cultural Diversity.
Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Maine, Henry. 1861. Ancient Law: Its Connection with the Early History of
Society, and its Relation to Modern Ideas. 1931 reprint London: J.M. Dent.
Mair, Lucy. 1977. An Introduction to Social Anthropology. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Majumdar, D.N. and T.N. Madan. 1986. An Introduction to Social Anthropology.
Fifth National Impression 1990. Darya Ganj, New Delhi: National Publishing
House.
McLennan, John F. 1865. Primitive Marriage: An Enquiry into the Origin of
the Form of Capture in Marriage Ceremonies. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles
Black.
Morgan, Lewis Henry. 1877. Ancient Society. First Indian publication 1944.
Calcutta: Bharati Publication.
Murdock, George P. 1949 Social Structure. New York: Macmillan.
Nanda, Serena and Richard L. Warms. 2011. Cultural Anthropology. 10th Edition,
United Kingdom: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Royal Anthropological Institute. 1951. Notes and Queries on Anthropology. 6th
edition. London: Routledge and Kegan.
Westermarck, Edward. 1922. The History of Human Marriage. The Allerton
Book Company.
Suggested Reading
Fox, Robin. 1967. Kinship and Marriage. An Anthropological Perspective.
Baltimore: Penguin.
Mair, Lucy. 1977. An Introduction to Social Anthropology. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Nanda, Serena and Richard L. Warms. 2011. Cultural Anthropology. 10th Edition,
United Kingdom: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Sample Questions
1) What is marriage?
2) What is prescribed and preferential marriage?
3) What is fraternal polyandry? Illustrate with the help of examples.
4) What is the difference between bride wealth, bride service and dowry?
5) Examine the functions of marriage.

38
 Family
UNIT 3 MARRIAGE

Contents
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography Notes on Love in a Tamil Family
is an Example
3.3 Description of the Ethnography
3.3.1 Intellectual Context
3.3.2 Fieldwork
3.3.3 Analysis of Data
3.3.4 Conclusion
3.4 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
3.5 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography Himalayan Polyandry:
Structure, Functioning and Culture Change: A Field Study of Jaunsar-
Bawar is an Example
3.6 Description of the Ethnography
3.6.1 Intellectual Context
3.6.2 Fieldwork
3.6.3 Analysis of Data
3.6.4 Conclusion
3.7 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
3.8 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives 
After reading this unit, you will be able to understand the:
 concept of cross-cousin marriage in South India; and
 polyandry among the Jaunsar-Bawar.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Throughout the world, marriage is an institutional arrangement between persons,
generally males and females, who recognise each other as husband and wife or
intimate partners. Marriage is a human social institution and assumes some
permanence and conformity to societal norms. Anthropologist William Stephens
said marriage is (1) a socially legitimate sexual union, begun with (2) a public
announcement, undertaken with (3) some idea of performance, and assumed
with a more or less explicit (4) marriage contract, which spells out reciprocal
obligations between spouses and between spouses and their children (Stephens,
1963). For the most part, these same normative conditions exist today, although
many marriage-like relationships are not defined by everyone as socially
legitimate, are not begun with any type of announcement, are not entered into
37
Kinship, Family and with the idea of permanence, and do not always have clearly defined contracts (written
Marriage
or non-written) as to what behaviours are expected. Thus, debate exists as to
whether certain types of intimate relationships (such as among same-sex partners
or unmarried cohabitors) are socially and legally recognised as marriages or families.

3.2 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY Notes on Love in a Tamil
Family IS AN EXAMPLE
Marriage and alliance have been central topics in ethnographic studies in
anthropology and the referred monograph, a profusely illustrated study is a
significant contribution to anthropology and south Asian studies. The Dravidian
kinship system with its preference for cross-cousin marriage has been the subject
of wide anthropological theorising. Cross-cousin marriage is a ‘romantic ideal’
in southern India (Trawick 1996:151). For Tamils, as Thomas Trautman and
others show, the whole conceptual structure is as much in the language as in the
actual behaviour. An approach proposed by Margaret Trawick is that the pattern
itself is something like an art form that is perpetuated as any form of expressive
culture; moreover, it creates longings that can never be fulfilled, and so it becomes
a web of unrelieved tensions and architecture of conflicting desires that are
fundamental in interpersonal relationships of Tamils.

3.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

3.3.1 Intellectual Context
The monograph by Trawick is a person-centred ethnography in which she has
attempted to present the notion of love in social scientific discourse which was
not treated as focal theme by earlier social scientists. Emotional love is primarily
dealt within the monograph; though it provides deeper insights into kinship
patterns, terminologies and bonding in south Indian families. It also explains
how ‘relational’ love is an enduring feature of filial interactions.

In the ethnography, Trawick illustrates the lives of women and children in the
everyday context of life. The theme of ‘intentional ambiguity’ (p. 40–41) as a
means of understanding how multiple strands are woven into everyday life,
drawing from experience, mythology, poetry, and most importantly, relationships
with others, is drawn up and elaborated. In Trawick’s estimation, ambiguity is a
fundamental quality of the Asian psyche. It is assumed to be an inherent part of
the belief of the sacred, and is an integral part of the communication system.
Issues of relationships between caste groups, which are an integral part of Indian
life, are also dealt within the association between the members of the family and
their servants, who belong to a lower caste (Sriram and Choudhary, 2004).

In her work, Trawick has weaved together exegesis of an ancient Tamil poem
and her fieldwork notes or in other words we can say that she combines classical
Tamil poetry with her ethnographic details to analyse emotions and relationships
in south India with special emphasis to Tamil families. Trawick is of the opinion
that previous ethnographers including idealist structuralists like Levi-Strauss (by
way of Louis Dumont) and culturalists like Kenneth David and Stephen Barnett
had presented distorted understandings of Tamil family and culture. Here in this
38
monograph Trawick attempts to remove such shortcomings by rendering the Marriage
ethnographer’s relationship to her subjects and theoretical framework transparent
(Samanta, 1991). Trawick met Pullawar S.R. Themozhiyar (known as ‘Ayya’ in
the ethnography) accidently who was a Tamil scholar engaged in lecturing masses
about Saiva literature. He introduced Trawick to the epic poem Tirukkovaiyar
by Manikkavacakar. It was a love poem replete with metonymy and metaphor.
While Trawick was involved in translating the epic, she met the various members
of Themozhiyar’s (Ayya) extended family whose members acted as subjects for
her study. She lived for a long time in the midst of this extended South Indian
family and sought to understand the multiple and mutually shared expressions
of anpu —what in English we call love. Often enveloping the author herself,
changing her as she inevitably changed her hosts, this family performed before
the anthropologist’s eyes the meaning of anpu: through poetry and conversation,
through the not always gentle raising of children, through the weaving of kinship
tapestries, through erotic exchanges among women, among men, and across the
great sexual boundary.

Trawick explains that the first thing this book is about is the way that India both
exceeds and shatters Western expectations. Of course there are the stereotypes:
India is “more spiritual” than the West, its people “impoverished”, “non-
materialistic”, “fatalistic”, and “other-worldly”, its society structured according
to a “rigid caste hierarchy”, its women “repressed” and “submissive”, its villagers
“tradition-bound” and “past-oriented”, their behaviour ordered by “rituals” and
constrained by “rules” of “purity” and “pollution” (p.4-5). The remaining chapters
of this book are about exactly what the title says, love in a Tamil family, the
family of the man who taught the poem. These chapters describe different aspects
of Tamil family life that touch upon love-kinship organisation, child rearing,
sexual relations, habits of speaking, rules of behaviour (p. 2). Trawick attempts
to highlight those anecdotes focusing upon anpu’s expression which are originally
baffling for the Western ethnographer (and her readers) – a mother’s cruel
provocation of her two-year old to tears, for instance (p.77). Then, by unpacking
her informants’ understandings of the ideal forms and expressions of anpu,
Trawick renders ‘legible’ those baffling anecdotes of a suddenly less alien culture:
a mother’s love expressed through cruelty could be viewed as sowing the seeds
for the child’s future happiness (p.104).

This study of anpu (or love) offers extraordinary insight into how familial
relationships in South India are expressed and experienced. Her highly original
study of an extended family establishes the ideology of love as central to
interpreting the tensions and shifting balances between generations and genders.
Demonstrating remarkable ease with a range of topics in South Indian scholarship,
she shows how anpu illuminates patterns in Tamil poetics, theology, ritual life,
cross-cousin marriage, and the raising of children. The book’s engaging style
intertwines vivid description, self-disclosure and questioning, and critical analysis
of earlier theory. Trawick presents an understanding of culture as performed or
constructed in the interaction between the informant and the anthropologist, a
refreshing addition to the current critiques on ethnography. She skillfully weaves
many strands into a poetic text. Scholars familiar with South Asia will perhaps
respond differently to the multiple levels of this book, but all will admire its
courage and intelligence. Margaret Trawick treats the most powerful of all
emotions, love, with humanity. In the introduction to Divine Passions: On the
Social Construction of Emotion in India, Lynch (1990) refers to Trawick’s work
39
Kinship, Family and as being ‘a doubled dialogue’ (p. 25; see Trawick, 1990). At one level, an ongoing
Marriage
dialogue with the family is taking place. At a more crucial level, Trawick is in
dialogue with herself, trying to explicate, analyse and elucidate the dialogues
with the family. It is possible to discern yet another level of communication in
the book: that with the reader as she guides her audience to accompany her in the
search for the reality as it unfolds before her. This dialogue is carried through till
the end with skill and openness. Trawick does not set herself up to judge the
people whom she lives with and becomes a part of (Sriram and Choudhary,
2004).

3.3.2 Fieldwork
Trawick conducted her fieldwork in three phases, first phase of which was started
in 1975 and continued till August 1976. The second phase was in 1980 and then
third phase in 1984. Trawick spent long period in the villages of Madras and
Madurai while doing her fieldwork in South India.

The merits of the work are:

This work by a woman anthropologists, avowedly feminist in that it deals with:
“the particular, the private, the affective, and the domestic”, and because it
considers the relations between males and females, and children’s experience of
these relations, to be largely constitutive of the social order (p. 154).

• A deconstructionist approach forms the theoretical mainstay of Trawick’s

interpretation of love (anpu). On the premise that “meaning” lies beneath its
surface and obvious explanation (Samanta, 1991).

• Trawick seeks to understand anpu in terms of what it does, what directions

it inspires and takes within her Tamil family. In other words, anpu’s meaning
is found in its use: “To many people, the informational content of what they
say is not nearly as important as the personal relationship they establish in
saying it. And this relationship is established largely through indirection,
hidden messages, subtle responses to context” (p. 50) (Samanta, 1991).

• Trawick herself says, “...The central topic of this book – in Tamil, anpu, in
English, “love” is a feeling, and my approach to the study of this feeling has
been through feeling. I have tried throughout the course of my research and
writing to remain honest, clear-headed, and open-minded, and to follow the
dictates of reason and empirical observation in my descriptions and analyses
of the events I have sought to comprehend. But I have not attempted to be
“objective” in the common sense of this term. I have never pretended to be
disinterested or uninvolved in the lives of my informants, and I have never
set my own feelings aside. Only by heeding them have I been able to learn
the lessons that I try, in this volume, to pass on” (p. 2). Trawick mentions
that while searching for “good informants”, she mostly found two kinds (1)
scholars who quoted to her from books (2) ordinary folks who couldn’t
understand what she wanted to know and were afraid of answering her abstract
philosophical questions (p.8).

• She lived with Ayya’s family for extended periods of time, along with her
husband and sons. In addition, she carried out open-ended but prearranged
interviews with 150 other respondents to supplement the findings from Ayya’s
40
family. However she also reiterates that she never formally interviewed any one in
 Themozhiyar’s household. Trawick’s stay in Tamil Nadu with Ayya’s family Marriage
earlier was not with the intention of studying love and its diverse expressions
in India. Her primary interest was Tamil poetry and how it related to everyday
life.
• Trawick didn’t use any interpreter to translate the responses of her
respondents. Perhaps due to this Trawick was able to get integrated with
Themozhiyar’s family. Her familiarity with Tamil would also have helped
her understand the nuances emerging from the discourse that she observed
and was involved in. As Trawick says (speaking of Ayya’s inability to
communicate with others when he visited America, so that she acted as
interpreter), ‘I learned the powers of an interpreter, then, and was glad I
never had one in India. The temptation to edit things people said to each
other was sometimes very great’ (p. 21). It is precisely this feature that
produces the consciously dialogical framework.
• However, it appears from the ethnography that Trawick is not an impartial
observer; she is very much a part of what is happening around her.
• Also, an important feature of Trawick’s ethnography is that she enters into a
dialogical relationship with her subjects; her subjects are not merely
informants, but people on an equal footing from whom researcher can also
learn.
• When Trawick introduces the family to the readers, she also includes her
son and herself in the introduction, a subtle inclusion but a significant stance
in the political implication of doing research in the field. This is another
thread that is woven in the rendering of her story: the balancing of her position
as an obvious outsider who has chosen to mediate the social distance between
herself and her field to become closer to the people whose lives she
unpackages for the world.
• As a participant observer Trawick attempted to use tape recorder in order to
record natural conversations but often found it very difficult. However, she
was successful in recording songs sung by labourers who were considered
untouchables.

3.3.3 Analysis of Data

The important feature of Tamil society is that Tamils organise their families and
larger kin groups into patterned systems. Trawick is of the view that several
western scholars have studied such kinship patterns in one way or another. Few
explained these abstract patterns just as such as ‘patterns’ without ever having to
deal with real people. Others explained such patterns believing that south Indian
people create such patterns because they perform some necessary social ‘function’
and they may be understood as objects of artistic appreciation.

In the words of Trawick, “kinship organisation is as much a matter of feeling as

it is of thinking, or, it is as much a matter of “affect” and free from “aesthetics”
as it is a matter of “cognition” and social “regulation”. Also there exists continuity
between abstract patterns of kinship organisation and lived reality of actual people
on the ground (Trawick, 1996).

In south Indian kinship system preferred or prescribed cross-cousin marriages

are found i.e. (i) a man can marry a woman in the category of his father’s sister’s 41
Kinship, Family and daughter (FZD) (patrilateral cross-cousin marriage); (ii) a man can marry mother’s
Marriage
brother’s daughter (MBD) (matrilateral cross-cousin marriage); (iii) in a few
cases, a man can marry his own sister’s daughter.

In other words we can say matrilateral cross-cousin marriages are approved and
are found in higher frequency but patrilateral cross-cousin marriages are in very
less frequency and are disapproved. The Dravidian kinship terminology varies
from region to region but within a given region the terminology is same
irrespective of above mentioned variants of marriage systems.

An important feature of Dravidian kinship terminology is that its overall semantic

structure is uniform throughout South India. Such uniformity or shared semantic
structure strongly suggests an ‘ideal’ system of bilateral cross-cousin marriage
i.e. two men exchange sisters, their sons also exchange sisters and so on down
through the generations, so that the mother’s brother’s daughter and father’s
sister’s daughter are the same person.

Trawick (1996: 121) is of the opinion that real life, of course, seldom if ever
matches this ideal. She further opines that in Dravidian kinship, three levels of
‘ideal’ versus ‘reality’ exists-
i) Level A is the bilateral marriage ideal indicated by the Dravidian terminology
itself.
ii) Level B is preferred marriage pattern of any group which is usually unilateral
and only partially fulfills the conditions set by level A.
iii) Level C is set of actual marriages which take place.

Another important feature of Tamil kinship is that without departing from the
fundamental pattern of cross-cousin marriage, a particular kindred group
(vakaiyara) may opt for matrilateral or patrilateral marriage; patrilocal or
matrilocal residence. Here, matrilateral and patrilocal marriages contribute to
the solidarity of male and female patrilines by allowing all the members of a
patriline to remain together within a single household, but become dispersed
over separate households. Matrilateral and matrilocal marriages allow for the
continuity within a single household of male and female matrilines, but patrilines
are spatially dispersed.

Approaches to the study of cross-cousin marriages in South India

The functionalist explanation asserts that the practice of cross-cousin marriage
fulfills some social function or human desire and contributes to individual or
societal wholeness.

For South Indians, the principle of kanyadana is much like the notion of
transubstantiation of a woman’s bodily substance to that of her husband at
marriage. Both principles align southern praxis with northern ideology but at the
same time skew southern praxis in a certain direction. Both principles justify a
complete severance of ties between a woman and her natal family at the time of
a woman’s marriage; both principles also justify the complete subordination of a
married woman to her husband and his family (Trawick, 1996: 138).

The continuity of a kinship strategy such as cross-cousin marriage may be attributed

42
to a dynamic of unresolved tensions and unfulfilled desires as much as to the fulfillment
of some function or the resolution of some conflict. Second, we can see kinship Marriage
strategies as played out from the emotional habits acquired in early childhood
within the domestic family, (Trawick, 1996: 154).
The purpose of getting married, according to village men was to have offspring,
heirs (varicu). These were people who would carry on the lineage, take care of
one in one’s old age, work the land that one passed on to them, and see that one
was properly buried and remembered in yearly rites after one died. Daughters,
however much one cared for them, could not contribute to one’s continuity in
this way. “They stay with you for ten years and then they are gone,” said a number
of fathers. Ironically, the consensus among both male and female parents was
that daughters were more loving than sons, if there was any difference at all
among them along this dimension. Daughters would welcome their father into
the house. They would ask, “Have you eaten?” Sons would just say, “Oh, it’s
you.” (Trawick, 1996: 158).
In Tamil marriage, in life it is the girl who is most likely to be separated from her
mother, especially while still a child, because marriage is normally virilocal, and
girls are younger than boys when they marry. Not only when she is still a child,
but when she is a mother, or even a grandmother herself, a woman may still
make visits to her natal home, “seeking her mother.” Thus it happened that one
young woman, married to her mother’s brother, come to the town of her birth to
visit her mother, only to find that their paths had crossed on the way (Trawick,
1996:166). Another feature is that patrilocal marriage contributes to the continuity
of the patriline, but it uses a break in the continuity of the martiline, and this
break is felt specially keenly by the daughter who is cut off (albeit only partially
and temporarily) not only from the mother but from the entire natal home and
family. The mother stays in the place she was, and she may have other children
to console her, but the daughter has no other mothers. So a daughter may feel
herself to be shattered by her marriage. Conversely, a return to the mother’s
home may be felt by the daughter as reuniting of herself, with herself. Surely, the
break in continuity with the mother is one meaning of the several major myths
about females shattered or dismembered as a consequence of marriage of the
allied action of males (Trawick, 1996: 167).
In most of Tamil Nadu, however, the brother-sister tie is neither clearly severed
at marriage, nor is its emotional priority over other ties translated into social
priority. The blood bond remains, and is affectively the strongest bond, but the
marital bond is supposed to take precedence over it in cases where the two bonds
conflict (Trawick, 1996: 179).
Meanwhile, the nature of the bond between spouses is vague, neither clearly
hierarchical nor clearly egalitarian. On the one hand, the ideal of chastity and
devotion to the spouse is entirely a female ideal, entailing a wife’s subordination
to her husband. On the other hand, it is not unusual to find men espousing a
“feminist” point of view on this matter. So for example, one old man, advising a
young man on his imminent marriage, told him, “Think that a goddess is entering
your home.” On the level of technology, either the male or the female may be
regarded as superior, depending upon who is talking, and under what
circumstances. In practice an egalitarian household policy appears to be common.
When Trawick asked villagers about decision making authority in their
households, more than half of both males and females said that husband and
wife made them together (Trawick, 1996: 179).
43
Kinship, Family and Within the household, as well as in the domain of paid labour, there was a strong
Marriage
spirit of rivalry between many women and their husbands. Wives would not
automatically accept submission, neither would their husbands. Neither was it
easy for wives nor husbands to keep out of each other’s way, sharing a household
as they did. Consequently their relationship was often- disputatious. Nevertheless,
at all levels of society, lifelong monogamy and fidelity to the spouse were the
ideal, though some honoured this rule in the breach more than did others. Even
among members of untouchable castes, who are often reported to be more lax
than higher castes as regards marriage rules, divorce was not easy. When a one
young Paraiyar woman whose husband had deserted her and her children was
asked why she did not divorce him and remarry, she replied, “It would bring
down the caste.” Others of the community concurred (Trawick, 1996: 180).

3.3.4 Conclusion
The Themozhiyar’s family described by Trawick in the ethnography is
characterised by the kinds of kin networks assumed to be typical of Southern
India. In many South Indian families, cross-cousin marriage is desirable. This
further means that the position of the bride on entry into the family is not as a
stranger, as occurs in North Indian families, where this form of marriage is not
permitted. Thus, relationships within a marriage are likely to carry the resonance
of earlier, comfortable relationships within the natal family. While there is social
sanction for cross-cousin marriage, data from actual marriages show that the
incidence of such marriages is low (Trautman, 1981).
The phenomenon of mirroring or twinning, patterns of complementarity, dynamic
union, connections between Tamil myths and everyday life, sequential contrast,
phenomenon of projection/introjections are some important principles which
help in maintaining cultural unity and sameness. Trawick indicates that these are
certain operating principles functioning towards the solidarity of the family.
Trawick’s methods, which can be seen as unconventional by some, can be of use
in the study of families in a cultural context. She has used a certain amount of
licence in extrapolating from her observations to linkages in classical literature,
and applying her findings to everyday life. Intuition has played a part in her
analysis. It requires courage and a great deal of conviction to use this method of
studying a culture and, more importantly, of reporting that allows the reader to
enter into a dialogical frame with the researcher and the respondents.
Trawick develops a theory of the importance of ambiguity in the life of the Indian
and the Tamil in particular. In Trawick’s estimation, ambiguity is a fundamental
quality of the Asian psyche and it is assumed to be an inherent part of the belief
of the sacred, and is an integral part of the communication system. Also, an
understanding of ambiguity is crucial to the understanding of the cultural system.
Dynamic union is an integral part of the Dravidian cosmos as reflected in the
kinship system and the conscious seeking for affinity as belonging. Trawick makes
connections between Tamil myths and everyday life. Just as in myths, events are
viewed in sequence, never being seen at the same time to give a complete picture
(Sriram & Choudhary, 2004)

3.4 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
44 The ethnography Notes on love in a Tamil Family, is a fine contribution to critical
theory. It looks at the aspects of marriage, family and kinship from the perspective Marriage
of a strong human emotion called love. Her method, which may be unconventional,
is most appropriate for the study of emotions and sentiments that bind the family.
Trawick has contributed to the development of an indigenous theory of emotional
expression.

3.5 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY Himalayan Polyandry: Structure,
Functioning and Culture Change: A Field Study of
Jaunsar-Bawar IS AN EXAMPLE
From 1937 until 1960 the late Professor D. N. Majumdar, and his students at
Lucknow University worked intermittently among the residents of Jaunsar-Bawar,
a small region of the lower Himalayas in the northwest corner of the state of
Uttarakhand, India.

3.6 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

This monograph is a product of field research covering a period of twenty two
years in which Majumdar worked in Jaunsar- Bawar almost every year for some
weeks during the summer recess. The total period of his stay in the area has been
in all four years and eleven months (Majumdar, 1963: ix). The book provides
valuable and hitherto unavailable ethnographic data on the Indo-Aryan speaking
Hindus who are its subjects. They are called as representatives of the Western
Pahari culture area by Grierson / Berreman, distinguishable linguistically and by
a number of other features including a widespread incidence of fraternal polyandry.
Ethnography examines various aspects related to life of the Jaunsarese and also
explains certain crucial parameters of academics of various social institutions
prevailing in their society and their importance in the social structure of Jaunsaris.
In Jaunsar-Bawar the preferred form of marriage is fraternal polyandry which
with the addition of multiple wives is termed “polygynandry” by the author and
is the most frequent type of family.

3.6.1 Intellectual Context

The fraternal polyandry of Jaunsar-Bawar in the western Himalayas of India is
described in the monograph by examining the domestic groups it creates. The
form and composition of these groups vary within the society so that structures
commonly associated with the terms monogamy, polygyny, and group marriage,
as well as polyandry and polygynandry, occur simultaneously in a community
and, over time, in many families. All are manifestations of a single set of principles
and beliefs about the nature of marriage, family, and the domestic group. The
variations are the result of changes in family composition during its life cycle
(the developmental cycle) and in response to circumstantial and optional factors.
Generalisations about polyandry, its causes and consequences, can only apply to
this society if they encompass the temporal and situational diversity of the
domestic group. The developmental cycle of the domestic group explains most
of the intra-cultural variation in the Pahari family.

3.6.2 Fieldwork
Majumdar conducted his fieldwork in three villages of Jaunsar- Bawar viz. Lohari, 45
Kinship, Family and Baila and Lakhamandal. While selecting these villages a two-fold consideration
Marriage
was kept in mind by Majumdar: firstly, the villages were representative of the
culture of the region under study and second the villages were to be of suitable
size and setting. Easy rapport with the villagers of these field centres helped
them to select these villages (Majumdar, 1963: 29).
• Village Lohari is in Khat Dhanau, and is the biggest constituent village from
the point of population as well as cultivation.
• Village Baila is in Khat Bharam and a larger culture area.
• Lakhamandal belongs to Khat Baundar. (Majumdar, 1963: 31).
Trained in Malinowskian tradition of fieldwork, Majumdar and his fellow field
workers while exploring for this ethnography have employed popular methods
of field research in Anthropology. In the words of Majumdar, “The study of the
demographic structure of villages has been made on the basis of the village
census and family–wise genealogies. The census is recorded in prescribed forms
for families in the area, and the genealogies are taken according to a model
designed for the polyandro-polygynous type of family. Besides, certain narrative
accounts have been collected through structural interviews with various families
and individuals, and general observations have been made with regard to the
conditions of the village settlement. Reference data have also been gathered
from various official sources and checked with our field findings” (Majumdar,
1963: 32).

3.6.3 Analysis of Data

Polyandry, though far more restricted than polygyny, is still being practiced in
various parts of the world. From the distribution of polyandry, it appears that it is
not a primitive institution. The evolutionists have explained polyandry as an
important phase in the development of marriage.
A family among the Jaunsaris, as among the plains people, forms a domestic
unit, with patrilocal residence, patrilineal descent, patronymic designation and
patriarchal authority. Further, it often takes the form of a joint family which, as
found normally among the local Brahmins and Rajputs (Khasas), is a union of
all male members of all living generations, in the patrilineal line of descent,
along with their wives and their unmarried sisters and daughters. Often there are
also the married sisters and daughters who remain in the family before the
consummation of marriage or after divorce or on being widowed. Child marriage
was also customary. Often a girl’s wedding is celebrated during her infancy, but
she remains at her father’s home till her puberty. It is also a custom that a married
sister or daughter, even after consummation of marriage, frequently returns and
stays in the parental home for months, though she is not a member of the family.
The polyandrous family of Jaunsar-Bawar differs from that of other parts of
Uttar Pradesh. The nuclear family is not as stable as we find in a monogamous
society; the wives are not permanent members of the family. During festivals
and on other occasions they go back to their mait or parental village, and divorce
is so frequent that seldom does a wife stick to a family for many years. It is in
this sense that the family assumes a unilateral character and thus forms the unit
of the lineage system (Majumdar,1963:71-72).
The high castes of Jaunsar-Bawar, Brahmins as well as Rajputs, live in joint families;
but what distinguishes the Jaunsari family from the joint family of the Hindus of the
46 plains is the absence of a horizontal joint family. All the brothers marry together, and
have one or more wives in common, instead of having separate wives. In fact, the Marriage
Jaunsari family system is not only polyandrous but a combination of paternal
polyandry and polygyny. All men of each generation who are brothers marry together
with one or, as is usually the case, more than one wife (Majumdar, 1963:72).
Traditionally, the eldest brother is the representative of the family, as well as the
controller of all the brothers, in matters of marriage and conjugal life. It is he
who marries the wife or wives, and it is through him that his brothers have
access to the common wives. In principle and in practice, all the brothers form
an inseparable group as ‘fraternal husbands’ in the name of the eldest brother.
The wives, on the other hand, join the union individually, one after another, in
the same way as is usually found in polygynous system, except that the single
husband is substituted by the polyandrous group of husbands. This form of
marriage may, therefore, better be known as polygynandry, and this union a
polygynandrous family unit, instead of being known by the popularly used term
‘polyandrous’ (Majumdar, 1963:72).
As intermarriage between Brahmans and Rajputs is permissible, and as marriage
outside the group is tabooed, they constitute a single endogamous group; while each
separate group among the Doms constitutes a single endogamous group, arranged in
hierarchical order. Again, no man is allowed to marry within the same village. This
has given rise to a subtle distinction in the status of a woman; as a ryanti when she is
in her husband’s village and as a dhyanti when she goes back to her own village.
Polyandry is a common form of marriage in Jaunsar-Bawar, where all the brothers
are the common husbands of a wife or wives and the family therefore is patrilocal
and patriarchal. It is the eldest brother who gets married and all others ipso facto
become her husbands. But so long as he is in the house they cannot have sexual
relations with her under the same roof. The usual practice among other brothers
is to follow her to the field, or else, to wait for the eldest brother to be absent
from home for some work; since all the management of the household is in his
hands he is mostly away. To a married woman all the brothers with whom she
has to live are known by a single term khawand, meaning husband. There is no
word in Jaunsari terminology to differentiate her relationship with her husband’s
brothers. Similarly, all the brothers are called Baba (or father) by the children
born out of this polyandrous union. The only distinction that may be drawn
between one brother and another by the children is according to the function
they perform. The brother who looks after the goats is called Bakrawa-Baba, one
who tends sheep as Bhedava-Baba, and the third who looks after the cows as
Ghair-Baba. If there is a brother who looks after the buffaloes, he is known as
Mohishava-Baba, and so on (Saxena, 1955:28).
It is obvious that the husbands of a woman are always brothers with the same set of
fathers, although if their fathers had shared more than one wife among them, all the
brothers need not be the sons of the same mother. These brothers may have one wife
among them, or they may have two or three wives, or even more, in common. Thus,
we may come across a peculiar combination of polyandry and polygyny, termed
polygynandry. But nowhere has polyandry been given up even with the plurality of
wives. All the wives have to share bed with the eldest brother turn by turn, and so it
goes on in the strict order of precedence among all other brothers. A second wife may
be taken in if there is great disparity in age between that of the first wife and any other
brother. In such cases, either the eldest brother marries again according to custom
more for the sake of younger brother or the younger brother himself takes a new
bride. But that does not mean that polyandrous relationship ceases. In the former case
the eldest brother may have access to the new bride and in the latter case the younger 47
Kinship, Family and brother may retain his sexual relationship with the older wife. A second wife
Marriage
may also be introduced in the family, if the first wife does not give birth to a
child within a reasonable limit of time. In this connection it may be mentioned
that a barren woman enjoys a very low social status. She may even be supposed
to be possessed by a witch and incurs a great social wrath which may end in her
being turned out of her husband’s family.
The additional wife is generally a sister of the first one, but sometimes she comes from
a different family. In order to avoid quarrels between co-wives a certain ceremony is
observed when the newly wedded wife comes into the house. The new wife is made
to sit in a corner of the room and the old one sits opposite her. Two elderly women
stand by each holding a lighted stick in her hands. The light is held in such a manner
that the shadow of one wife does not fall on the other. A third woman joins their hands
and each gives the other a silver coin. If there be more than one wife in the house,
this ceremony is repeated with each one of them (Saxena, 1955:30).
The senior most woman in the house, usually the first wife of the Sayana, is
known as Sayani. She looks after the household matters and makes the domestic
assignments among the womenfolk. She is the commander as well as the caretaker
of all ryantis (or wives) in the family. Traditionally, a special and privileged
status is given to the first among all the wives. She is more respected than her
co-wives. All other wives have equal status, but those who have proved their
fertility are more favoured by the husbands. Often additional wives are taken for
begetting children, though usually the number of wives depends upon the
economic condition of the family and the amount of work for women to perform.
Women are great assets to their husbands. They not only perform the household
work, such as cooking, washing, cleaning, fetching water and rearing of children,
but also help their husbands in grazing cattle, collecting fuel, as well as in
agricultural operations. They may be helped voluntarily by their daughters and
their husbands’ sister or sisters who, generally known as dhyantis, are frequent
visitors to the family. However, dhyantis are by tradition not allowed to take part
in any hard tasks (Majumdar, 1963:74).
Although the family economy demands the maintenance of a joint unit, division
of families does take place occasionally, either among the brothers or between
the fathers and sons. It seems that the main causes calling for the division of a
family are the quarrels between women, especially when one or more of the
husbands take a fancy to one of their common wives. Otherwise, it may result
from the division of labour among the family members, especially when the size
of the family has grown beyond the desirable limit, and working hands are few.
Often one or two of the brothers, with special attachment to one of their wives,
may choose to establish a new household, while the rest stay back together until
further division of family takes place (Majumdar, 1963:74-75).
Regarding the formation of polygynandrous joint family among the Jaunsaris,
Majumdar ascribes it to geo-economic cause, security of family property, a mean
of adjustment to their economic means and personal needs as well as it is also
considered convenient for companionship. Although joint family system is a
dominant feature of the Khasas or the Brahmin society, yet simple or nuclear
families are also found. The nuclear families, however, tend to become joint in
course of the process that characterises family life among them. Generally
speaking, the high caste group maintains a big household and, in general, a more
complicated form of family, whereas the lower castes employ simpler forms.
48 Majumdar believes that it is the local geo-economic setting which appears to
have created the complicated form of ‘polygynandrous’ marital union. In a joint Marriage
family of two or three generations, the combinations different forms of marital
union in different generations complicated the issue of the composition and the
type of the family (Majumdar, 1963:77).
Some other characteristic features associated with Jaunsari marriage
• The girls and boys usually get married mostly at very early age or in other
words we can say that age at marriage among Jaunsaris is between 10 to 13
years. The tradition of early age at marriage is associated with Durhonj
(equivalent of Gauna of plains of Uttar Pradesh). Betrothal often takes place
at a very tender age. Parents decide the fate of the marriage i.e. the boy’s
father along with his relatives visits the bride’s house and if some agreement
is reached then boy’s father gives an earnest money (bondho/ jeodhan) to
the girl’s father. In this way betrothal is organized. Kartik, Pausha, Magh,
Phalgun and Baisakh are considered auspicious months for marriage.
• After fixing of an auspicious date by Brahmin, one or two days before the
fixed date, the bridegroom’s father along with a batch of relatives goes to the
bride’s house. The bride’s people show him their herd of goats out of which he
selects a few and slaughters them with his own hands. The boy’s father also
gives one or two ornaments to the bride and after enjoying a feast his party
comes back. A day later the bride (jojolty) is brought to the bridegroom’s house
with her dowry (painta) and accompanied by her relatives and other members
of her party. The size of her party (jajoria) depends upon the type of the marriage
to be celebrated. All the members of Aal are expected in the jojora or marriage
party. There are three categories of marriage, but the difference among them is
only of degree: (1) Bewa - Bride’s party consists of 5-10 persons and there is
little or no dowry. It is the simplest form of marriage. (2) Boee Daudee - The
party consists of 20-30 persons or even more and the dowry is carried by 8-10
persons (paintrus). (3) Bajdya- This marriage is celebrated among the rich
Zamindars and sayanas. The invitation is extended to the whole khut. The
bride’s party may consist of 500- 2,000 persons, or even more. More than 50
goats are slaughtered on such occasions and ghee, rice and superior wine (phool)
are freely served. The dowry is carried by thirty to forty men. In this connection
it is interesting to note that it is the bride’s party that goes to the bridegroom’s
village and all the ceremonies are gone through under the roof of the
bridegroom’s home (Saxena, 1955:33-34).
• The marriage ceremony is quite a simple affair. It consists of a vermilion
mark (tilak) being applied to the bride and the bridegroom by the Brahman
and then the mother-in-law applies a tilak to the forehead of the bride. Some
hymns in the local dialect are also recited by the priest (purot). A tilak is also
applied to the head of a he-goat, which is then sacrificed and thus the marriage
is announced. But now more elaborate Vedic rites are gradually being
observed. Not only are the services of a Brahman priest being availed of, but
also seven rounds of the sacred fire (phaira) are performed, and Sanskrit
mantras recited as in the case of orthodox Hindu marriages. The bride’s
party usually arrives in the evening and the whole marriage ceremony is
finished in a very short time not more than half an hour. The guests are then
entertained to a big feast and served with the best wine (Saxena, 1955:35).
• However, the impact of education has risen the age at marriage among both boys
and girls. Love marriages and inter- caste love marriage are getting common. 49
Kinship, Family and • Divorce (chhoot) is frequently resorted to due to adultery, disloyalty or even
Marriage
slightest slip on the part of ryanti. When a wife is divorced, her parents or
the new husband have to pay her former husbands an amount of money, as
demanded by them as compensation or chhoot or kheet (alimony).
Remarriages and widow remarriages are also frequently seen now a day.

3.6.4 Conclusion
Social organisation of Jaunsaris is based on caste hierarchy. Different Hindu
castes, namely, Brahman, Rajput, Badai, Bajgi, Nai, Deor, Lohar, Sonar, Kolta
and Nat are there. Clan organisation is not at all elaborate and effective, but
village exogamy is. Inter-caste marriages and hypergamous and hypogamous
unions do take place. Exclusive polyandry has been modified to some extent,
and bipolyandry, polygyny and monogamy are practised. Descent succession,
inheritance and residence are reckoned in male line. Family structure is basically
polyandrous. The eldest male member is the authority in the family. The Jaunsari
polyandry is exclusively fraternal. In case of fraternal polyandry village exogamy
is considered important among them. Infant marriage is common but cross-cousin
marriage is absent and sexual freedom in some form or other is/was permissible
among them. (Mukherjee, 1963) The affinal kin of the Khasas is known as soga,
which means the affinal relatives or the ‘kindred’, excluding the agnates. The
term soga has its Hindi equivalent rishta, to which reference has been made by
many a well –informed Jaunsari informant. The practice of cross-cousin marriage
may orient the kinship structure by eliminating the ego’s mother’s cognate, a
separate kin group. Due to the customary rules of lineage and village exogamy,
the terms dai and soga have not only their kinship connection, but also their
territorial significance. The sogas are those outsiders who are related to the speaker
by an affinal tie (Majumdar, 1963:97). In between the co-wives, the senior one
in order of their marriages is addressed by her junior co-wives as dadi, which
means ‘elder sister’, whereas in return she addresses others by name, as divorce
and remarriage are common features in this society, a newcomer among the co-
wives may be older in age than some of the earlier ones. In that case, both of
them would address each other as dadi. In the term of reference, they refer to
each other as shokh or by name according to seniority (Majumdar, 1963:102).

It may be added that although there is no ‘preferential marriage’ typified here,

the Khasas do prefer to marry with the soga, whose family condition is better
known to them than those of the non-related caste men (Majumdar,1963:113).
Spouse relationship is the most complicated and most important of all the
interpersonal relationships in the Khasa family, in view of its polygynandrous
composition. The interrelationship between the spouses should be in the spirit
of cooperation and mutual help. However, whatever economic or other importance
it may have for the foundation of this family system, a family, as soon as it is
established, functions more as an affectionate unit than an economic corporation.
There is in the Khasa family much affection and mutual care between the husbands
and the wives, as well as between either the co-husbands or the co-wives
themselves. Interpersonal jealousy is remarkably absent. In fact, a wife here has
a much greater responsibility than that of a monogamous wife, as she has to
cater to the needs and satisfaction of all husbands to the same degree, despite her
possible liking for or dislike of someone or the other among them. The conjugal
relations between husbands and wives are usually cordial, though either side is
always on guard against the other, lest his or her partner may go to clandestine
50
paramours (Majumdar, 1963:124). Marriage

The fraternal co-husbands, on the other hand, share their common wives without
quarrel or even bitterness (Majumdar, 1963:125). Strict taboo on marriage among
agnates exists, as conveyed by the term baba and kaka used for their paternal
uncles in the aal and dai chara, respectively (Majumdar, 1963:126). There is an
absence of specific names for the ‘amitate’ and other kin groups and the
classificatory use of kinship terms for these kin. It seems that the Khasas are
content with a dichotomization of their kin into the dai, who are barred by a
taboo from marriage with the Ego, and the soga, with whom Ego’s family has an
affinal tie (Majumdar, 1963:128). They remarry widows, practice levirate, sororate
and polyandry, recognise divorce as legal, and as against the Hindus of the plains
intermarriage between the various Khasa groups is not tabooed and children
born of such marriages do not suffer any social stigma (Majumdar, 1963:249).

3.7 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
Majumdar’s work shows that marriage in polyandrous societies has a different
meaning and significance in comparison to other societies. One of the social
aspects of this work is the change that comes in a polyandrous family and how it
becomes polygynandrous.

3.8 SUMMARY
Both the ethnographies discussed in this lesson acquaint us with the institution
of marriage in different societies. The ethnographies chosen here are from different
parts of India. In one case the focus in on the understanding of love, in a societal
context, whilst in the other is how polyandrous societies function.

References
Majumdar, D. N. 1963. Himalayan Polyandry: Structure, functioning and Culture
Change: A Field study of Jaunsar-Bawar. Mumbai. Asia Publishing
House.(various pages)

Mukherjee, B. 1963. “Comparative Study of the Kinship systems of two

Polyandrous communities”. The Eastern Anthropologist. Vol.XVI, No. 2, EFCS.
p.75-78.

Saksena, R. N. 1955. Social Economy of a Polyandrous People. Institute of Social

Sciences. Agra University.

Samanta, S. 1991. Review on Notes on Love in a Tamil Family by Trawick,

Margaret in Language in Society vol. 20, issue 03. Sept 1991. Cambridge
University Press. p. 469-471. (published online: 2009)

Sriram, S. and Nandita Choudhary. 2004. Review Essay. An Ethnography of

Love in a Tamil Family. Culture & Psychology. Vol.10 issue1.Sage Publications.
p.111–127. [DOI: 10.1177/1354067X04040933.

Stephens, William N. 1963. The Family in Cross Cultural Perspective. New

York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. p. 7, 39-49. 51
Kinship, Family and Trautmann, T. 1981. Dravidian kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marriage
Trawick, Margaret. 1996. Notes on love in a Tamil family. First published in
India, Oxford University Press by arrangements with the University of California
Press. ISBN 0–19-564058-6.

Suggested Reading
Majumdar, D. N. 1963. Himalayan Polyandry: Structure, functioning and Culture
Change: A Field study of Jaunsar-Bawar. Mumbai. Asia Publishing House.

Trawick, Margaret. 1996. Notes on love in a Tamil family. First published in

India, Oxford University Press by arrangements with the University of California
Press. ISBN 0–19-564058-6

Sample Questions
1) Discuss how social institutions like marriage influence social structure.
2) Explain cross-cousin marriages in South India with reference to Tamil
families.

52
UNIT 4 FAMILY
Contents
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Concepts, Meaning and Definitions
4.3 Functions of a Family
4.4 Changing dimensions of Family
4.5 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives 
After reading this unit the students should be able to:
 define the different forms of family;
 outline the various functions of a family; and
 discuss changing aspects of family in the contemporary time.

4.1 INTRODUCTION
When a child is born, he/ she is born into a family which is known as the smallest
social unit. Family is the social unit which endows the child with social norms,
values, rules and regulations through the process of enculturation. This unit would
help the students understand the social institution of family, how it emerged, its
concepts, definitions and functions as a social unit. The focus would also be on
the changing dimensions that have taken place in the family structure.
A family is established through marriage which is known as the nuclear family;
the unit of one set of parents and children, is often embedded in larger groupings
like joint families, lineages, clans and domestic groups of various kinds. The relatives
connected through the father or the patriline are called as agnates and those
connected through the mother or matriline are called as uterine, a combination of
these or all relatives from side of both parents are called as cognates. The basic
family also presupposes a monogamous marriage while in actuality there can be
a polygamous marriage by virtue of which even the basic unit may be differently
constituted. Since the incest taboo makes the family discontinuous over generations,
every adult belongs to two families, one in which he/she is born and another that
is established through marriage; these are known respectively as the family of
orientation and the family of procreation. Let us now consider each of these
aspects in details.

4.2 CONCEPTS, MEANINGS AND DEFINITIONS

How has the concept of family emerged? Was family always a part of society?
These are certain questions which would be taken up in this section alongwith the
various definitions of family postulated by anthropologists. The word family has its
origin in the Latin word familia derived from famulus meaning servant. Familia 39
Kinship, Marriage and must have been used to refer to all the slaves and servants living under one roof,
Family
including the entire household that is the master, on the one hand, and the wife,
children and servants living under his control. Today when we use the term family
it covers all the various groups of relatives representing a household (all the
individuals living under one roof), gens (all those descended from a common
ancestor), agnatic (relatives on the father’s side) and cognatic (relatives on the
mother’s side, and then by extension all blood relatives).
The family though considered universal in nature found in all types and levels of
societies and cultures, yet it is difficult to trace the origin. In the early years of the
anthropological history the origin of family, how it emerged in society was much
discussed and debated. Followers of the evolutionary theory were of the opinion
that family as an institution has evolved just like the society. Lewis Henry Morgan
in his work Ancient Society (1877) stated that in the early societies the concept
of family was not prevalent. Such societies were nomads and promiscus where
free sex relations were prevalent thus, the role of the father was not important and
the mother-sib was the earliest form of grouping. He stated, ‘The principal institutions
of mankind originated in savagery, were developed in barbarism, and are maturing
in civilization. In like manner, the family has passed through successive forms, and
created great systems of consanguinity and affinity which have remained to the
present time. These systems, which record the relationships existing in the family
of the period, when each system respectively was formed, contain an instructive
record of the experience of mankind while the family was advancing from the
consanguine, through intermediate forms, to the monogamian’ (1877:18). Though
today, Morgan’s evolutinary scheme is not followed, his work is important as he
gave the first classification of five forms of family based on five different types of
marriage.
1) The Consanguine family was founded upon the intermarriage of brothers and
sisters in a group. Evidence still remains in the oldest of existing systems of
Consanguinity, the Malayan, tending to show that this, the first form of the
family, was anciently as universal as this system of consanguinity which it
created.
2) The Punaluan family its name is derived from the Hawaiian relationship of
Punalua. It was founded upon the intermarriage of several brothers to each
other’s wives in a group; and of several sisters to each other’s husbands in
a group. But the term brother, as here used, included the first, second, third,
and even more remote male cousins, all of whom were considered brothers
to each other, as we consider own brothers; and the term sister included the
first, second, third, and even more remote female cousins, all of whom were
sisters to each other, the same as own sisters. This form of the family
supervened upon the consanguine. It created the Turanian and Ganowanian
systems of consanguinity. Both this and the previous form belong to the
period of savagery.
3) The Syndyasmian or pairing of family founded upon the marriage of single
pairs, without giving the right of exclusive cohabitation to any person over the
other. The term Syndyasmian is derived from syndyazo, meaning to pair. It
was the germ of the Monogamian Family. Divorce or separation was at the
option of both husband and wife. This form of the family failed to create a
system of consanguinity.

40
4) The Patriarchal family comprising of marriage of one man to several wives, Family
each wife being secluded from every other. The term is here used in a
restricted sense to define the special family of the Hebrew pastoral tribes, the
chiefs and principal men of which practised polygamy. It exercised but little
influence upon human affairs for want of universality.
5) The Monogamian family was founded upon marriage between single pairs,
with the married couple having exclusive cohabitation with one another the
latter constituting the essential of the institution. It is pre-eminently the family
of civilized society, and was therefore essentially modern. This form of the
family also created an independent system of consanguinity (Morgan, 1877:
40-41).
Westermarck (1853-1936) who had done a detailed study of the institution of
marriage concluded that the family emerged due to male possessiveness and jealousy.
In his work The History of Human Marriage (1922) he asserted that with the
growing concept of property, males started the insititution of family to protect and
safeguard their property. This theory was a direct criticism of Morgan’s theory
wherein the origin of family was ascribed to the bonding of mother- sib.
Westermarck though an adherent follower of evolutionism went a bit too far while
postulating the origin of monogamy as he traced it to the mammals and the birds.
Activity

Before we move on to define a family let us start with a simple task. Please list down
the names of the persons you would like to include in your family. Now if you have
listed the names of your family members, I am sure there would be many variations to
the list. Some of you might have included the names of your parents and siblings only,
while others might have also added grandparents adopted brothers/sisters or cousins
who stay with you. Likewise, the definition of family has variations as there are different
types and forms of families. There has always been a universal problem in defining a
family, so herein we would discuss some of the definitions which has tried to encompass
the meaning of family in totality.

During the early 19th century evolutionary anthropologists had described family as
a group based on marriage, common residence, emotional bonds and stipulation
of doemstic services. While in the early 20th century R.H. Lowie defined family
as a group based on material relations, rights and duties of parenthood, common
habitation and reciprocal relations between parents and children. Ralph Linton
similarly defined family as a group that involves marriage, rights and duties of
parents and children. George Peter Murdock, (1949) examined 192 societies and
formulated a definition of family as ‘the family is a social group characterised by
common residence, economic co-operation, and reproduction. It includes both
sexes, atleast two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and
one or more children, own or adopted’. The chart presented below shows the
different types of families as constructed by George Peter Murdock.

41
Kinship, Marriage and
Family FAMILY

(Nuclear family) (Composite family)

(Polygamous family) (Extended family)

(Polygamous family) (Polyandrous family)

(Patrilocal (Matrilocal (Avunculocal (Bilocal (Fraternal

extended extended extended extended extended
family) family) family) family) family)

Adapted from Makhan Jha, An Introduction to Social Anthropology 1995 (reprint) pp 74.

Nuclear Family consists of a married couple (man and woman) with their children
own or adopted. In certain cases one or more additional persons may also reside
with them. This type of family is prevalent in alomost all societies. Compact in
nature this type is very popular in the present day world where there is a continuous
struggle for economic subsistence.
Composite family is composed of two or more nuclear families which can be
divided into polygamous family and the extended family. The polygamous
family includes three varients based on marriage polyandry, polygyny and
polyandrous (refer to Unit- 3 of the same block for details). An extended family
consists of two or more nuclear families affiliated through extension of the parent-
child relationship. Based on the post-marital residence, an extended family can be
of the following types.
 Patrilocal family is composed of two or more nuclear families residing at
the same house, it is an extension of the father son relationship. Such a family
comrpises of a man and his wife and their sons and the sons’ wives and
childrens.
 A matrilocal family is founded with two or more nuclear families affiliated
through an extension of mother daughter relationship. It consists of a family
comprising of a woman her daughters and the daughters’ husbands and children.
 The bilocal extended family is a combination of patrilocal extended family
and matrilocal extended family. The extended family consists of two or more
lineally related kinfolk of the same sex and their spouses and offspring
occupying a single household and under the authority of a household head.
 The Avunculocal extended family consists of two or more nuclear families
affiliated through an extension of maternal-uncle and sisters son relationship.
Such a family includes a nuclear family formed by a man his wife and daughters
42 and the nuclear family formed by his sister’s son and wife and children.
 The Faternal Joint Family is a family system, like a patrilineal extended family Family
wherein the family comrpises of a man and his wife and their sons and the
sons’ wives and childrens. We can say that in such a family three generations
of kins live together. At times, such a family can be traced upto ten or so
generations living in the same residence and sharing common hearth.
In the later half of the 20th century anthropologists tried to define family in terms
of certain criteria important from the society’s point of view. According to Edmund
Leach a group to be called a family should compromise either one or several of
the following criteria: marriage, legal paternity and maternity, monopoly of the
couple over each other’s sexuality, rights of the spouses to each others labour
services, rights of both the spouses over property to establish a joint fund of
property for the benefit of the children, and a socially significant relationship of
affinity between each spouse and the relatives of the other. Evans-Pritchard also
gave a classification of types of family based on his study of The Nuers (1940)
of Sudan. His classification is more suited for the patrilineal society.
 The simple legal family comrpising of a married couple and their children.
This type of family is commonly known as a natural family.
 The complex legal family or the polygamous family where a number of
separate families are linked by their relationship to a common father.
 The ghost family which consits of the ghost (pater), his wife, their children
and the kinsmen who became their genitor in virtue of his duty towards the
ghost. The ghost family is concieved when a young man dies who has not
married yet. So a young man from the dead man’s lineage marries a woman
on behalf of the dead man and generates a family for the dead man. The
children born out of such a marriage are known as the ghost’s children and
bear his name.
Variations in a Family System
From the above discussion we can describe the family as a domestic group in
which a couple (parents) and children own or adopted live together. Yet there are
societies where the same norms are not applicable. Meyer Fortes (1945) in his
study of Ashanti of Ghana has described a society where the husband and wife
after marriage continues to live with their respective family of orientation, a reason
why the people of Ashanti like to find spouses in their own village. Lucy Mair
(1997) discussing Fortes work reflects on the description of how an Ashanti
village at sunset is full of young children carrying steaming dishes on their heads
from mother to father- sometimes it also becomes an exchange between two
houses. Thus, in such a family system the husband is a visiting husband and his role
as a father is limited to procreation alone. The upbringing of his children lies with
the kins of the wife’s family whereas he is responsible for the upbringing of his
sister’s children. Likewise, among the Nayars of South India also, the same system
of visiting husband is seen as discussed in Unit-3 of the same block and herein
like the Ashanti of Ghana the responsibility of the child rests with the mother’s
lineage. The Khasis of Meghalaya and the Garos of Garo Hills of Meghalaya are
two matrilineal societies where, in the first society the husband comes to live with
the wife’s family, while in the latter the husband is a visiting husband. While among
the Hopi’s of Southwest Amercia a man after marriage moves on to live with his
wife’s family in which he has important economic responsibilities but few ritual
obligations. In Hopi society also like the other matrilineal societies the man is
43
Kinship, Marriage and responsible and retains authority and leadership for his sister’s son and is not
Family
responible for his own children.
On the other hand among the matrilineal Trobriand islanders a practice is prevalent
wherein a boy grows up in his father’s family and after marriage when he sets up
house he is expected to live in the village of his mother’s brother. Herein, this
system the domestic authority which lies with the father is fullfilled and also the
jural authority that is authority in matters of distribution of property etc. that lies
with the mother’s brother is also successfully fulfilled. The Trobrianders also practice
the marriage of mother’s brother’s daughter and as such when a boy sets up
house in his mother’s brother’s village the bride is not removed from the vicinity
of her kin. Likewise, among the Yao and Cewa of Malawi a man immediately
after marriage has to live in his wife’s home and later he can setup house at the
village of his own matrilineal kin. In such a case by the time his daughters are of
marriageable age he becomes the head of the family to which the daughters’
husbands come (Mair, 1977).
The ghost marriage as described by Evans- Pritchard in his study of the Nuers is
also a variation in the family system as it is not found in all societies. Then there
is also the practice of a woman usually a barren woman paying bridewealth and
establishing the right to count another woman’s children as her own. In such a case
the barren woman is usually a diviner who thus, attains wealth to pay for the bride
price. The woman-husband in this case can select a man to co-habitat with her
‘wife’ and produce children who would be than known as her own (Mair, 1997).
Such a practice is seen among the Nuers, Zulus and the Yoruba societies.
Family types based on Residence
Family types can be categorized based on the type of residence also. In North
American society it is customary for the newly wedded couple to take up residence
in a place of their own, apart from the relatives of either spouse. This is known
as neolocal residence (that is a new place). Thus, a new family basically known
as nuclear family is formed with only husband and wife and later on their children,
own or adopted. When the newly married couple takes up residence in the groom’s
father’s house in a partilocal family such a residence is known as patrilocal or
virilocal residence. On the other hand a matrilocal or uxorilocal residence is
created when the couple takes up residence in a matrilocal family i.e, with the
bride’s family. In some societies like the Ashanti of Ghana a couple after marriage
resides with the groom’s mother’s brother’s family or maternal uncles house known
as avunculocal residence. Again in some societies a married couple has the
choice of living with relatives of either spouse (the husband or the wife). A residence
thus formed is known as ambilocal or bilocal residence.
Reflection and Action

Analyse your family using the geneological method as discussed in Unit 1 of this Block.
Describe what kind of a residence and family pattern it has.

Is Marriage and Family Universal?

In the earlier block also we have discussed marriage in length and we have come
to the conclusion that marriage leads to a family. But there is an example from the
Na society of China wherein there is no word for the term ‘marriage’ in their
language (Blumerfield 2004, Geertz 2001, Harrell 2002). The institution in which
the men and women are joined in sexual and reproductive partnerships is called
44 sese. In this system a man spends the night in a lover’s house and goes away in
the morning. The sese relationship does not hold any notion of fidelity, permanence, Family
paternal responsibility for children born or any form of economic obligations (Shih,
2001). A child born is the responsibility of the mother and her sisters and brothers.
A Na household comprises of mother and her sons and daughters, sisters and their
children and the brothers.
Household and Family
Many a times there is confusion between the term family and household. So let’s
first try to understand the term household and what it comprises of. Household has
been defined by Haviland (2003) as the basic residential unit where economic
production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing and shelter are organised and
implemented. The members of a household at times share a common hearth. Let’s
take the example of the Mundurucu of the Amazon who organise themselves
around a household. They have a unique system by which all men and boys above
13 years of age live together whereas all the women and children below 13 years
of age live together (Haviland, 2003). Herein, we see that household is an extention
of family, a family can be a household but a household need not be a family. To
make this statement clear let’s take another example from the present day situation.
We see a lot of students moving out of their native place and settling in some other
city or going abroad for higher education. These students usually on a shoe string
budget like to share accomodation with fellow stduents. Thus, two to three students
take up residence and start sharing space and eating together. This makes them
share a hearth but they are not necessarily members of the same family but belong
to different families.

4.3 FUNCTIONS OF A FAMILY

The family as a social group is universal in nature and its existence is seen at all
levels of cultures. Thus, the family having a status in society also has certain
responsibilities and functions. The basic functions of a family are outlined below:
 Satisfaction of biological need
The family as an institution regularises the satisfatcion of biological needs. It
serves for the institutionalisation of mating a primodial need among all humans.
Family helps in channeling of sexual outlets by defining the norms with whom
one can mate and who are out of bound in the terms of incest taboo. Family
thus helps in establishing a legal father for a woman’s children and a legal
mother for a man’s children.
 Reproduction and Inbibing Social Values
A child as we have learnt is born into a family. As soon as a child is born
into a family he is entitled to certain social position, system of beliefs, language,
parents and kins as per the family sytem that he is born into. This family
nutures the child and imbibe in him the ways of the society through the
process of enculturation preparing him to accept statuses of adulthood.
 Economic
A family as a social group is responsible for satisfying the basic needs of its
members like food, clothes and shelter. In order to achieve this objective all
the members of a family cooperate and divide the work among themselves
and make contribution towards the upkeeping of the family. Emile Durkheim
in his book Division of labour has brought forth this fact and laid emphasis
on economic satisfaction of the need of a family. It thus, serves as the 45
Kinship, Marriage and organisation of a complementary division of labour between spouses which at
Family
the same time allocates to each member of the family certain rights in the
labour of the other and in such goods or property as they may acquire
through their individual or joint efforts.
 Educational
A family provides for the linkage of each spouse and the offspring within the
wider network of kinsmen. It establishes relationships of descent and affinity.
Sociological fatherhood is determined to place the responsibility for the child
on a specific adult. There must be jural fatherhood to regularise transference
of statuses from one generation to the next. A cooperative division of labour
makes for greater efficiency and skill in the work that need to be done. Each
sex can perform many skills equally well, but each sex is likely to develop
those skills it uses more often. The basic functions of the family may be
performed with varying degrees of effectiveness from culture to culture. The
way the details of the functions are carried out can produce remarkably
different individual personalities of children and adult (Madan & Majumdar
1990, Jha 1995 et.al).

4.4 CHANGING DIMENSION OF FAMILY

Till now we have been focusing on the traditional norms and what comprises a
family. We have been concerned with the classical terminology in which a family
has been described and concieved but with the changing times the composition,
meaning and definition of family have also under gone changes. The high divorce
rate and remarriage in the present era leads to a tangled nuclear family leading to
the creation of complex kinship relations also. Presently the blended family is
coming up which comprises of networks which include previously divorced spouses
and their new marriage partners and sometimes children from the previous marriages,
as well as multiple sets of grandparents and other similar relations also. Then,
again there is the surrogate motherhood as discussed in Unit 1 of the same block
which also leads to a different type of family besides adoption. Divorces at times
also lead to families with a single parent either the children staying with mother or
at times with father. In the present day scenario single parenthood and a single
parent household is fast overtaking the nuclear family due to the rise in divorces.
Society being dynamic, we see a lot of changes and such changes have occurred
in the family system and the conception of the family itself. As we have learnt in
the last section of the Unit 1 about lesbian and gay kinship, these new patterns
have also arisen in the family structure – lesbian and gay family. In a lesbian and
gay family the partners usually adopt kids of either sex. There has been a lot of
debate in the recent past on whether or not a same sex couple should be allowed
to parent children, whether artificially implanted or adopted. This debate has gone
on for so long mainly because many religious groups believe that children can only
be properly parented by a father and mother combination. As most of the religions
do not sanction the union of same sex couples and also believe that the child will
suffer if parented by the same sex (Nanda & Warms, 2011). While the upcoming
feminist movement and many welfare agencies have strongly vouched for the
competency of two people as adults regardless of gender to be allowed to adopt
a child and care for the same. This fact is based on the idea that heterosexual
couples often have problems raising children, too. Research has found no major
differences in parenting or child development between families headed by two
46 mothers and other fatherless families. In 2008, Judge Cindy S. Lederman overturned
a Florida state law that prevented homosexual couples from adopting children, Family
stating no “moral or scientific reason for banning gays and lesbians from adopting”,
despite the state’s arguments otherwise (CNN US website accessed on 31 st
March, 2011). While, on the other hand Arkansas has recently banned all unwed
couples from adopting; a law aimed specifically at homosexual couples.
Lesbian and gay couples apart there has also been a trend of two people sharing
a live-in-relationship and begetting children without confirming to the age old
tradition of marriage. In case of live-in-relationship the partners stay as a family
on their personal consensus without undergoing the rituals of marriage which
pronounce a man and a woman as husband and wife. As in the case of family,
cases of domestic violence and rape have also come up in these live-in-relationships.
Presently, in India such cases of doemstic household violence and rape in a live-
in-relationship have been sanctioned by law to be addressed by the family court.
Reflection

Indian Law: Domestic Violence Act 2005

‘Different court judgments have discussed on different disputes pertaining to live-in

relationships. Live-in relationships are now considered at par with marriage under a new
Indian law pertaining to domestic violence. The provisions of the Domestic Violence Act,
2005 are now extended to those who are in live-in relationships as well. The amendments
intend to protect the victims of domestic abuse in live-in relationships. Section 2 (g) of
the aforementioned Act provides that a relationship between two individuals who live
together or have lived together in the past is considered as a domestic relationship. A
woman who is in a live-in relationship can seek legal relief against her partner in case
of abuse and harassment. Further, the new law also protects Indian women who are
trapped in fraudulent or invalid marriages.

http://www.lawisgreek.com/court-judgments-live-relationships-and-related-disputes,
accessed on 14th March, 2011.

Live-in-relationships has been legalised in many countries and thus, falls under the
purview of anthropological study of family. Students need to understand and
evaluate the live-in-relationship pattern, how the emotional bonding takes place
between parents and children, and the working of the kinship relations without a
formal sanction (marriage).

4.5 SUMMARY
From the above discussion on family we can summarize that family has been a
way of bringing togther two people who stay with each other to continue the
functions as administered by society. The question of when and how family as a
social structure came into being is still debatable. Family like other institutions has
also gone through many changes and we see a lot of variations in the family system
in the traditional societies. But in the present era most of the traditional societies
with polygamous and polyandrous family systems are turning into nuclear families.
Likewise, a few changes have also come up in the developed societies. The
blended families, live-in-relationships, gay and lesbian families are new entities in
the developing world and though initially there were lots of resistences yet it has
become an accepted norm in the present day scenario.

47
Kinship, Marriage and References
Family
Blumerfield, Tami. 2004. Walking Marriages. Anthropology Newsletter. 45 (5).
CNN US Websit e ht t p://art icles.cnn.co m/2008-11-25/us/
florida.gay.adoption_1_martin-gill-homosexual-adoption-florida-ban?_s=PM:US
David, Levinson & Martin Malone. 1980. Toward Explaining Human Culture.
New Haven, Conn: HRAF Press.
Durkheim, Emile. 1893. The Division of Labour in Society. Trans. Lewis A.
Coser Reprint in 1997. New York: Free Press.
Ernest, L. Schusky. 1965. Manual for Kinship Analysis. New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1940. The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood
and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
_____________ 1956. Nuer Religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Ferraro, Gary and Susan Andreatta. 2010. Cultural Anthropology: An Applied
Perspective (eight edition). USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Fox, Robin. 1967. Kinship and Marriage. Baltimore, Md.: Penguin.
Geertz, Clifford. 2001. ‘The Visit: Review of Cai Hua,’ ‘A Society without Fathers
or Husbands: The Na of China’. New York Review of Books. 18th October: 48
(16).
Harrell, Steven. 2002. Book Review of a Society without Fathers or Husbands:
The Na of China by Cai Hua, trans. Asti Hustvedt, American Anthropologists
104 (3): 982-983.
Haviland, W.A. 2003. Anthropology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Jha, Makhan. 1945. An Introduction to Social Anthropology. New Delhi: Vikas
Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.
Julius, Gould & William L. Kolb. eds. 1964. A Dictionary of the Social Sciences.
New York: The Free Press.
Mair, Lucy. 1997. An Introduction to Social Anthropology. Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Morgan, Lewis H. 1877. Ancient Society. London: Macmillan & Company. Reprint
(1944) Indian Edition. Bharati Library.
Murdock, George Peter. 1949. Social Structure. New York: Macmillan.
Nanda, Serena and Richard L.Warms. 2011. Cultural Anthropology. 10th Edition.
United Kingdom: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Nelson, Graburn. ed. 1971. Readings in Kinship and Social Structure. New
York: Harper and Row.
Parkin, Robert and Linda Stone. ed. 2004. Kinship and Family: A
Anthropological Reader. USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Roger, Keesing. 1975. Kin Groups and Social Structure. New York: Holt, Rinehart
48 and Winston.
Shih, Chaun-Kang. 2001. ‘Genesis of Marriage among the Moso and Empire Family
Building in Late Imperial China. The Journal of Asian Studies 60(2): 381-412.
Westermarck, Edward. 1922. The History of Human Marriage. The Allerton
Book Company.
Suggested Readings
Mair, Lucy. 1997. An Introduction to Social Anthropology. Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Nanda, Serena and Richard L.Warms. 2011. Cultural Anthropology. 10th Edition.
United Kingdom: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Parkin, Robert and Linda Stone. ed. 2004. Kinship and Family: A
Anthropological Reader. USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Sample Questions
1) Define family.
2) Delineate the categorization of family as given by Morgan.
3) State in brief the different types of family as listed by Murdock.
4) Critically discuss the matrilineal and the patrilineal type of families.
6) Discuss the changing dimensions in family in the contemporary society.

49
 Kinship
UNIT 2 FAMILY

Contents
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography Family and Kinship: A Study of
the Pandits of Rural Kashmir is an Example
2.3 Description of the Ethnography
2.3.1 Intellectual Context
2.3.2 Fieldwork
2.3.3 Analysis of Data
2.3.4 Conclusion
2.4 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
2.5 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography Himalayan Polyandry: Structure,
Functioning and Culture Change, A Filed Study of Jaunsar-Bawar is an
Example
2.6 Description of the Ethnography
2.6.1 Intellectual Context
2.6.2 Fieldwork
2.6.3 Analysis of Data
2.6.4 Conclusion
2.7 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
2.8 Summary
References
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives

In this unit, based on two ethnographic accounts the students will be able to
understand the:
 the complexity on which the family is based;
 peculiar form of family;
 functioning of the family; and
 comparative perspective vis-à-vis one’s own family.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
The first example in this section is on the Kashmiri Pandits. Written by T.N.
Madan, it is a good example of a study that was carried out in one’s own society.
In contemporary terms, it is an example of ‘auto-ethnography’; but it may be
noted that Madan did not study his own village. He stationed himself in a different
village and carried out his study using the standard anthropological methods.
Thus, for him, the Kashmiri Pandits were the ‘other culture’. Later, reflecting on
his work and his writings on Kashmiri Pandits, Madan says that the frame of
mind he adopted was ‘defamiliarisation’, making the familiar things ‘strange’
17
Kinship, Family and and then carrying out its study, in the same way as anthropologists have studied
Marriage
the ‘other cultures’, qualitatively different from their own.

2.2 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY Family and Kinship: A Study of
the Pandits of Rural Kashmir IS AN EXAMPLE
This work is a contribution to the understanding of a household process in time.
Like in the famous work of Meyer Fortes on the Ashanti and Tallensi of Ghana,
Madan also incorporates the element of time in his analysis: how the household
changes over a period of time.

2.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

2.3.1 Intellectual Context
Family and Kinship: A Study of the Pandits of Rural Kashmir, a pioneering and
ethnographically rich account of the Indian family, is considered to be a classic
study in Indian anthropology and sociology. It is probably the only study of its
kind on the traditional Pandits’ life in rural Kashmir. In this book, Madan made
an in-depth study of family and kinship among the Pandits (the Sarasvat
Brahmans) of a village called Utrassu – Umanagri in rural south Kashmir. In this
work, the author has tried to determine the structure and function of domestic
groups, their inter-relations with other groups and how kinship served as a
mechanism of organising social activities and coordinating social relations.

Primarily, Madan’s study concentrates on the patrilineal household (Chulah)

which is the most important kin unit in Pandit society. The book comprises 11
chapters. Several chapters are devoted to the structure and functioning of the
household covering such aspects like size and composition, recruitment to the
household, economic functions and processes underlying growth and partition.

Madan’s analysis of Kashmiri Pandits reveals that there are no formal social
groups or associations and there is a lack of solidarity among them at the village
level. They do not act as a social group within the village. The only significant
groups found among the Pandits are those based on kinship. Even here patrilineally
organised domestic units are significant than affinally related households (non-
agnatic cognates). On the other hand kinship institutions have no role in politico-
jural functions. Its relevance is largely limited to the domain of domestic relations.
A greater part of the study deals with chulah (domestic group), Kotamb (the
extended family and Kol (the exogamous patrilineal kind group).

2.3.2 Fieldwork
Madan has consciously chosen to study “one’s own” society in order that
anthropology expands its scope from studying ‘primitive’ tribal societies and
‘other’ cultures. Madan took a position that a proper understanding of the subject,
is possible firstly by conducting intensive field studies to collect first hand
information and analysis of that information.
Fieldwork was conducted from January 1957 to January 1958 in Utrassu –
Umanagri. He made brief week long visits to five other villages. Utrassu-
18
Umanagri was selected due to its representativeness of other rural Kashmiri Family
villages, its relative isolation, unaffected by disturbances and the presence of
sufficiently large number of Pandit population and households. Because of its
representative feature, the results of this study hold good for family system among
Brahmans of rural Kashmir.

2.3.3 Analysis of Data

Madan has employed the following methods for data collection:
a) Sociological census;
b) Interviews;
c) Genealogy, family history and biography and
d) Participant observation.
He employed structural –functional approach in the analysis of the data. Madan
held the view that the structural approach fails to take into consideration ‘time’,
is not necessarily true, for he felt that defining “social positions in terms of
behavioural sequences…. consume time and happen on a time scale” and
“relationships” can be conceptualised only from “successive repetitive actions”
(p.10).

Basic Premises
Madan elaborately gives a “preamble” to his study emphasizing conceptual
background and several analytical premises which shaped the study process right
from conceiving the idea, data collection and analysis. Some of these premises
are listed below

1) Madan assumes a position that Hindu family and kinship can be studied as
separate analytical categories without viewing them as embedded realms in
the larger domain of caste and not necessarily equating social structure with
that of caste system.

2) Madan opines that too much reliance on Sanskrit texts in the study of caste
and kinship has led to “the neglect of the study of Hindu kinship as it is in
the villages” and “acted as blight on the growth of field studies” (p.4).

3) Madan holds the view that family and kinship in village India need not be
organised and functioning on the basis of scriptures.

4) As the Pandits happen to be only Hindu caste in Kashmir villages, Madan

treats caste as a neutral factor.

Pandits of Utrassu – Umanagri: The Community and the Village

The community studied by Madan belongs to Sarasvat Brahmans, one of the
two sub-divisions of the Puranic division of Gauda Brahmans of North India.
The Sarasvat Brahmans constitute the great majority of native Hindus in Kashmir.
They are popularly known as Kashmiri Pandits.

The village studied by Madan is called Utrassu – Umanagri. Located in the Kothar
valley in Ananatanag District, it is a bi-nucleated village. The village is inhabited
by the Pandits and Muslims only. This study focuses exclusively on the Pandits.
19
Kinship, Family and There were 431 homesteads in the village with a population of 2,644 persons of
Marriage
which 59 and 522 were Pandit homesteads and Pandit population respectively.
The remaining households belong to the Muslims.

The Kashmiri Pandits

Kashmir Pandits comprised two sub-castes namely the gor (or basha batta) and
the karkun. The gor performed priestly activities whereas the karkun have taken
up secular occupations. The latter consider themselves superior than the former
in the Pandit caste hierarchy. These two sub-divisions came into existence over
a period of time by means of occupational specialisation, endogamy and
discrimination of social status between the two sub-divisions.

Even though the sub castes and internal divisions within karkun comprise
important structural features of the Pandit society, The domestic groups play a
major role in their life.
In Pandit society, functionally as well as structurally important groups are:
1) Domestic groups called gare (household) or chulah (hearth group) also
identified as household which comprise the former.
2) A wider group comprising Chulahs called kotamb (family, usually extended
family).
3) Kol (patrilineage which link the constituent domestic groups- gara/chulah-
by the rule of agnatic descent)

These three groups are the important sites for the operation of kinship ties and
affinal roles. Pandits kinship ties lay emphasis on agnation. Non-agnatic cognates
fall outside one’s own agnatic groups as can be seen in case of howur (wife’s
natal family) which remain forever in the category of non-kin. Wife’s conjugal
family is also her family of procreation

The Homestead and Household

The pandits call homestead jay which consists of a house with a yard and kitchen
garden and one or more out-buildings used as cattle shed, or granary, a shop, etc.
Granaries and cattle sheds are also shared by the neighbouring homesteads.

A house of the homestead is called lar - a building which is normally three

storeyed and comprise about 12 rooms. The house is inhabited by chulah
(household). The number of resident chulahs in a house varies. However, a house
can accommodate not more than four chulahs at a time as a typical Pandit house
can have a maximum of 4 kitchens and each chulah must have one kitchen.
Even though the number of households residing in a house vary, the common
type is one household in one house. The variance in the number of households
per house is the result of social events like partition, shifting to new or other
houses, a rare migration, marriage, etc., which cause increase or decrease in the
number of households per houses.

Madan’s interest in studying domestic groups lies in explaining the significance

of (1) “the range in the numerical size of the chulah, and (2) the variation in its
genealogical structure” (p.58). He applies the development cycle approach based
on diachronic data to analyse the above issues.
20
Madan uses several examples to draw the general characteristics of the household Family
development cycle and possibilities of the structural variations within the
household.

1) The Pandit kinship system distinguishes the jural and ritual position of male
and female agnates. Patriuxorilocal residence entails jural right on the
daughter but not ritual rights. Usually a daughter takes residence in her
husband’s house and foregoes her jural and ritual statuses and acquires the
right of maintenance. Widowed daughter can return to her natal family and
are entitled to the right of maintenance but not to jural or ritual rights. Her
ritual rights continue to exist in her deceased husband’s family.

2) Male agnates of the family are coparceners of the ancestral property without
any recognition of definite shares as the father is considered the authoritative
custodian and as long as he is alive. property remains undivided. Structurally
these jural rules are significant in the sense that the family is quite likely for
partition once the father dies.

Basing on the above two rules which govern the Pandits family, the emergence
of various possible structural family units in the development processes, can be
discerned.

The development cycle of household largely depends upon the number of sons
(or only one son) and number of daughters or childless widowed daughters. A
family survived by only one son, would take a biological course and its subsequent
phases depend upon birth and death. If a family is survived by more than one
son, partition results though not invariably, leading the brothers to establish
separate households. Marriages also lead to the fission of the household. In the
absence of sons, adoption also leads to the biological course where subsequent
birth, death, marriage, etc., in the descending generations influence the emergence
of different family types. If a son is not adopted, the family may perish or the
daughter(s) may inherit the property but her/their father’s line of descent comes
to an end.

The family composition also changes as the household’s development cycle phases
change. Several types of household compositions are seen in the village, of which
more popular types are nuclear, fraternal extended family, (siblings, and siblings
and first cousins) and paternal extended family. Even though Pandits regard the
extended family as ideal, in reality the chulah’s composition is differently
constituted. Nevertheless, the data from six villages including Utrassu-Umanagri
show that numerically preponderant type is the extended family.

Recruitment to the household

It is through birth, adoption, marriage and incorporation that individuals become
members of the Pandit household. Membership enables exercise of rights and
obligations and facilitates renewal, new roles and individuals into persons. Of
the 522 Pandit persons in the village, 71% became members in Pandit society by
birth, 25.5% by marriage, 2.5% by adoption and 1% by incorporation.

Parent-child relationship
Ideally, parent child relationship is governed by hawalyat (preordination) and
command of moral law. It is dharma (moral and religious duty) to beget children
21
Kinship, Family and and bring them up and it is again dharma to love and respect one’s parents. This
Marriage
reciprocal relationship ensures continuation of lineage, transfer of property,
performing rituals of food offering and libation to their manes, etc. Even though
conflicts do occur between parents and children, they are rarely very intensive.
Religious rites (for eg. Sharirsamskar rituals for the good of the body) strengthens
parent-child relationship. Particularly sons acquire full membership by means of
undergoing various rituals (for eg. Mekhal = ritual initiation). Another important
ritual is antimasamaskar (last rites). Food offering (shraddha) is performed for
one’s lineal ascendants of six generations. This ritual strengthens the bonds
between parents and children and ensures continuity of the household.
Grandparents, parents and children constitute three important categories of
relatives in the household with mutual rights and obligations.

The economic aspects of the household

Madan considers economic aspects of the household in conjunction with its
influence on the development cycle. The income sources are multiple to a majority
of the Pandit households. Land, salaried employment, wage labour, and trade
are the main sources of income. Income from all sources is pooled and held as
joint income. Madan writes “to the extent to which individual earnings are not
an important part of the household income, the solidarity of the joint household
is maintained without much difficulty” (p. 151). An individual earner usually
remits a part of his salary/wage to the joint household as a matter of duty and
kinship sentiment. There are certain situations where an individual earner willingly
continues his membership of the joint household, instead of establishing a separate
family at the place of work. However, at some point of time, particularly when
the household is in the developmental phase of a fraternal-extended family, the
individual earner may refuse to remit salary/wage which leads to household
fission.

Household property is jointly owned by the coparceners with equal rights. It is

managed by the eldest person (karta) who is the main decision-maker by virtue
of his structural position as a lineal ascendant of the other coparceners. The
household property is divided when the other members develop difference of
opinion between themselves or with the karta. No coparcener has exclusive rights
in the joint estate. Therefore each coparcener has no heirs but only survivors
who will have joint property right. Property is shared between the coparceners at
the time of partition.

Economic conditions have witnessed over time various changes: devaluation of

landed property due to land reforms; enrolment as labourers; out-migration to
take up employment; increased dependence an individual efforts (to work as
employees, labourers, servants, etc.) and cash income. These changes have had
implications for the maintenance of household solidarity.

Partition of the household

Ideally, the Pandit society provides appreciation to joint living. When father is
alive, his sons rarely embark on partition of the household. Households are prone
to divide after the demise of the father. Besides, Pandit household do not expand
over and above three generations, as the data indicate. Joint households do not
contain “kin more distantly related than first cousins” (p.165). Households with
members spanning over three or four generations and kin extension beyond first
22
cousin are very few in number. Death and partition are the factors that prevent Family
expansion of the above said limits. In a majority of the households, partition
take place between married brothers of which one or more brothers had children.
Father and son dividing the household is also reported, though rare.

In Pandit society, the son(s) remain subdued under the moral and jural authority
of the father. In the event of partition, the father is entitled for a share and also
sole right on self-acquired property, whereby the share of the seceding son(s)
can be substantially reduced, the consideration which make a son or sons not to
opt for partition. There are at least two structural conditions under which a
household is quite likely to undergo partition: father’s death and setting up of
own household by getting married. However these structural conditions by
themselves are not the causes of partition. The major cause is the conflicts that
arises between brothers in due course after the death of father and also mother.
The eldest son succeeds as head of joint family and his younger brothers may not
quite likely accept him in the position of their father and the oldest son is also
under the obligation of showing his loyalty to his own wife and children quite
contrary to the way father functioned, before his death.

The sisters-in-law also find a situation of confusion regarding their rights and
duties in the household. Sometimes partial partitioning occurs where the
immovable property is held jointly but the chulah is divided for separate residences
and consumption. Conflict between brothers on one hand and one’s bondage
with wife and children on the other is usually resolved by partition. However the
ties of agnation and territorial proximity bind the households of brothers and
patrilineally related cousins.

The Family and the Patrilineage

The natal members of a Pandit household have their patrilineal kin living either
in another or other households. All such agnatically tied households are termed
Kotamb. It is larger than a small group of closely related members in a Chulah
and each Kotamb comprises a grouping of Chulahs.

When partition of the household occurs, over a period of time, the necessity to
construct new houses also arises to accommodate the closely related agnates.
New houses are usually constructed nearby the ancestral house around the same
yard (homestead) or in adjacent yards. Such closeby constructions are necessary
in order to use outbuildings, yard, kitchen garden or granary which has usually
remained undivided. These newly constructed houses around the ancestral house
become a cluster in course of time and become a compound. A compound
comprises two to four homesteads (a house with a yard, kitchen garden and
outbuildings), of agnatically related households. In course of time, new
homesteads also come up adjacent to the previously existing homesteads which
together may form a neighbourhood. The homesteads also form into compounds
or independent homesteads within the neighbourhood. Households with the same
Kotamb name live in compounds and neighbourhood, forming into a unilocal
extended family.

Kotamb, sometimes is dispersed in more than one locality (neighbourhood)

separated sufficiently so that face-to-face interaction between Kotamb members
gets diminished. However, the kotamb members act together in contingent
situations like death. Even though they are dispersed, they feel the togetherness
23
Kinship, Family and as belonging to the same extended family (Kotamb). Irrespective of how remotely
Marriage
related, the chulahs of agnatically related kin dwelling in a single village constitute
one single Kotamb.
The Kotamb members observe ritual pollution when one of their own members
is polluted due to an event of birth or death in his house. Distantly related members
and dispersed members may not take active association and “regard themselves
as belonging to the same Kol (gotra) rather than the same Kotamb” (p.226).
A kol is the widest patrilineal exogamous category. Kol brings out the significance
of patrilineage and agnation by providing kinship connections between the
households in a Kotamb, notwithstanding the structural connections that marriage,
filiation and vicinage generate in the formation of a Kotamb. Kol establishes kin
connection between members who are not members of one’s own Chulah or
Kotamb but distantly related by virtue of belonging to the same kol of an ego. It
is not, however, a structural group like a Chulah but an ad-hoc gathering in a
wedding or funeral. Either the Kol or the Kotamb have no role in the politico–
jural arena. All the economic, ritual and jural functions falls within the Chulah.
The patrilineal kin are bound together by observing birth and death pollution,
Kol exogamy and offering food and water to the manes, which the morality of
agnatic kinship enforces. Performing Sharadda is limited to the common sixth
lineal male ascendants signifying that the Pandit patrilineage (kol) extends up to
six generations of ancestors.
Confining to the above activities, the Kol serves the purpose of sharing and
effecting continuity in family life. Kol is a recognisable agnatic kinship category
and beyond Kol, the Pandit kinship enters into the domain mythical descent.

The Family and Wide Kinship Structure

Affinity and non-agnatic kin are also fundamental to Pandit kinship though the
primacy of agnation never subdues. Pandit kinship is characterised by the presence
of three categories of kin namely (1) ego’s affines (2) ego’s agnates and (3) ego’s
maternal and other cognates. However these three relationships are maintained
as discrete categories by rules of exogamy and preferences in spouse selection.
The third category is called matamal which is generally used as one’s mother’s
natal chulah. The matamal has special place in the life of the children of its
(matamal’s) female agnates, i.e, females who are married into another chulah. It
occasionally presents gifts to the young children, though rare, a child whose
parents are dead is fostered. Matamal is like a holiday inn to the children of its
married female daughters.

2.3.4 Conclusion
Madan has studied the family and kinship of rural Kashmiri Pandits in a village
called Utrassu –Umanagri. Pandits’ social organisation and culture remained
insulated from the co-residents of Muslims and no other Hindu castes are reported
here. The Pandit and the Muslims relations are limited only to economic
interactions.

Brahmans of rural Kashmir, as elsewhere lack formal groups, other than kin
groups, which instill solidarity and organised action at wider community level.
Madan attributes territorial divisions and subtle class formation for these features
24
of Pandit’s society.
The kin groups are the only groups that play major role in organising the Pandit”s Family
life. Kin groups are fundamentally patrilineal groups. A hamlet or a village
comprise two or more patrilineal groupings of kin some of whom may be related
by affinity or cognatic kinship. However, agnates, affines and non-agnatic cognates
do not fuse or associate by means of common interests like joint ownership of
property, common hearth, and daily interactions. Patrilineally related kin form
into cohesive and functional kin units. However, kin units do not have politico-
jural functions on a wider scale beyond one’s own domestic groups. The relevance
of kinship institutions is strictly limited to the domain of domestic relations.

The most basic and fundamental kin group in the Pandit society is Chulah or the
household. It is based on patrilineal ideology usually characterised by patrivirilocal
residence and patrilineal inheritance. The oldest male member of the household
is the head. The Chulah may have different member composition giving rise to
nuclear family, paternal–extended family or fraternal–extended family depending
upon the phase of the development cycle of the households. The Chulah is an
estate–holding group, where the natal male members are the coparcenaries.

Worshipping gods and offering oblations to the ancestors of the household

constitute an integral function of Chulah. In all the above, the principal of agnation
is thrown into relief.

The principal of agnation is applied differently to man and woman. In Pandit

society ritual adulthood for a man is conferred in his own natal family. Ritual
adulthood is acquired by a woman only after her marriage and it is recognised in
conjunction with other members of her conjugal family, however, with limited
rights. This way a woman becomes a permanent member of her conjugal family
and cease to be a member of her natal family losing her coparcenary rights, save
some payments and presents during marriage and periodic/occasional gifts. She
is entitled for maintenance if joined her natal family after husband’s bereavement
and childlessness. A widow’s residence in her natal family does not entail jural
and ritual ties there. These ties are located in her conjugal family even though
the widow is no longer its resident.

Pandit’s distinguish zamati (natal members) and amati (in-married members).

Due to this division, the women married into the Pandit’s chulah, has only limited
rights in her conjugal family. She is not a coparcener of the household estate.
However, a woman attains functional importance in running and organizing the
affairs of the household.

Agnatically related groupings of Chulahs are called Kotams – an extended family.

It is a segmentary grouping emerging owing to partition of Chulah. The Kotamb
comprise patrilineal kin living in separate households within the village or
neighbouring villages. The Kotamb as such does not own any property in common.
As the Chulah increase in size and due to birth, marriage and death, new chulahs
emerge but the agnatic relations are kept alive. Joint ownership may exist between
two or three Chulahs. The kotamb as one single unit does not have economic or
ritual obligations towards its individual members. However, the individual
members of Kotamb, an account of proximity of residence or unbroken contact,
observe ritual pollution and ritual offerings to manes. In reality active interaction
is limited to brothers and first cousins and vicinage strengthen kinship bonds
between them.
25
Kinship, Family and Wider than Kotamb is the Kol an exogamous category of patrilineage. The linkage
Marriage
between the constituent Chulah’s of the Kotamb is effected by this patrilineage.
Kol ties are invoked with distant kin of known genealogical connection but falling
outside the chulah or kotamb.

The genealogical knowledge itself does not exceed the limits of fifth degree
cousinship as the Pandits do not evince much interest in preserving the kol
genealogy. Just as kotamb, the kol also does not have politico–jural functions.

2.4 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
T.N. Madan’s work is one of the most significant work on Indian kinship and
family systems. Incorporating the element of time, Madan shows how the Pandit
household develops.

2.5 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY Himalayan Polyandry:
Structure, Functioning and Culture Change – A
Field Study of Jaunsar–Bawar IS AN EXAMPLE
The second ethnography of the present unit deals with socio-economic and
political life of people inhabiting a small region called Jansuar–Bawar located in
lower Himalayas in the North –West corner of the state of Uttar Pradesh (now in
the state of Uttarkhand). It provides rich anthropological data on Indo–Aryan
speaking Hindus who are the representatives of the Western Pahari culture area.
These people are distinguishable from the plains living Hindus linguistically
and other cultural practices of which the practice of Polyandry is one.

2.6 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

The book comprises 12 chapters divided between three parts. The first part with
2 chapters is concerned with the region and the sample villages. The second part
comprising 7 chapters dealing with various aspects of socio-cultural life like
social stratification, kinship, village organisation economy, religion, etc. The
last part consisting of three chapters mainly deals with an analysis and evaluation
with community development programmes and culture change. Keeping in view
the subject of the present unit-2, the discussion in the following pages is mainly
limited to “Family”. Other aspects are briefly discussed.

2.6.1 Intellectual Context

Majumdar was interested in studying Jaunsar–Bawar region because of the wide
prevalence of Polyandry. Majumdar opined that polyandry was widely practiced
by the Indo – Aryan settlers in the lower Himalayas rather than attributing it as a
feature of the non-Aryan, Dravidian or Tibet people. The polyandrous people
are mistakenly ridiculed by their neighbours without any assessment of the
possible courses of the origin of polyandry and its continued existence in Jaunsar
– Bawar region.

26
2.6.2 Fieldwork Family

D.N. Majumdar conducted fieldwork during the autumn of 1937 for two months.
However due to high altitude problems, fieldwork could not be conducted
continuously over a period of time. However, for the next twenty years, he and
his team of investigators and supervisors, conducted fieldwork in Jaunsar-Bawar
almost every year for few weeks during summer. Totally, the team stayed in the
field for four years and eleven months.

Village census, family genealogies, structured interviews and observation were

employed for data collection.

2.6.3 Analysis of Data

Majumdar begins the ethnography of the people of Jaunsar-Bawar by giving an
account on the past and present conditions of the region. The region is located in
the north-western corner of the State of Undivided Uttar Pradesh, now in the
state of Uttarkhand. The region falls in the Tehsil of Chakrata. Jaunsar and Bawar
are the two sub-regions, the former forms the lower part and the latter is in the
upper part of northern part of the Jaunsar-Bawar region. The region is
characteristically mountainous in its terrain.

The region was ruled by the Hill Rajas of Sirmer, Muslim invaders, the Gurkhas
and by the British. A local code of common law (Dastur-ul-Amal) was in vogue
in Jaunsar–Bawar which was followed to the recent years and also observed to
some extent even today.

The population of Jaunsar–Bawar exhibited a trend of continuous increase, though

there were minor and major fluctuation between the period 1881 (45,117 persons)
and 1951 (58,469 persons). The sex-ratio (females per 100 males) between 1881
and 1951 showed about 20 per cent less than males. The precise reasons are not
clearly indicated though infanticide existed in remote past and in recent years
the practice was abandoned.

Villages in the Jaunsar–Bawar comprise multi–castes of which only a few familiar

castes are seen. The castes fall into three groups namely the high caste group, the
intermediate group and the lower caste group. The people of Jaunsar–Bawar
have been isolated from people of other areas. However the border areas have
been in contact with neighbouring people.

The Jaunsar–Bawar comprised 39 khats (Hill sectors), each containing a number

of villages. The khat villages traditionally formed into one unit, for administrative
as well as social and ceremonial purposes. Each khat is headed by a leader the
khat sayana or Sardar sayana. The khat sayana is responsible to the official
administration (Tahsildar and the Patwarism–village revenue collectors) in
collecting and remitting revenue. At the village level a goan sayana(s) used to
look after the affairs of the village.

The People: Castes

Majumdar studied a population of different castes which belonged to atleast
three ethnic types: the Mangoloid; the Indo-Aryan or Mediterranean and the
Austric or pre-Dravidian. In Jaunsar-Bawar region, the latter two ethnic groups
are reported. The Indo-Aryan group is represented by Rajputs and Brahmin castes
27
Kinship, Family and and the Austric group is represented by the Kolta and other artisan castes. The
Marriage
Rajputs of the lower Himalaya region are known as Khasa. In Jaunsar-Bawar,
the Rajput and the Brahmin together are also called the Khasa, probably due to
frequent intermarriages between them. However, in this monograph, the term
Khasa is used interchangeable for the caste of the Rajputs.

Field Centres
Three villages namely, Lohari, Baila and Lakhamandal – were selected basing
on two considerations: representativeness of the culture of the region and suitable
size and setting. Lohari and Baila represented the general Jaunsar –Bawar culture
and Lakhamandal is selected to understand the cultural influences of the
neighbouring Tehri – Garhwal area. The data from the former two villages formed
the basis for general understanding of Jaunsari culture while the data from the
latter village was used for indicating changes.

The village settlements are characterised by crowded houses, and are distributed
basing on caste and lineage. The high castes occupied an open high altitude part
of the village. The lower caste Kolta inhabit the lower parts of the rocky slopes
or at outskirts of high-caste habitations. The residences of the intermediate
artisanal castes are sprinkled, here and there as they are few in numbers, within
the main cluster of houses of high castes.

Families belonging to the same lineage (aal) and sub-lineage (bhera) cluster in a
common habitat. In the past, each family owned plenty of space around its
dwelling so that families separating from the ancestral family could construct
new houses nearby. The houses are constructed mainly on the basis of sub-lineage
(bherea) and one or more sub-lineages of single lineage (aal) occupy a continuous
area or ward. In the same way the sub-lineages of a second lineage occupy a
separate area distinctly removed from the first one as a separate ward. However,
in each ward there is more than one lineage.

The settlement history shows that even before the Rajputs or Brahmins arrived,
the villages were inhabited by artisanal and other lower castes. The latter generally
migrate from place to place. Inter marriages between Brahmins and Rajputs are
reported whose descendants have grown in number in course of time on account
of which the Rajputs have become the dominant caste in Lohari and Baila villages.

Population Composition
The caste composition of all villages is more or less similar except in their number.
Rajputs are predominant in Lohari and Baila villages whereas the Brahmins
outnumbered other castes in Lakhamandal village. The Kolta is the second largest
caste in numbers.

The castes are divided into three strata: (i) the higher castes represented by the
Rajput and the Brahmins; (ii) the artisanal or intermediate caste; and (iii) the low
caste represented by the Kolta. There was one Sindhi Rajput migrant family and
one Gurkha male.

Social Stratification And Caste Hierarchy

Social groups in the three villages are formed on the basis of economic status,
professional calling and caste.
28
Economic Classes in the Village Family

By taking into consideration the size of landholding, strength of livestock, number

of houses owned, cash, gold, etc, the people of the three villages are divided into
rich, intermediate and poor classes. Rich are generally represented by high castes,
though the other two classes are also seen among them. The lower caste Kolta
are generally poor and landless, though some rich people (however not comparable
with the rich of the high castes) are better-off compared to the poor families in
the high castes. Among the artisanal castes, a majority of them belong to the
intermediate economic class.

Professional Classes
Majumdar used the term professional castes in place of caste occupations in
view of the fact that the traditional calling of a caste was no longer the monopoly
of specific castes. In other words, certain occupations were practiced by a number
of castes.
There are three broad categories of professional classes: Agriculturalists, Artisans
and Community servants and free professionals. Agriculturists comprised (a)
Zamindars or owner cultivator, (b) owner cultivator-cum-tenant, (c) The tenant
or Asami and (d) landless labourers and serf. In the former two classes, the
individuals have property rights on land whereas the latter two lack it.
Artisanal group comprises various essential professionals needed in the village
such as (a) carpentry and masonry, (b) goldsmiths (c) blacksmiths, (d) barber
and tailoring, (e) weaving and (f) leatherwork. Even though there are specialist
castes which traditionally identified with a specific caste occupation, other castes
are also seen practicing occupations other than one’s own. The following gives
the professions and names of the caste traditionally associated with
Caste Name Caste Occupation
1. Badi Carpentry and masonry
2. Sunar Goldsmiths
3. Lohar Blacksmiths
4. Bajgi Barber and Tailor
5. Julaha/Garav Weaving
6. Koltas/Doms Leatherwork
Of the above castes, the Badi, the Bajgi and the Koltas are seen in the field
centres and the remaining are seen in other villages in Jaunsar-Bawar.
The third groups of professionals serve in the temples or during ceremonial
occasions, or serve as medicinemen, magicians, etc. Some of these services and
the associated castes are listed below.
Caste Associated Occupations
1. Bajgi Drummers, messengers or village chowkidar magicians
and diviners popularly known as ‘Baki’.
2. Nath/Jagdi Religious service, traditional sorcerer and Medicineman
escorts, Maha Brahmins;
3. Brahmin Priest in temples and marriages
29
Kinship, Family and In the three villages, for the professional castes, including the artisanal castes
Marriage
and community servants, agriculture is the important stay in the form of tenancy
or tenancy-cum-own cultivation, whereas their hereditary professions are only
secondary.
Caste Hierarchy
Castes in the three villages and also in Janusar-Bawar region, are grouped under
a three tier hierarchy. The top one comprised high castes (Rajputs and Brahmins),
the middle comprised of a number of intermediate castes (Badi, Sunar, Jagdi,
Nath, Lohar, Bajgi) and the bottom tier comprised low caste groups (the Kolta
and in few other places Dom, Mochi). Caste hierarchy is accepted in the region
as a matter of religious sanction.

Majumdar lists three important features of the caste system (p.53-54). The first
one is the dominance of the high castes by virtue of land ownership and own-
cultivation which helped these castes to strengthen their position by means of
numerical preponderance and wealth. The second feature is the presence of low
caste Kolta who are inferior to others as they are serfs, leatherworkers and provided
their labour to the land owning high castes. The third feature is the marginal
importance of the intermediate artisan communities whose numerical strength
(in small numbers) is largely determined by the needs of the village communities.
Between the artisan castes, the importance of Bajgis is relatively higher as their
services as drummers are required in the temples and social ceremonies. To
conclude, the castes in the three field centres are composed of the “stereotyped
castes stratified on both economic and socio-religious grounds. These castes are
functionally interdependent as well as supplementary to one another” (p.54).

One of the special cultural features of the Jaunsar-Bawar region of the lower
Himalayas is the widespread presence of a special type of family which is
designated by Majumdar as fraternal polyandrous family. The matriarchal
polyandrous family once in existence among the Nayars of Malabar is different
from the polyandrous family seen in Jaunsar-Bawar. Among the Nayar, the
husbands of a wife are not necessarily related as brothers or by kinship or by
consanguinity. In Jaunsar-Bawar, the husbands in the polyandrous family are
invariably brothers.

Another special feature of the family here is that a group of brothers are married
to one or more number of women who live together as a joint family which
Majumdar designated as fraternal polyandrous joint family or simply
polygynandrous family.

Structural Features of Typical Family

Family system discussed in the ethnography refers mainly to that of Rajputs and
the Brahmins of Lohari and Baila villages which represent the traditional pattern
in the Jaunsar-Bawar. In case of Lakhamandal, the family system is influenced
by the neighbouring Tehri-Garhwar region and hence considered only to highlight
certain distinctive features.

A family in Jaunsar-Bawar is characterised by “patrilocal residence, patrilineal

descent, patronymic designation and patriarchal authority” (p.71).
Characteristically a Rajput and a Brahmin family is a joint family. It is “a union
of all male members of all living generations, in the patrilineal line of descent,
30
along with their wives and their unmarried sisters and daughters” (p.71). However, Family
this joint family is quite different from the Hindu joint family reported elsewhere
in India. In the latter case, each adult is married to a woman and all such married
males live together in a single compound. In the case of Jaunsari joint family all
brothers are married to one or more women. It is the eldest brother who marries
a woman or successively several women. It is through him that his brothers also
become husbands to the woman or women whom the elder brother married. In
other words, “all the brothers form an inseparable group as ‘fraternal husbands’
in the name of the eldest brother” (p.72). This form of family is termed by
Majumdar as polygynandrous joint family (a group of brothers married
successively to more than one woman) rather than as polyandrous family (a group
of men married to one single woman).
Another structural feature of the joint family in the Jaunsar-Bawar region is the
presence of additional members.
Married sisters and married daughters often tend to stay back in their natal families.
Because of the practice of child marriage, the girl stays back in her parental
family till she attains puberty. In the same way, the divorced or widowed daughters
and sisters may return to their natal families. Further, married sister or daughter
make frequent visits to the parental home during festivals, etc., and stay for
longer periods.
Thus typically a joint family in Jaunsar-Bawar region is composed of brothers,
each group of brothers belonging to two or three generations, along with their
respective groups of wives, unmarried sisters, daughters, and married or widowed/
divorced sisters and daughters. Unmarried brothers and sons are an integral part
of the joint family who in course of time are married to the wife of the brother or
marry another woman.
However, fraternal polygynandrous joint family is not the only form of family
seen among the Jaunsari Hindus. The major forms are polygynandrous,
polyandrous, polygynous and monogamous unions.
Majumdar inferred that while polygynandrous marriages are more typical of
Jaunsari region, other forms may in course of time result in polygynandrous
unions. Other forms emerge owing to divorce, death of wives or division of
family.
Polygynandry and polyandry are common among the Rajputs and the Brahmins
as well as other lower castes especially in the villages of Baila and Lohari.
However in Lakhamandal village, owing to the influence of tehri-Garhwal,
monogamy is popular.
As far as the types of family are concerned, Majumdar reports several sub-types
among the major forms of families namely polygynandrous, polyandrous,
polygynous and monogamous. These sub-types are in a transition stage where in
they change from one type to the other in course of time due to death, divorce,
division of family, etc.

Functioning of the Typical Family

The head of the Jaunsar family is called Sayana. Sayana is usually the senior-
most male person – the eldest brother of the members of the senior generation
living in the family.
31
Kinship, Family and The succession to the office of family headship is based on two criteria: (1) the
Marriage
eligible person should be the eldest; and (2) the person should belong to the
senior generation, even if his age is equal to or younger than an eldest person of
the next descending generation. Senior-most member is the most respected person
and the representative of the family. His command over family affairs is supreme.
Even if he has retired due to old age, his word is respected by the acting head-
(either his younger brother or eldest son). Even though the wives and children
belong to all the brothers, it is the eldest brother who possesses supreme command
over all family members.

The family Sayana is not only vested with authority but also has to run the family
efficiently. He represents as a manager of the family property, and assigns various
works to the family members. He has to protect the interests of the family,
represent his family and defend it in village meetings. It is also his duty to ensure
cooperation between the family members. As a matter of tradition, the family
members have to obey the head of the family and the latter has to exhibit
considerable care on the former.

While the family Sayana is the overall in-charge of all family affairs, external as
well as internal, it is the senior-most woman, usually the first wife of the Sayana,
who is vested with the responsibility of organising household chores by
distributing works among womenfolk of the family. She is known as Sayani
who enjoys a privileged status among all the other wives. She is respected and
regarded as the caretaker of her co-wives. Wives and children are regarded as
valuable because of their labour contribution to various household chores and
domestic works as well as in agriculture.

Even though the Jaunsari family lays emphasis on jointness, due to differences
between women, disputes in division of labour, or when family size has grown
beyond manageable level, division of families take place. Property division is
arranged as per the preferences of the brothers or father and his son in the village
meetings. Women are not entitled to inherit property. However, their maintenance
is taken care of by the male persons-either husband(s) or son(s) with whom they
wish to stay.

One salient feature of the Joint family in Jaunsar-Bawar is no brother including

the family Sayana can claim exclusive right over one or more wives, one or
more children, or on land, livestock or other property. All the brothers are
considered equivalent. A woman considers all the brothers as her husbands.
Children regard all the ‘brothers’ as their father without reckoning real paternity
or maternity. This feature binds together all the family members as long as
individual members wish to stay in the joint family.

Family Size
Given the special type of family system. We can expect that among the Jaunsar’s,
the family size would be considerably large. Let us now look into family size.

Of the 160 total numbers of families in the three villages, 50% of families had 1-
5 members; about 41% had 6-10 members; 8% had 11-15 members. One family
(that of a Rajput family) contained 16 members. Of the 63 families belonging to
the Rajput caste about 32% had 1-5 members, about 51% had 6-10 members,
about 16% had 11-15 members. Of the 22 families belonging to the Brahmin
32
caste, about 50% had 1-5 members, 41% had 6-10 members and 9% had 11-15 Family
members.

The Kolta caste comprised 49 families of which 65% had 1-5 members, 33%
had 6-10 members and the remaining 2% had 11-15 members.

The family size of the artisan castes was generally small. Of the total number of
all artisanal castes of Jagdi, Badi, Bajgi, Nath and Sunar (N=26), 65% had 1-5
members and the remaining 35% had 6-10 members.

From the above data, it may be inferred that the family size of the high caste
Rajput and Brahmin is high. For both the Rajput and the Brahmin caste put
together, about 37% contained 1-5 members, 48% contained 6-10 members and
the remaining 15% had 11-16 members.

High family size among the high castes can be correlated with the wide prevalence
of polygynandrous families among these high castes.

Variations in Family Form

Fraternal polyandrous marriage and family is regarded as ideal in the Jaunsar-
Bawar. There are certain compelling reasons behind this preference. In this sub-
section, we will concentrate on family forms in three villages. It must be kept in
mind that the family form in any society is subjected to development cycle. Due
to marriage, birth, death, divorce, division or by the presence or absence of core
members (primary kin) or additional relatives (eg. a divorced/widowed sister or
daughter), the composition of the family is subjected to change. This results in
nuclear families becoming joint families or vice-versa and other types including
polyandrous, polygynous form from monogamous family and vice versa.

Majumdar himself recognises this temporality in family composition and the

resultant family form. We shall remember that the data for the present account is
largely drawn from the villages of Baila and Lakhamandal and refers particularly
to the Rajputs (Khasa) and the Brahmin of the former and the Brahmins of the
latter. Majumdar opines that Baila being a backward village, it represents Jaunsari
tradition of polyandry and polygynandry.

In Baila village, four principle forms of marriage are reported:

(1) Polygynandrous, (2) Polyandrous, (3) Polygynous, and (4) Monogamous.
At the village level, of the total 89 marriages, 29 (33%) are polygynandrous
marriages, 22 (25%) are polyandrous unions, 8 (9%) are polygynous unions and
the remaining unions (30 or 34%) are monogamous. Among the Rajputs, 18 of
the 45 unions are polygynandrous (40%), 13 (29%) are polyandrous unions, 2
(4%) are polygynous and the remaining 12 (27%) are monogamous unions. Even
among the low castes, polygynandry and polyandry are reported in high frequency.
These figures indicate that these two marriage forms are common among the
Jaunsaris. In Lohari village 49% of 57 unions were polygynandrous, 12% are
polygynous and 39% are monogamous unions. In the case of Lakhamandal village,
the frequency of polygynandry is less than that of monogamous unions, a change
attributed to frequent separation of brothers and culture contact.

As far as the family type is concerned, Majumdar relies on the data drawn from
the Baila village and gives caste-wise quantitative data. The interesting aspect is
33
Kinship, Family and the existence of sub-types within each of the major family types. Without going
Marriage
into quantitative details, the following statement provides family types and sub-
types.

Types of Family in Baila Village

Major Type of Family Sub-tpes
1. Polygynandrous 1. Simple polygynandrous
2. Multi-polygynandrous
3. Polygynandrous-cum-monogamous
4. Polygynandrous-cum-polyandrous
5. Polygynandrous-cum-polygynous

2. Polyandrous 1. Simple polyandrous

2. Multi polyandrous
3. Polyandrous-cum-monogamous
4. Polyandrous-cum-polygynous

3. Polygynous 1. Simple polygynous

2. 2. Multi- polygynous
3. Polygynous-cum-monogamous

4. Monogamous 1. Multi-monogamous
2. Appended monogamous
3. Nuclear monogamous
4. Broken

5. Others 1. Single male

The precise composition of the family sub-type listed above is not given in the
monograph. However most of the sub-types are self-explanatory. As Majumdar
observes (p.77), that “in a joint family of two or three generations, the
combinations” produce complicated forms of family types. Further the
demographic composition (for eg. a family in which only one male is born without
brothers) and personal preferences or situational forces may determine the form
of marriage and thereby the family form. Due to these “constraints” a single
male in a family has to choose between either monogamy or polygyny. Similarly
two more brothers might prefer polyandry or polygynandry together. Sometimes
wide age differences between two brothers precludes polygynandry and each of
such brothers may choose monogamous marriage though the brothers may live
jointly. The student has to keep in mind the difference between the commonly
used family terms like nuclear family and joint family and the polygandrous
union and the consequent family forms in Jaunsar-Bawar. For this reason,
Majumdar takes into consideration the type of marriage unions for classifying
families, instead of taking family composition.

34
2.6.4 Conclusion Family

In his work, Majumdar offers several explanations regarding the development

and existence of Jaunsari polygynandrous joint family.

Firstly, the Jaunsari agriculture is extremely arduous given the geophysical

conditions of the local mountainous terrain with steep hills and deep gorges. The
terrain is characterised by the following features:

Availability of agricultural land is highly limited; lands are located far away
from the village sites; The terrain is subjected to landslides, floods, heavy rains,
lack of suitable irrigation facilities. At suitable localities, irrigation canals are to
be constructed over long distances. The canals are subjected to damage by huge
boulders brought down by flooding rivers; lands at lower slopes need to be terraced
with great care and fortification lest the terraces collapse and landsliding destroys
terraces; cultivating un-terraced and un-irrigated fields (Khil cultivation) require
cutting and burning grasses and shrubs which is very tedious; Khil cultivation
causes disintegration of hill slides resulting in landslides and hence frequent
fallowing; inter village disputes on sharing water from a single source; the
necessity to build cattle-cum-residential sheds at the site of agricultural fields,
the necessity of some members who have to stay away from the family and to
stay at the field. High altitude variation (between 2,500 feet to 9,000 feet) imposes
restriction on the crop cultivated; hence rice cannot be cultivated at high altitudes
due to the difficulty of supplying water to the fields.

There are several other problems associated with high altitude agriculture, which
involve various arduous tasks.

The above account can be conveniently divided into two categories; (1) scarcity
of agricultural land and (2) requirement of additional lands to practice cultivation
which is constrained by many problems listed above. The above two problems,
in turn necessitates an adaptation wherein, it is required that the family landholding
be kept undivided and that the family has to equip itself with the necessary number
of persons to meet the heavy labour requirement. The Jaunsaris, as Majumdar
indicated, found that the polygynandrous family is the answer to meet the above
two conditions.

By means of polygynandrous joint family, the land property can be kept undivided
as well as meet the labour requirements. Multiple marriages in various ways,
ensures this requirements.

If families separate frequently, the landholding would shrink to unviable size.

Further the children born are not recognised on the basis of individual father but
that of the family itself which reinforces unity. On the other hand, in
polygynandrous joint family the eldest brother can bring in an additional wife or
wives as and when required in accordance with economic and personal needs of
the household and male members of the family. The number of wives could be
equal, less or more than the number of males in the family depending upon
requirement, convenience, etc.

35
Kinship, Family and
Marriage 2.7 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE
OUR UNDERSTANDING
Majumdar’s work shows that polyandrous families do not remain so for the
entire duration of their life span. They become polygynandrous because of a
variety of reasons that have been discussed in this lesson.

2.8 SUMMARY
The two enthnographies discussed in this unit contribute to the understanding of
different family types prevalent. The first ethnography by T.N. Madan reflects
on the family system in rural Kashmir where emphasis is on the Chulah (house
hold) within a Jay (homestead). While in Himalayan Polyandry Majumdar’s
focus is the Jaunsari Polygynandrous joint family. Both the works deal in an
in-depth analysis of the patterns functioning and changes in the family system.

References
Madan, T.N. 1965. Family and Kinship: A Study of the Pandits of Rural Kashmir.
New Delhi: Asia Publishing House.

Majumdar, D. N. 1962. Himalayan Polyandry: Structure, Functioning and

Culture Change, A Study of Jaunsar-Bawar. New Delhi: Asia Publishing House.

Sample Questions

1) Discuss homestead and household as relevant in a Kashmiri Pandit family.

2) Analysis the functioning of a typical family among the Jaunsaris.

36
UNIT 1 KINSHIP
Contents
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Idea of Kinship
1.2.1 What is Kinship? Concept and Definitions
1.2.2 Definitions of Some Basic Terms Used in Kinship

1.3 A Brief History of Kinship Studies in Anthropology

1.3.1 Morgan’s Kinship System
1.3.2 Contemporary Kinship Studies in the Late 20 th Century

1.4 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

This unit will help you to understand:
 what is Kinship all about?
 some of the terms used in kinship parlance. The different ways in which
kinship systems categorizes the kins;
 the early studies related to kinship especially of Morgan; and
 the shift in focus in kinship studies in the 20th century.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Human beings are known as social animals even though many species have shown
social behaviour, what sets humans apart is the complexity of our social organisation.
This unit will introduce the students to the concept of kinship. The underlying
factors that help a person trace his/her kinsman. The concentration herein would
be in understanding the terminologies used in kinship and in tracing relations. We
would also discuss in this unit the early studies in kinship and how with the
changing times the focus of kinship studies have also changed and the addition of
new kinship terminologies which were not studied till recnt times.

1.2 IDEA OF KINSHIP

As soon as a human child is born it enters this world with some given characters
like a system of beliefs, a language, parents and siblings and many other relationships
and sometimes social positions, like a potential heir to a throne, a priestly position,
an occupation or a vocation in life. Such are the ascriptive characters of what is
understood as social personhood. Thus to be born is to have an identity as a
member of a society and a receiver of a culture. But these social identities can
only be reproduced through marriage or a socially recognised bond rather than by
mere mating. To be human is to reproduce socially and not simply biologically.
Every human is embedded in a network of relationships that can be called kinship
relationships that are either based on the notions of putative blood connections or 5
Kinship, Marriage and of marriage as a socially recognised bond; what in anthropological terminology are
Family
known as consanguineal and affinal relationships; that is relations by blood and
by marriage respectively. Relatives by blood are those who are recognised culturally
to be so and not who are genetically connected, as with the case of adoption,
fostering and step-relations.
The basic principle of kinship is to keep these two categories separate. In other
words those who are supposed to be blood relatives can never be joined by
marriage and in all human societies these rules appear as the fundamental rule of
incest taboo. Apart from the basic relationships of parents and children and
siblings, there is a wide variation in the rules of incest taboo, like the taboo on
marrying within the same village in Northern India and the variations in rules of
marrying children of one’s parent’s siblings. In a few historical instances like the
Egyptian royal family, even the incest taboo between siblings could be broken, but
such was very rare. The definition of who is a blood relative is not determined
biologically but socially and thus kinship is about the social interpretation of putative
biological relations. It is the concept of legitimacy that determines the social
recognition of parent child relationships and not the fact of a biological descent.

1.2.1 What is Kinship? Concept and Definitions

The term kinship enfolds in it the various organisations of a society. Inheritance
and property rights, political office and the composition of local communities are
all embedded in kinship. In societies where ancestor worship was practiced, even
religion was based on kinship. To understand the intricacies of the term kinship
let’s start with a few definitions of kinship.
Kinship and marriage are about the basic facts of life. They are about ‘birth, and
conception, and death’, the eternal round that seemed to depress the poet but
which excites, among others, the anthropologist. Man is an animal, but he puts the
basic facts of life to work for himself in ways that no other animal does or can,
Fox (1996 [1967]: 27). While, Godelier, (1998: 387) stated that Kinship appears
as a huge field of social and mental realities stretching between two poles. One
is highly abstract: it concerns kinship terminologies and the marriage principles or
rules they implicitly contain or that are associated with them. The other is highly
concrete: it concerns individuals and their bodies, bodies marked by the position
of the individual in kinship relations. Deeply embedded in them are the
representations that legitimize these relations through an intimacy of blood, bone,
flesh, and soul. Between these two poles lie all the economic, political, and symbolic
stakes involved from the outset in the interplay of kinship relations or, conversely,
that make use of them. Stone, (1997: 5) recognised Kinship as a relationship
between persons based on descent or marriage. If the relationship between one
person and another is considered by them to involve descent, the two are
consanguines (“blood”) relatives. If the relationship has been established through
marriage, it is affinal. Encyclopaedia Britannica in its webpage has defined Kinship
as the socially recognised relationship between people in a culture who are or are
held to be biologically related or who are given the status of relatives by marriage,
adoption, or other ritual. Kinship is the broad-ranging term for all the relationships
that people are born into or create later in life and that are considered binding in
the eyes of their society. Although customs vary as to which bonds are accorded
greater weight, their very acknowledgment defines individuals and the roles that
society expects them to play. Tonkinson, (1991:57), stated in his work that Kinship
is a system of social relationships that are expressed in a biological idiom, using
6
terms like “mother”, “son,” and so on. It is best visualized as a mass of networks
of relatedness, not two of which are identical, that radiate from each individual. Kinship
Kinship is the basic organising principle in small-scale societies like those of the
Aborigines and provides a model for interpersonal behaviour.
From the above definitions of kinship it can be summed up that kinship determines
the journey in a man’s life. From birth to death it is the rules of kinship which
governs the rites of passage. Kinship through its systematic organisation, rules of
marriage and descent ascribes to a person whom he can marry, who would bear
his children, who would inherit his property (either son or daughter) and ultimately
at the time of demise who would conduct the last rites. These rules differ in
different societies and in order to understand the rules of kinship in different
societies the next section would help you to get acquainted with some of the terms
frequently used in kinship.

1.2.2 Definitions of Some Basic Terms Used in Kinship

Before we embark on the history of Kinship, it would be beneficial to understand
some of the basic premises and the definitions on which kinship relations are
based.
Descent refers to a person’s affiliation and association with his/her kinsman. In
a patrilineal society a person traces his descent through father while in a matrilineal
society descent is traced through the mother. Descent Group comprises of
people having a common ancestor, the common ancestor can either be a living,
non living or mythical being like an animal, tree, human being, thunder etc. Rules
of descent can be divided into two distinct types a. Unilineal and b. Cognatic or
Non-Unilineal descent. Unilineal Descent is a descent group where lineage is
traced either through the father’s or mother’s side. Herein, only one parents
descent is taken into account based on the type of society – matriarchy or whether
patriarchy. In a partilineal society it is traced through the father while in a matrilineal
society it is traced through the mother.
Patrilineal Descent is a kinship system based on patriarchy where inheritance,
status, authority or property is traced through males only. It is also known as
agnatic descent. For example: sons and daughters belong to their father’s descent
group, sons’ children both sons and daughters will be a part of grandfather’s
descent group, but the daughter’s children would belong to her husband’s descent
group. Many of the societies of the world belong to this realm like the classical
Romans, the Chinese and also the Hindu society of India. In the Hindu society,
the rule of descent follows the transfer of authority and immovable property to the
oldest son or the first born commonly known as primogeniture.
Matrilineal Descent is a kinship system based on matriarchy where inheritance,
status, authority and property is traced through females only. It is also known as
uterine descent. A matrilineal descent group comprises of a woman, her siblings,
her own children, her sisters children and her daughters’ children. The Ashanti of
Ghana studied by Meyer Fortes, the Trobriand Islanders of Western Pacific studied
by Malinowski, some of the societies of Indonesia, Malaysia, some Native American
tribes like Navajo, Cherokee and Iroquois, and also some of the tribes in India
like the Khasis of North East India and the Nayars of southern India are examples
of societies with matrilineal descent. Among the Ashanti of Ghana, the authority
lies with the mother’s brother and a son inherits the property of the mother’s
brother, whereas among the Khasis of Meghalaya of North East India the immovable
property like the ancestral house is inherited by the youngest daughter from her
7
Kinship, Marriage and mother’s mother (grandmother) and is known as the Kakhaddu. Herein, the rule
Family
of descent lies in the ultimo geniture that is the youngest in the family.
Double Descent is a kinship system in which descent is traced through both the
paternal and maternal side. In such a descent system for certain aspects descent
is traced through the mother while for other aspects descent is traced through the
father. Usually the distinction is that fixed or immovable property is handed down
from father to son while the movable property moves from mother to daughter
which may include small livestock’s, agricultural produce and also items of cultural
value like jewelry etc. As in the case of Sumi Nagas of Nagaland, which is
basically a patrilineal society during marriage Achiku a traditional necklace is
handed down from mother to daughter and moves in the same line. This necklace
if acquired from the market has no value but is treasured as a family heirloom if
passed on from mother to daughter (example related by one of the Sumi Naga
participants in a seminar). Other example of double descent well described is seen
among the Yako of Nigeria, Forde (1967:285-332).
Ambilineal descent is a form of descent wherein a person can choose the kingroup
to affiliate with which he wants to affiliate with, either his father’s kingroup or his
mothers. Bilateral descent is a kinship system wherein a person gives equal emphasis
to both his mother’s and father’s kin. Lineal kinship or the direct line of
consanguinity is the relationship between persons, one of whom is a descendant
of the other. Examples are like from father to son, grandfather to grandson etc.
In a partilineal society, people tend to remember their ancestry for several
generations like in the case of Tallensi of Ghana sometimes they could trace the
lineal descent upto fourteen generations. Collateral kinship is the relationship
between people who descend from a common ancestor but are not in a direct line.
Examples are the relation between two brothers, cousin to cousin etc.
In Kinship studies Ego plays a vital role. Ego is the respondent through whom a
relationship is traced. It can be a male or a female for example if the ego is (C)
the son of a person (A) then all relations in this case would be traced through C.
For better understanding please refer to the diagram below showing Ego (C’s)
family genealogy.
=
A B

(ego) =
C E D

F G
Fig. 1.1
As stated above in the diagram the EGO is C son of A. Let’s, see how the
relations would be traced in this situation if we start from the EGO. Ego is A’s son
that is father is A, and mother is B while D is his sister (sibling). E is ego’s wife,
and F and D are his two sons. Herein, for male the sign is  and the female is
 , the = sign signifies marriage, while  stands for divorce, and  connects
parents and children, connects siblings while  or  signifies death.
8
 Reflection and Activity Kinship

Trace your line of descent and explain the category of descent it falls under: a. Unilateral
or b. Cognatic descent group. To assist you below a representation of each group is
given:

a. Unilateral descent groups comprise of kingroups who trace their descent either
through the male or female line.

b. Cognatic descent groups comprises of kingroups who trace descent from both the
male and female lines. Double descent, ambilineal descent and bilateral descent are
types of cognatic descent groups.

Clan consists of members who trace their origin to a common ancestor which can
be a living or non-living being without knowing the genealogical links to that
ancestor. It is also defined as a unilateral exogamous group. Totemism is the
belief that people are related to a particular animal, plant or natural object by
virtue of descent from a common ancestral spirit. A totemic clan traces their origin
to some particular non human object like the tiger, a bird, thunder etc. Examples
of totemic clans are found all over the world like Africa, Asia, Australia, Eastern
Europe, Western Europe, and the Arctic polar region. Among the Kimberly tribe
of Australian Aborigines one of the clans traces their origin to the butcher bird
(karadada).
The term Phraty is derived from the Greek term phrater meaning brother. Phratry
is basically a kin group comprising of several clans based on brotherhood mostly
through common descent and is a consanguineous group. A moiety is the literal
division of the society in two halves. A moiety consists of many phratries and it
is a bigger unit than a phratry. All moieties have phratries in it but a phratry need
not be a moiety. As per legends, northern Kimberley tribe of Australia has two
moieties and is represented by two birds, Wodoi the Spotted Nightjar, and Djungun
the Owlet Nightjar (http://www.aboriginalculture.com.au/socialorganisation.shtml,
accessed on 29th March, 2010). The moieties are exogamous that is they marry
outside of their moiety and never within the same moiety.
Endogamy and Exogamy are two concepts which we would be referring to in
terms of marriage, which also follows the kinship rules. Endogamy is the practice
of marrying within the group. In most of the tribes and caste based societies the
rule of endogamy exists. For example among the Naga Tribe of North East India
there are different Naga Tribes like the Semi, Ao, Sumi, Angami etc. The tribes
rarely marry outside their own tribes. Likewise in the caste based system of India
a caste group always marries within their own caste like a Brahmin would marry
a Brahmin and not a Kshatriya. Exogamy is marrying out. Within the tribe and
caste the system rule of exogamy is followed by which a person has to marry
outside his own clan while in a caste based society one has to marry outside his
gotra. Herein the moiety and phraty also comes into play. As stated earlier a
moiety is exogamous and one has to marry into the other moiety.

1.3 A BRIEF HISTORY OF KINSHIP STUDIES IN

ANTHROPOLOGY
The study of Kinship has its home in anthropology since the early 19th century. In
the initial ages it emerged as a subject which became an integral part of social
anthropology and the anthropologists engaged themselves in collecting data on
genealogies. The terminologies used in describing kinship relation took centre
9
Kinship, Marriage and stage in social anthropological studies but by the turn of the century the new
Family
generation of anthropologists started questioning the relevance of collecting
genealogies when it was looking at the society from Marxist and Feminist
perspectives. Kinship studies were on the verge of collapse as the than
anthropologists moved on to explore new avenues in anthropology. It was with the
work of Schneider that there was a revival of kinship studies which tend to be
historically grounded, focus on everyday experiences, and understandings,
representation of gender, power and differences. Thus, under this section we
would take up Kinship studies in two perspectives: i) Morgan’s Kinship system
which laid the basis for the study of Kinship and ii) Contemporary Kinship studies
how it emerged and what are the aspects under its consideration.

1.3.1 Morgan’s Kinship System

In Anthropological parlance Lewis Henry Morgan took up the initial studies on
Kinship. Morgan’s idea of kinship was reflected in his two major works Systems
of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family (1870) and Ancient
Society (1877) which consisted of ethnographic data collected from the Iroquois,
an American tribe during his student days. Later he also acted on behalf of the
Iroquois in cases related to land rights. As mentioned in Unit 1, Block 3 Morgan
coined and described the terms Classificatory and Descriptive systems of kinship
relationships. Morgan discovered that the Iroquois had two types of terminologies
referring to their kinsman. He stated that in the classificatory system the Iroquois
merged lineal kin with the collateral kins who were linked through the same ties
(sex), like for example a father’s brother is classified as a father (both having the
same ties through men) and a mother’s sister as mother (again both having same
ties through female). While on the other hand distinguished lineals from collaterals
who were not linked through the same ties, for example mother’s brother had a
separate term of reference Uncle (being related differently-different sex) and father’s
sister as Aunt. Likewise, parallel cousins (father’s brothers’ children and mother’s
sisters’ children) were considered as siblings whereas cross cousins (father’s sisters’
children and mother’s brothers’ children) were not considered as siblings.
Morgan’s descriptive system on the other hand classified all collaterals together
and kept them separate from the lineal kin. The descriptive system is commonly
seen in the European societies where parents (father/mother) are distinguished
from all collaterals, who themselves have common terms of reference regardless
of the line of descent (uncle, aunt, nephew, niece). The Iroquois Kinship System
clearly shows the distinction between the classificatory and the descriptive system.

= = = = =
C A A B B D

G H E F E Ego F E F G H

Fig. 1.2: Iroquios kinship system

Adapted from: Nanda, Serena and Richard L. Warms. 2010: 184

Herein, this figure we see that the Ego has the same term of reference for the kins with the
same numbers. Under this system with unilineal descent mother’s side of the family (B and
10
D) is distinguished from father’s side of the family (A and C), and cross cousins Kinship
( and ) from parallel cousins ( and ).

Morgan later discovered that Ojibwa Indians had the same classificatory and
descriptive kinship terminology as the Iroquois, though the language spoken was
completely different. Similarly, it was discovered that Tamil and Telegu populations
of South India shared similar kinship terminologies as with the Iroquois and the
Ojibwa Indians. The South Indian kinship later came to be known as Dravidian
kinship. This part related to Kinship system in India would be taken up in detail
in unit 5 of this same block.
The Eskimo’s also had both classificatory and descriptive terms; in addition to sex
and generation, and further distinguishes between lineal and collateral kins. Lineal
relatives have highly descriptive terms; collateral relatives have highly classificatory
terms. This kinship system came to be known as Eskimo Kinship.

= = = = =
F E F E A B E F F E

G G G G C Ego D G G G G

Fig.: 1.3: Eskimo kinship system

Adapted from: Nanda, Serena and Richard L. Warms. 2010: 184

In the Eskimo kinship a clear cut distinction is seen between the lineal and collateral
relations. Ego uses one set of terms to refer to his lineal relations (A, B, C and D) and
another set of term to refer to his collateral relations (E.F and G).

Even the Omaha Kinship is like the Iroquois, but further distinguishes between
mother’s side and father’s side. Relatives on the mother’s side of the family have
more classificatory terms, while relatives on the father’s side have more descriptive
terms.

= = = = =
C A A B B D

= = = = =
G H E F E Ego F E F D B

D K G H G H D B E F
Fig.: 1.4: Omaha kinship system

Adapted from: Nanda, Serena and Richard L. Warms. 2010: 185

In the Omaha kinship a bifurcate merging system is seen among the patrilineal relations. Like
in the Iroquois system it merges father and father’s brother and mother and mother’s sister.
However, in addition it merges generations in mother’s side. So, men who are members of
Ego’s mother’s patrilineage are referred to by same term as for mother’s brother, regardless
of age or generation. 11
Kinship, Marriage and While the Crow Kinship is also like Iroquois, but further distinguishes between
Family
mother’s side and father’s side. Relatives on the mother’s side of the family have
more descriptive terms, and relatives on the father’s side have more classificatory
terms.

= = = = =
C A A B B C

A D E F E Ego F E F G H
Fig.: 1.5: Crow kinship system

Adapted from: Nanda, Serena and Richard L. Warms. 2010: 185

The Crow kinship system is similar to Omaha Kinship system but is found among matrilineal
society. Like the Omaha system it merges father and father’s brother and mother and
mother’s sister. However, unlike the Omaha system, it merges generations on the father’s
side. So, all women who are members of Ego’s father’s matrilineage are referred to by same
term as for father’s sister, regardless of age or generation

Variations on the classificatory terminology was also observed by Morgan among

certain groups called as Malayan but rephrased as Hawaiian or generational by
later anthropologists. Under this kinship terminology mostly related to Polynesia
each generation of males have one term while the females have another. Under
such a system there is no distinction in terminology for relations from matrikin-
mother’s side and patrikin- father’s side belonging to the same gender, lineal and
collateral belonging to the same generation.

= = = = =
A B A B A B B A A B

C D C D C Ego D C D C D
Fig.: 1.6: Hawaiian kinship system

Adapted from: Nanda, Serena and Richard L. Warms. 2010: 184

In the Hawaiian kinship the primary distinctions are between men and women and between
generations. All members of the Ego’s generation are designated by the same terms Ego
uses for brother and sister. All members of Ego’s parent’s generation are designated by the
same term Ego uses for mother and father.

Sudanese Kinship on the other hand was more descriptive that is no two relatives
share the same term.

= = = = =
K L M N O P Q R S T

C D E F A Ego B G H I J
Fig.: 1.7 Sudanese kinship system

Adapted from: Nanda, Serena and Richard L. Warms. 2010: 185

12
The Sudanese kinship system occurs most frequently in societies with substantial hierarchy Kinship
and distinctions of class. It includes a separate term for each relative.

Based on the above studies Morgan explained the evolution from a supposed form of
primitive promiscuity. This was seen as a primordial situation in which the human
population was divided into hordes with no form of marriage or restriction on sexual
intercourse. Leading to a situation where children could identify their mothers only.
Morgan related this state to the Malayan system of kinship.
Morgan’s idea of Kinship was at par with the works of Johann J. Bachofen, a
Swiss lawyer who postulated the theory of ‘matriarchate’ in which women ruled
the society, later on followed by ‘patriarchate’ where marriage and family became
a part of society. Scottish lawyer John McLennan working in the same lines
postulated ‘survivals’ in terms of ritual expressions – of bride capture and female
infanticides. According to McLennan for the early hunters and gathers a daughter
was a liability whereas a wife was an asset. As daughters were killed off it led to
competition for wives, which was eased by the practice for polyandry – a marriage
where a woman can have more than one husband at the same time. While Sir
Henry Maine (1861) a lawyer by profession from his experience of administrative
work in India claimed that the earliest form of social organisation was the patrilineal
family under the absolute authority of father-husband. Maine thus placed family at
the start of social evolution followed by development of other social organisations
as descent, clan etc. The conflict between historical priority of clan or family
persisted into the 20th century. W. Robertson Smith (1885), Sir James Frazer
(1910) and Emile Durkheim (1912) correlated the development of clans to early
forms of religion involving blood, sacrifice and totemism. The association of religion
with clan postulated by Durkheim in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life,
(1912) was shown to be inappropriate by Alexander Goldenweiser a follower of
Franz Boas. Although Radcliffe-Brown tried to revive the theory of Durkheim, an
attempt which was put to rest by Levi-Strauss stating that clan is merely cognitive
as it only provides an understanding of social universe.
An alternative approach was put forward by Malinowski, for whom nuclear family
was the fundamental unit in society and dismissed kinship terminology as kinship
algebra way to confusing to the understanding of ways of society. W.H.R. Rivers
conceptualised the Genealogical method for collecting kin terms. The genealogical
terminology used in many genealogical charts describes relatives of the Ego in
question. Below a list of abbreviations is provided alongwith a diagrammatic
representation which would help in tracing genealogical relationships. The
abbreviations may be used to distinguish a single or compound relationship, such
as BC for brother’s children, MBD for a mother’s brother’s daughter, and so
forth.
 B = Brother
 C = Child(ren)
 D = Daughter
 F = Father
 GC = Grandchild(ren)
 GP = Grandparent(s)
 P = Parent
 S = Son
13
Kinship, Marriage and  Z = Sister
Family
 W = Wife
 H = Husband
 SP = Spouse
 LA = In-law
 SI = Sibling
 M = Mother
 (m.s.) = male speaking
 (f.s.) = female speaking

GF GM
G

F M

Ego W Z ZH

ZS ZD
S D
S

Fig.: 1.8

Reflection and Action

Trace the genealogy of your family considering yourself as the Ego. Also utilize the
symbols to show the relations.

1.3.2 Contemporary Kinship Studies in the Late 20th Century

The shift of Kinship studies in terms of focus from emphasis on terminologies,
tracing genealogies and usage was seen in Schneider’s work American Kinship
A Cultural Account, (1968) which centered on symbols and meanings. It was an
exemplary work in terms of interpretative anthropology. He was focused on
representing American Kinship in terms of symbols and meanings rather than on
kinship statuses, roles and institutions. He himself had stated that his book be
considered as an “account of what Americans say when they talk about kinship
………the symbols which are American Kinship”. His work presented Kinship
in a more lucid way pertaining to the symbols such as ‘family’, ‘home’ etc. which
till date remains a significant insight to kinship in North America and Britain.
Levis- Strauss’s concern was mainly with the understanding of the underlying
relationships among the constituent elements in kinship. His search for ‘deep
structures’ capable of revealing the workings of the Mind was seen in his analysis
of the structural significance of ties of marriage and alliance, the ways in which
they link descent units of various kinds. Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Elementary
Structures of Kinship (1969) was a move from descent to alliance which redefined
14
the study from kinship, and marriage in particular to a critical reevaluation of the Kinship

entailments of descent and various dimensions of unilinear groups. While under the
same pattern of studying structures Kelly developed upon sibling ship as a principle
of social order with principles of descent, filiations and affinity. Kelly’s Etoro
Social Structure: A Study in Structural Contradictions (1977) is a landmark
work wherein the deviation was seen with the focus being on siblings rather than
parent-child relations in kinship.
The early 70s also saw a rise in Feminists writing and the influence was also seen
in the works related to kinship. Some of the major works of the time were G.
Rubin’s, The traffic in women: notes on the ‘political economy’ of sex, (1975)
and Worlds of Pain: Life in the working class family, (1976). Among other
criticisms Levi Strauss’s “exchange of women” came under strong criticisms in
Rubin’s works. Levi Strauss in his work has portrayed women as a means of
exchange and a passage for political gains. In Evans-Pritchard’s ethnography on
the Nuers, he had also elaborated on the bride price/wealth of cattle exchange to
show the wealth of a tribe, a means of establishing political ties between two
tribes. Among the Nagas of North East India bride price is also a common
practice. It’s a system wherein a brides family is compensated for the loss of one
earning member in the family.
Goody’s work Family and Inheritance: Rural Society in Western Europe 1200-
1800, (1976) was a departure from the study of kinship as structure, as it considered
continuity and change in kinship and inheritance based on historic data as well. Le
Roy Ladurie and others have during the time relied on legal records and archival
material to discover the kinship ties in relation to peasant testimony on marriage,
sexual division of labour etc. In relation to historical change Sahlin’s work brings
into focus the role of ambiguity and structural contradictions in historical change.
Michael G. Peletz, A Share of the Harvest: Kinship, Property and Social History
Among the Malays of Rembau (1988) and Reason and Passion: Representations
of Gender in Malay Society (1996) focuses on the changes in kinship, gender
and social structure in the Malays a matrilineal society associated with British
colonialisation, coming in contact with globalisation and Islamic nationalism and
reform.
The rise in societies with social class and social institutions saw the effects in the
receding status of women in the context of breaking up of the kin-based societies.
There was also a shift in the power and production system with the coming up of
the states where the economy determines the mode of production as opposed to
the kinship dominated mode of production in the segmentary societies. Meillassoux
and Godelier showed the relation of lineage and production in a society. Herein
these studies the Marxist tradition is seen.
In the present era we are also concerned with complex kinship related questions
due to the new means of reproductive technologies such as sperm banks, in vitro
fertilization (IVF) and surrogate motherhood. Herein the question lies with maternal
rights whom to be considered as a mother- the biological mother who donates an
egg, in such cases a husband’s sperm is fertilized in controlled laboratory atmosphere
with a woman’s egg besides his wife (as she is not able to produce eggs due to
various medical reasons) and then implanted into another woman’s womb for
gestation, or the surrogate mother who carried the child in her womb for nine
months? Kinship studies have also encompassed the Kinship relations based on
choice and not ‘blood’. Weston’s, Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship,
(1996) relates the present day gay and lesbian relationships and the legalization of 15
Kinship, Marriage and the same in some countries thereby creating new types of families and marriages.
Family
These would be further taken up in the units on Family and Marriage in the same
block.

1.4 SUMMARY
To sum up we can state that Kinship is one of the integral avenues of study in
social anthropology. Kinship as we had seen is a social recognition of the biological
ties and it takes into its fold adoption also. Kinsman cannot change their kinship
ties and one has to follow the rules of kinship in descent and marriage. A man has
two types of kin groups those related by blood ties, his cognates and those related
by marriage- affines. One shares different types of relationship with his kinsmen
based on the type of society either patrilineal or matrilineal. In a patrilineal society
all relations are traced through his father while in a matrilineal society the ties are
traced through the mother. Inheritance, descent and authority are based on the
type of society patriarchy or matriarchy. In the history of Kinship we had seen that
kinship study has been enveloped in controversies. In the late 20th century there
were times when anthropologists had negated the relevance of kinship studies as
ethnocentric and build upon certain western ideas about kinship. In the words of
Malinowski kinship is ‘kinship algebra’ and the collection of genealogies had no
meaning. Kinship studies however, in the late 20 th century came up with a new
vision and it moved beyond the realms of collection of genealogy. With the coming
of modernism and feminism kinship studies ventured to new avenues and also took
into its fold the study of latest trends that is of the gay and lesbian kinship. Thus,
we can say that kinship studies are very much prerogative in the study of social
anthropology and would remain so in the long run. In the upcoming unit, we would
discuss about the theories of descent and alliance which helped in shaping kinship
ties.
References
Barnes, J. A. 1961. ‘Physical and Social Kinship’. Philosophy of Science. 28 (3):
296–299
Encyclopaedia Britannica at http://www.britannica.com/ accessed on 29th March,
2011.  
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1951. Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Forde, Daryll. 1967. ‘Double Descent Among the Yako’. In African Systems of
Kinship and Marriage. A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and Daryll Fordes, eds., London:
Oxford University Press.
Fox , R. 1996. Kinship and Marriage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
[Penguin Books Ltd], [1967].
Godelier M. 1998. ‘Afterword: Transformation and Lines of Evolution’. In M.
Godelier, T.R. Trautmann & F.E. Tjon Sie Fat (eds.). Transformations of kinship.
Washington & London: Smithsonian Institution, p. 386-413.
Goody, J, Thirsk J Thompson EP. 1976. (ed.) Family and Inheritance: Rural
Society in Western Europe 1200-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
http://www.aboriginalculture.com.au/socialorganisation.shtml
16
Kelly, R. 1977. Etoro Social Structure: A Study in Structural Contradictions. Kinship
Ann Arbor: University Mich. Press.
Levis- Strauss. 1969. The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Great Britain: Eyre
and Spottiswoode.
Mair, Lucy. 1977. An Introduction to Social Anthropology. Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Nanda, Serena and Richard L. Warms. 2010. Cultural Anthropology. 10th Edition.
United Kingdom: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Parkins, Robert and Linda Stone. (ed.). 2004. Kinship and Family: An
Anthropological Reader.MA: Blackwell. Malden.
Peletz, Michael G. 1988. A Share of the Harvest: Kinship, Property and Social
History Among the Malays of Rembau. Berkley: University of California Press.
___________ 1995. ‘Kinship Studies in Late Twentieth-Century Anthropology’.
In Annual Review in Anthropology: 24:343-72.
___________ 1996. Reason and Passion: Representations of Gender in Malaya
society. Berkley: University of California Press.
Rubins, G. 1975. The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘political economy’ of
sex.
___________ 1976. Worlds of Pain: Life in the Working-Class family. New
York: Basic Books.
Schneider, DM. 1968. American Kinship: A Cultural Account. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Stone L. 1997. Kinship and Gender: An Introduction. Boulder: Westview Press.
Tonkinson R. 1991. ‘The Mardu Aborigines: Living the Dream in Australiaís Desert’.
(2e.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Case Studies in cultural
Anthropology, [1978].
Weston, Kath. (ed.). 1997. Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays Kinship. New
York: Columbia University Press.
Suggested Reading
Fox , R. 1996. Kinship and Marriage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
[Penguin Books Ltd], [1967].
Nanda, Serena and Richard L. Warms. 2010. Cultural Anthropology. 10th Edition.
United Kingdom: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Parkins, Robert and Linda Stone. (ed.). 2004. Kinship and Family: An
Anthropological Reader. MA: Blackwell. Malden.
Peletz, Michael G. 1995. ‘Kinship Studies in Late Twentieth-Century Anthropology’.
In Annual Review in Anthropology: 24:343-72.

17
Kinship, Marriage and Sample Questions
Family
1) What is kinship?
2) What is the relationship between kinship and descent explain with examples.
3) What is matrilineal descent?
4) Give examples of patrilineal descent.
5) Discuss critically Morgan’s classificatory and descriptive kinship.

18
 Kinship
UNIT 1 KINSHIP

Contents
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography The Web of Kinship among the
Tallensi is an Example
1.3 Description of the Ethnography
1.3.1 Intellectual Context
1.3.2 Fieldwork
1.3.3 Analysis of Data
1.3.4 Conclusion
1.4 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
1.5 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography American Kinship: A Cultural
Account is an Example
1.6 Description of the Ethnography
1.6.1 Intellectual Context
1.6.2 Fieldwork
1.6.3 Analysis of Data
1.6.4 Conclusion
1.7 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
1.8 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives 
In this unit, you will be introduced to kinship studies in ethnographic context for
an understanding of the:
 diversity in kinship practices in the world;
 interrelationships among family, marriage and kinship; and
 interrelationships of kinship with other domains of life.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Social/cultural anthropologists say that it was necessary to study social divisions
and groups of a society in order to understand social structure and organisation.
In most cases organisation of kin groups is found to be very effective means of
maintaining social order. Family is one kind of kin groups which is a part of a
larger group with common ancestry forming descent group that has been
regulating social life of its members. Family has another correlated institution,
marriage by which different families and descent groups are interlinked. Large
amount of data collected cross-culturally enabled anthropologists to develop
certain analytical concepts, methods and theories of kinship and social
organisation. In fact, Ladislav Holy remarked, ‘if there was a subject which 5
Kinship, Family and anthropologists could have rightly claimed to be their own, it was kinship’ (Holy
Marriage
1996).
In the first half of the twentieth century, anthropologists were fascinated with the
discovery of kinship as an important feature of small scale societies where law-
and-order institutions that are found in the Western society were lacking to
maintain the social order. Serious attempts were made for comprehending its
dimensions, various functions and efficacy in organising society. It was found
that these small scale societies used the idiom of kinship to frame most of their
activities, including those with political, economic and religious intent. In Western
society, the kinship shifted out of society proper into the domain of the domestic,
being divested of its political, economic and religious contents, but largely
confined itself to the natural process of procreation and regulation of marriage
practices.
Till 1970s it was thought that unilineal descent systems were necessary for societal
order. However, other evidences later sharply pointed out that social cohesion is
maintained by exchange systems wherein men exchanged women bringing
solidarity among descent groups. It became clear that social life is organised not
necessarily on the principles of unilineal descent instead cognatic, bilineal, double-
descent or ambilineal also play significant role in ordering social life. There has
been much debate on these theoretical developments to understand kinship and
the societal order in small scale societies. The 1980s saw further change
challenging both descent and alliance theories that located kinship in cultural
domain. In this perspective kinship is a cultural system, persons and social
relationships are cultural constructions. So far kinship has been studied through
the rules of descent, jural norms, rules of marriage, obligations and social
cohesion. It also focused on kinship terms and their relationship with marriage
practices and kinship behaviour.
A brief account of two ethnographies presented here represent kinship in two
different societies from two different theoretical perspectives.

1.2 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY The Web of Kinship among the
Tallensi IS AN EXAMPLE
This book is an example of a situation where kinship is the principle of social
organisation.

1.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

1.3.1 Intellectual Context
This book was written when the structural-functional approach, which looked at
how societies were the organised wholes, was the dominant approach in British
social anthropology.

1.3.2 Fieldwork
Meyer Fortes carried out first hand fieldwork among the Tallensi using the typical
anthropological methods of participant observation, interviews and case studies.
6 He lived among the people to understand their kinship organisation.
1.3.3 Analysis of Data Kinship

Tallensi1 inhabit Ghana in Western Africa, earlier known as Gold Coast. They
lack centralised political structure or tribal government. The society is divided
into different descent groups which are independent, but their unity and solidarity
emerge during the annual cycle of the Great Festival.

Lineage, clan, agnatic and cognatic relations

For Tallensi, the generic concept of kinship subsumes all kinds and degrees of
genealogical relationships however remote they may be. The maximal lineage
and clan are the basic units of social system that organise corporate activities. A
maximal lineage is the most extensive group of people of both sexes related to
one another by a common patrilineal descent traced from one known ancestor
through known agnatic antecedents. A clan is a localised unit consisting of a
defined segment of a maximal lineage or a whole maximal lineage. Usually, a
clan consists of two or more linked maximal lineages of independent patrilineal
descent whose association is accounted by a myth or remote kinship or of age-
old local solidarity. The maximal lineage is not only an organic genealogical
unit, it is also an organic ritual unit, and its cult is its founding ancestor for
whom a shrine is dedicated whose custodian is the lineage head. A maximal
lineage is divided into a number of segments, and each segment is identified by
reference to its founding ancestor. A point is marked on the genealogical tree of
the whole maximal lineage at which that segment’s line of descent connects
with the other lines of descent sprung from the founding ancestor of the maximal
lineage. In this way every maximal lineage is divisible into one or two segments
which may be called major lineages. There is further segmentation down the
line, and the lowest order is minimal segment or minimal lineage which may be
defined as the domestic group comprising the children of the one man. This is
the narrowest agnatic group a person belongs to. There is a degree of autonomy
of segments at the three levels to have independent ritual, jural and economic
affairs.

The Tallensi draw sharp line between kinship and in-lawship. Marriage implies
the absence of kinship ties between parties. As the kinship ties exist in their own
right, the marriage ties are artificial and contractual in nature. Marriages are
bound by rights and duties which did not exist before. Procreation depends not
only on the sexual fluids ejaculated in the act of coitus of both man and woman,
but also on an active principle, the naamis – mingling of the male sexual fluids
with the female sexual fluids. Thus function of the male is as essential as that of
the female in procreation.

Patrilineal descent is the vertebral principle of social organisation and it is the

vehicle of the continuity and stability of the social structure. From a father a man
derives his rights to inherit land and other property, his clan membership and the
political rights and ritual obligations which are essential for obtaining the goodwill
of the ancestors. Equally significant principle of social organisation is maternal
parentage which is based on sentiment and affection rather than on rights. It is
founded on the norm of sibling equality and a bond between sister and brother,
and between mother’s brother and sister’s son either of the first degree or in a
classificatory sense.

1
Tallensi means all the inhabitants of Taleland.
7
Kinship, Family and Homestead – Domestic Family
Marriage
Homestead is built for a particular family. The social relations in it run on two
lines: lineage, on the cannons of agnatic descent, and individual, on the bonds of
marriage and parenthood based on bilateral kinship. On the lineage front they
are brothers but with different mothers; they are oriented to different matri-
centered segments. A homestead covers a circular or oval area, with public place,
and in the centre granary which belongs to the head of the house. No one enters
it without his authorisation. Around the space centering the granary living-quarters
of the homestead are located for wife or wives and her or their children. The
senior woman, mother of the head of house or senior wife is the mistress of the
homestead. Each wife has three separate quarters or rooms, one for sleeping, a
kitchen and a store of her own. The joint family may be seen as a transitory unit
as the younger male members grow up, marry, and have children of their own
and inner tensions begin to split up which may take place in the life time of the
head or after his death. The senior most son may leave to farm independently
and set up his family or cuts his own gateway at the same homestead and may
come back after the death of father to become the head of the house. The practice
of levirate has significant effect in the constitution of joint family.

Land and wives stand for fulfillment of fundamental social needs which run
through the thoughts of the Tallensi. Wealth pre-eminently consists of livestock
acquired through savings or in exchange of surplus grain or cash, and the livestock
principally put is equivalant to acquiring wives. Wives are always highly prized
because they were always at a premium. In consequence, no woman of child
bearing age need to endure an intolerable marriage for she always finds another
husband. But women rarely take advantage of this partly due to the stability of
the patrilineal lineage system expressed in inter-personal relations in the power
of father’s authority and obedience. The father exchanges a daughter for cattle
which in turn helps to acquire a wife for son or for self. The marriage may break
either through the actions of one of the spouses, generally the woman or through
her guardian for nonpayment of bride price or for any other reason. There is no
formal procedure for divorce, just woman runs off from her husband’s house to
return to her parents or brothers. Despite initial pitfalls, families do get established
and remain stable.

A woman does not forfeit her status in the natal lineage or clan or her personal
ties with the parents or siblings; her natal family and clan have claims over her
all her life. A woman brings up her own private resources, farming the land
given to her by her husband, and gifts given by her parents and siblings. She can
go back to her father’s home and settle there for her sustenance as a matter of
right. She continues all her life under her patrilineal ancestors and observes their
totemic taboos. She is always stranger in her husband’s family; she does not
adopt the totemic taboos of her husband, and does not participate in the cults of
his lineage ancestors. Marriage is forbidden within the lineage or clan and also
mother’s clan or lineage. A woman maintains a general attitude of deference,
modesty, and compliance towards her relatives-in-law.

A man ‘owns’ his wife, which means, he has authority over her and is responsible
for his wife. She must perform indispensible domestic tasks such as preparation
of food for the households, taking care of children, provision of water supplies,
etc. A man has right to these services; but it is a right limited by the principles of
8
reciprocity. The man has to protect and take care of his wife, particularly provide Kinship
her with home, food, and curative treatment if she is ill. Any money or livestock
she may possess passes on to her sons on her death.

The man must show formal deference to his parents-in-law and the relationship
rests on goodwill of his parents-in-law for the latter can take back their daughter
any time. He has joking relations with siblings-in-law. On the death of parents-
in-law he is obliged to attend the mortuary and funeral ceremonies, should provide
gravestone, should distribute money freely to the grave-diggers, to the drummers,
singers and musicians. The son-in-law is obliged also to send certain food
contributions in prescribed kind and quantity to the funeral of parents-in-law. A
man is not to have any sexual relations with wife of an affine, which is considered
a heinous offence, though not incest. Co-wives refer to one another as ‘sisters’.
They have a bond of mutual attachment that holds independently of their relations
as wives of the same man or the same lineage. They help each other regularly
and altruistically; they share such things as foodstuffs and firewood more readily.
They do quarrel but nevertheless stay on.

A father’s first duty to his children is to provide them with food and clothes. A
good father should allow his adult sons to work a little for themselves and so
earn enough to buy clothes, and he may allow them to wear some of his clothes
on special occasions. He ‘owns’ his children; has the right and the duty of
disciplining them; he has the right to inflict corporeal punishment on them. A
father has the right to dispose of a daughter in marriage as he pleases and to use
her brideprice as he pleases. A mother’s rights are less defined. A mother has the
right to the obedience and the respect of her children.

The inner lineage or minimal lineage is the widest segment with common interest
and it is smallest corporate unit, as such, when a son dies and his wife marries
his brother takes care of the children. Sometimes even daughter’s children grow
along with son’s children, though the children have no claim on patrimonial
land. With the natural parents the emotional elements and the jural and moral
elements of the relationship are completely interfused. The son attains his first
degree of freedom of independence only on the death of his own father. A man
cannot offer sacrifices to partilineal ancestors in his own right while his father is
alive. His father does on his behalf. It is only when his father dies that a man can
sacrifice directly to his ancestors. While he has a proxy or classificatory father
alive he is still to some extent under paternal authority. In the absence of any
senior brother or father’s brother, one becomes the head of the homestead or
head of the minimal lineage if father was the head of the lineage.

Filial Piety
The fundamental moral principle is that bonds between parents and child cannot
be obliterated, and from this follows the duty of filial piety. A man or woman can
never disowns his/her child, and one must obey one’s father, respect him, work
for him, take his side against anybody else, even against one’s mother. The parents
can bless or curse a child. There is a direct connection between this emphasis on
the dependence of children on parents and the worship of the ancestors. Similar
to the punishment of the parents, the ancestors exercise their power without
compunction. They punish and slay as arbitrarily as they bless. The ancestors
demand establishments of shrines where sacrifices are offered. A man’s mother’s
spirit is as important as his father’s. He has a shrine dedicated to her. These are
9
Kinship, Family and inheritable by half brothers also. Filial piety is the psychological bridge between
Marriage
the relations of parents and children in life and in the ritual relationships of the
living with the ancestors. All the ancestors are projections of the parents, different
manifestations of the images the Tallensi culture draws. The supreme filial piety
sons owe to their parents lies in the performance of mortuary and funeral
ceremonies. It is believed that a man’s ancestor spirits accompany him wherever
he goes, but they are most tangibly present in his house where he sacrifices to
them.

There exists tension between the generations, the Tallensi explain this in terms
of Yin or personal destiny. There is inborn antagonism between the Yin of a
father and the Yin of his eldest son. The son’s Yin wants to destroy the father’s
Yin; but the father’s Yin desires to live. Therefore, the father must avoid meeting
son in the gateway of the homestead. However such restriction is not applicable
to other children. Only after the father’s death the eldest son is shown the father’s
granary and his quiver. This is the symbolic replacement of the father’s status
and his role or the social personality with the eldest son. A person’s loyalty and
solidarity with his lineage springs from his relationship with his father, his ties
with his matrilateral kin from his relationship with his mother.

Uterine and Extra-clan Relations

The uterine bond is very strong, intimate and is a permanent social bond between
two brothers born to the same father and mother. The other siblings – children of
different mothers and father’s brother’s children are differentiated terminologically
as well as in behaviour. These brothers are coheirs and come under the same
jural norms and are members of the same maximal lineage even if they live
independently. The clan brothers have no property relations except that they are
clansmen. Sexual relations with clan sisters outside the medial lineage are not
regarded as disgraceful though it is considered adultery, it is not incest. In fact it
is rare; it is reprobated as it is considered individual’s act of omission. The bride
price received for a girl should be earmarked for the payment of the bride price
for the wife of her closet brother. A widow of child bearing age who has children
usually consents to marry one of his close brothers. Next to him is brother of late
husband’s inner lineage brother. Inheritance of a grandfather’s widow by a
grandson is confined to the inner or at the most medial lineage. A sister’s son can
marry mother’s brother’s widow or his mother’s brother’s father’s widow. All
these bear out social equivalence of siblings; it is graded according to the
genealogical distance.

A man’s relationship to his sister’s son has a jural and ritual coefficient. It is tied
to the lineage structure and functions on the lineage principle. A lineage stands
in the relationship of mother’s brother, and the mother’s brother offers sacrifice
on behalf of the lineage into which the mother is married in order to secure
blessings from the matrilateral ancestors. Often mother’s brother’s son is identified
with mother’s brother. Mother’s brother keeps his interest in his sister’s son,
often by giving gifts. They cannot contract debts towards each other. Sister’s son
enjoys the status of a foster-child, though the latter cannot inherit any property.
If one is cared by mother’s brother, he will not forfeit his property rights in his
lineage. He acts as intermediary between his maternal and paternal clan members
and help erection of maternal shrine for the mother’s brother. While the lineage
system separates individuals and corporate groups from one another, the network
10
of extra-clan bonds knits them together. The extra-clanship provides Kinship
complementary function to the clanship. Through marriages that extra-clanship
kinship ties are woven into the lineage fabric; and this runs through several
generations. These social relations are governed by a general rule of amity, and
one is obligated to help in difficulties if possible. Further, marriage between
extra-clan kin of any degree is forbidden. Thus, kinship outside the lineage lies
in the sphere of individual’s sentiment and conduct. It is located beyond the
inner lineage in the level of mother’s brother’s clan. The sister has to fulfill
certain customary obligations at the funeral in her or brother’s lineage. She, in
fact, has very little count in the web of kinship of extra-clan kinship. A man
usually informs his sister’s sons and his father’s sister’s son whenever he offers
sacrifices to his ancestors, who may participate in it. A man establishes shrine
for the founding ancestor as well as his mother and, similarly shrine is consecrated
to mother’s ancestors also. Thus there is complex of shrines at a homestead.

1.3.4 Conclusion
The work shows that kinship systems are further segmented and these combine
to form levels taking care of different aspects of society. The major theme of this
book is that unilateral descent groups are corporate structures.

1.4 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
This work shows that in unilateral descent groups, the gender category which is
theoretically supposed to be excluded is not really excluded. Fortes, shows that
among the Tallensi, women play an important role.

1.5 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY American Kinship: A Cultural
Account IS AN EXAMPLE
David Schneider’s work shows that the corporate functions that Kinship plays
among the Tallensi are not found among the Americans, yet kinship plays a
significant role in the lives of the people.

1.6 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

1.6.1 Intellectual Context
The book examines kinship from a symbolic point of view.

1.6.2 Fieldwork
Fieldwork was carried out among Americans using standard tools of investigation,
but being an American, Schneider, was able to bring in his own insights into the
understanding of American kinship.

1.6.3 Analysis of Data

American kinship is quite different from that of the Tallensi kinship. It is relatively
highly differentiated, distinguished from other social institutions and relationships.
11
Kinship, Family and There are no corporate activities among the kinsmen with reference to economy
Marriage
or polity or religion.

A Cultural System
It is a cultural system, a system of symbols; it consists a system of units or parts
defined in certain ways which are related to one another in a particular way.
These units are cultural constructs that have a reality of their own, and these
units in their relationships to one another follow certain rules that determine
social action of individuals.

Symbol: “Something which stands for something else or some things

else, where there is no necessary or intrinsic relationship between the
symbol and that which it symbolizes” [Schneider (1968:1)].

Relatives
For an American, a relative is a person who is related by blood or by marriage.
The kinship terms can be divided into two groups: the basic terms and derivative
terms. The derivative terms are made up of a basic term plus a modifier. For
example, “Father” is a basic term modified by “in-law” resulting in father-in-
law. The other modifiers are “step”, “in-law,” “great,” “grand,” “ex-,” etc. The
conception of a blood relative goes in biogenetic terms. A child derives one half
of the biogenetic substance from one parent and the other half from the other
parent. Therefore, the blood relationship between parents and children and among
the siblings or among the blood relatives, nothing can really terminate or change
the biological relationship that exists among them.

Unlike blood, marriage is not a material thing in the sense as biogenetic substance.
Marriage is natural, a state of affairs; it is terminable by death or divorce. The
persons by marriage are relatives because they have the role of close relatives
without being “real or blood relatives”. A foster child is taken care of as one’s
own child though the other parent may be different. In this case, the natural and
material bases for the relationship are absent, but the relationship follows a pattern
for behaviour, a code for conduct. However, a person who is related by blood is
related by common biogenetic heredity, a natural substance, by a relationship, a
pattern for behaviour or a code for conduct. While the blood relationship follows
the nature of order of things, the marriage follows the order of law. The latter is
an imposition by society, rules, regulations, customs and traditions. It is a law in
a special sense.

Family is a unit that contains a husband wife and a child or children, and they are
relatives in the sense that all the relatives are members of the family. In this
cultural unit, sexual intercourse (act of procreation) is the symbol that provides
distinctive feature for the family and to the members of the family as a cultural
unit. Living together also means a man and woman live in sexual intercourse.
Children have their own families, implies the same meaning. The family members
consisting of husband, wife and children and living together is natural and
therefore family is a natural unit. The family is formed according to the law of
nature as is found in some animals, birds and even fish. But nature alone does
not constitute the family. In addition, there is human reason which selects two
orders of world of nature i.e., the order of nature and the order of law. A blood
relationship is involuntary, it is through birth - a matter of procreation whereas
12 marital relation is defined and created by the law of man.
Differentiation of Members Kinship

Nature distinguishes male and female by sexual organs, one gets sexual identity
by physical features such as facial hair for men. In addition there are
temperamental differences along with the sexual organs. While man is aggressive,
possess great physical strength and stamina whereas woman is passive, has
nurturing qualities which men lack. Sex-roles also differentiate man and woman;
a man is a policeman, soldier or a clerk and a woman may be nurse, a school
teacher or a cook. The cultural constructs of father and mother are made not only
out of sexual organs but because they are distinct, father as genitor and mother
as genetrix of the child. The members of a family are distinguished among
themselves and together as a family also distinguishes itself from other family.
Americans hold that family is responsible for the troubles such as poverty, crime,
delinquency, drug addiction and so on that it encounters.

The family as a symbol is a pattern for how kinship relations should be conducted
and it can be explicated from the opposition between “home” and “work.” Home
is different from a house, home is where one lives. A homemaker makes a house
into a home, a place for everything and anything in its place. Work, like home, is
both place and an activity. Different things are done at home and work towards
different ends. There is interstitial area between home and work, the vacation
where there is relaxation, there is another area of relationship where individual
can be picked up as friends unlike the blood relatives who cannot be chosen but
born with them. The friends can be loyal, faithful, and helpful and everything a
relative can be. Relatives can also be relatives, as friends can be evaluated and
dropped also, so also the relatives.

The symbols of American kinship consist of spiritual unity of husband and wife,
and unity of love among the members of the family. The sexual intercourse also
stands for love, and love is a relation between persons but not between things.
Love is freely and unselfishly given and it is to be never forsaken, betrayed or
abandoned. This love can be translated as enduring diffuse solidarity for the
well being of its members.

Person as a Relative
Just as family, the person is another major cultural unit in American kinship that
is capable to act. A person may be a father, a policeman, judge or a priest. The
father is a person in the family as judge is a person in court. Different elements
are blended together in the conceptualisation of the person such as sex, age, job,
ability to read, marriage and so on. A person is conceptualised as concrete and as
abstract. The concrete one is a real one who should behave in accordance with
some norms. Relatives are persons and the family is a group of persons. Family
is conceived as a concrete group of persons and the concrete family has a
counterpart, an abstract one. In abstract sense one can say about family consisting
of husband, wife and children, but in concrete sense one says “my wife,” “my
son John” and so on. As blood relatives, persons are firstly to behave according
to cognatic love rooted in sexual intercourse. Secondly, relatives should behave
towards each other in enduring diffuse solidarity.

A person is counted relative in the kinship domain if only a substantive element

is present than if there is only code for conduct. Lacking of any of the elements
may not be counted as a relative. With both the elements present that person is
13
Kinship, Family and most likely to be counted as a relative. Distance and closeness also matter in
Marriage
terms of two persons who share common biogenetic substance. The closeness is
only a first measure but this is modified with the code for conduct; even if there
is no substantive element, the distance depends on the code for conduct. The
distant relatives are termed as “shirt-tail relatives” or “cakes-and-wedding
relatives” or “kissin-kin” or “kissin-cousins” who lack code for conduct.

Relative in-law and by Marriage

There are two classes of relatives by marriage. The first is ego’s own husband or
wife. The second class consists of the mother, father, brother and sister of ego’s
own spouse along with spouses of ego’s brother, sister, son or daughter. All of
these take the derivative terms and the in-law modifier. Sometime “in-law” is
used for anyone in any way connected by any marriage. Also, it is used as a
collective designation for anyone in any way connected through one’s own spouse.
There is ambiguity the way relatives are traced by marriage. A son’s wife and
daughter’s husband are daughter-in-law or son-in-law, but an uncle’s wife is not
an aunt for some. An aunt can be only father’s sister or mother’s brother’s wife.
Again if uncle’s wife is an aunt for some, why there is no kin term for cousin’s
wife who is also related by marriage but considered as a non-relative? Death,
divorce and remarriage raise special problem to understand American kinship. A
step-parent, if remarries, there is ambiguity to connect the children of the step-
parent’s from the next marriage or step-parent’s spouse also. The relatives by
marriage are in a relationship of kinship due to code for conduct, there is no
substantive basis. These relatives choose to follow that code for conduct rather
than some other code. In this context, it is necessary to note that relationship is
also a matter of consent, that is, it is voluntarily undertaken and voluntarily
maintained.

As regards to the meaning and association of the concepts “in-law” and “by
marriage” in their use in kinship domain referring to those related by marriage is
not clear. It is explained in terms of the symbol of coitus. Before offering an
explanation it is to be noted that only certain kinship terms are modified with in-
law like “mother-in-law” or “brother-in-law”, but there is no kinship term for
cousin’s spouse or sibling’s spouse’s siblings though one is related by marriage.
Here, it is not clear as why there is this kind of difference when the relatives
belong to the same category? The explanation is as follows. The universe of
kinship is divided into two parts: nature and that of law. Nature conforms to the
‘law of nature’ and therefore law in its widest meaning refers to order, regularity
and obedience to rules. But nature in the inheritance of blood follows the nature
as “given” substance which is opposed by in-law which is “made” and imposed
upon mankind and man’s nature. Here law is restricted to custom, tradition, the
more and the ways of man as against any other way. This order of human reason
is within the domain of kinship. It is in this sense that relatives are connected by
this law of regularity imposed by the human reason in marriage. The normative
construct of relative “by marriage” or “in-law” as a person has the stipulation
that, lacking a natural or substantive component, it consists of a particular code
for conduct alone. It is voluntary, in that it is up to each party to enter into it,
maintain it or opt out of it unlike the blood relationship. It is the kind of
relationship “by marriage” not because each of the two parties to it is married to
each other but because it is that specific kind of relationship.

14
Kinship Terms Kinship

It is also important to note that in American kinship there are far more kinship
terms and terms for kinsmen than there are kinds of kinsmen or categories of
kinsmen. For example, Mother may be called “mother,” “mom,” “ma,”,
“mummy,” “mama” and so on. Similarly, Father may be called “father,” “pop,”
“pa,” “dad,” “daddy,” and so on. In several instances father-in-law and mother-
in-law are called “pop” and “mom”. There is variation in usage of kinship terms
with regards to who is spoken to and who is being spoken about. In some cases
“ma” and “mom” are less likely to be used by daughters than by sons, and that
“mother” is more acceptable to daughter than to sons. The father term “father” has
formality and authority and respect implications which “mother” does not share.

In case of relatives by marriage or (in-law), there are no kinship terms in some

instances as in case of cousin’s spouse though the relationship is recognised, it
depends on the consideration if one is a relative or not. When considered as a
relative appropriate term is used. Uncle’s wife may be considered a relative and
if so called as aunt, if not she is only uncle’s wife. In case of step- and other
foster relatives derivatives of kinship terms are used as “step-aunt”- a step-father’s
sister, a “step-cousin” – mother’s brother’s step-son etc. Kinship terms are applied
to persons who are not kinsmen or relatives as Mother superior in a convent or
Father for a priest in order to indicate their role. When this happens, the term is
specifically modified to make this clear to the listener. Kinship term is not an
object by itself, it invokes certain role. The kinship terms have one of their many
meanings of the biogenetic relationship or the code for the conduct of kinship.
The uncle’s wife and aunt’s husband are called “aunt” and “uncle” only means
that some kind of a kinship role is invoked for them.

1.6.4 Conclusion
David Schneider’s work is a cultural account of kinship. Generally kinship has
been studied in small scale societies as it was believed that it is the principle of social
organisation in these societies. Modern societies were believed to be fee from kinship.
Schneider’s work shows the importance of kinship in American society.

1.7 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
This ethnography familiarises us with the cultural aspects of kinship.

Comparison
It is clear from the above description that kinship relationships play significant
role but in different ways in the ordering of social life. Among the Tallensi, the
kinship relation is such an irreducible principle that it organises all activities
related to food production, consumption, other material goods, reproduction,
rearing of children so on, besides bestowing rights, privileges and assigning duties.
Agnatic and cognatic elements based on descent and sentiment respectively that
constitute the domain of kinship complement each other. The genealogical and
kinship relations are so extensive that no individual, either alive or dead, or an
event does not fall outside the orbit of kinship. The submergence of the
individual’s interest in those of the corporate unit is quite obvious among the
Tallensi.
15
Kinship, Family and American kinship is not a matter of corporate groups. It is person-centered system.
Marriage
It follows the natural principles of animate world; it is a system of symbols
expressed in sexual intercourse, inheritance of biogenetic substance and human
reasoning following certain code for conduct. Thus, it belongs to both the spheres
of nature and culture. Relatives are defined by their biological interrelationships
and appropriate behaviour, and those related by marriage are counted on the
basis of code for conduct. Individual’s interests order the domain of kinship.

1.8 SUMMARY
Though a salient feature in any society, it is difficult to achieve an analytical,
universal and adequate definition of kinship and its nature, given the diverse
practices that are found. The competing descent, alliance and cultural theories
are different ways to approach the subject yet they are inadequate as the massive
data gathered so far indicate. The studies on kinship though loom less large
these days, the key concepts such as selfhood, agency, gender, childhood,
personhood, rights, and construction of social categories that emerge from the
study of kinship figure in several other contexts. Feminist anthropology can easily
be traced to the cross cultural studies of kinship. Similarly, the Marxist
anthropology owes a great deal to kinship studies. Presently, anthropologists are
looking at the social relationships and kinship terminologies more than biological
or jural instead they are concerned with the quality of these relationships
embedded in power and processual action, and gendering of bodies into social
adulthood in the ordering of the social world.

References
Fortes, Meyer. 1949. The Web of Kinship among the Tallensi. London:
International African Institute.

Holy, L. 1985. ‘Fire, Meat, and Children: The Berti Myth, Male Dominance, and
Female Power’, in J. Overing (ed.) Reason and Morality. London and New York:
Tavistock Publication.

Schneider, David M. 1968. American Kinship: A Cultural Account. Chicago:

Chicago University Press.

Suggested Reading
Fortes, Meyer. 1949. The Web of Kinship among the Tallensi. London:
International African Institute.

Schneider, David M. 1968. American Kinship: A Cultural Account. Chicago:

Chicago University Press.

Sample Questions
1) Explicate the nature of kinship from the above ethnographies.
2) What are the basic premises on which kinship operates?
3) What are the functions of kinship?
4) How the agnatic and cognatic elements operate in these two societies?

16
UNIT 2 DESCENT AND ALLIANCE
THEORIES
Contents
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Descent Theory
2.2.1 Development of Descent Theory
2.2.2 Main Exponents and Critical Evaluation
2.2.3 Counter Theories
2.2.4 Conclusion

2.3 Alliance Theory

2.3.1 Development of Alliance Theory
2.3.2 Main Exponent
2.3.3 Analytical Assessment
2.3.4 Conclusion

2.4 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives

From this unit we will be able to:
 know about the theories (descent and alliance) which explain kinship;
 see how the existing theories have motivated many scholars in the formulation
of new theories; and
 how various kinship ties shaped these theories.
Also comprehend that though these theories are defunct in the contemporary
scenario, they still provide an insight into the constitution of family, sib, clan,
moiety, marriage, exchange etc.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this unit we will deal with two theories which sought to understand kinship
relations in an elaborate way. As we have already learnt in the last chapter, kinship
is the relationship between individuals who are connected through genealogy, either
biologically or culturally. When relationships are created through birth it leads to
descent groups or consanguineals and when relationships are created through
marriage, it forms affinal groups. Based on these relationships, two theories of
kinship were advocated, the first as early as the 40s and the second was discussed
in the 60s. These theories, descent and alliance are in today’s anthropological
enquiry considered almost defunct for various reasons which we will try to decipher
in this unit. However as these theories formed an important part in kinship studies
it is important for the student to have knowledge about these.
19
Kinship, Marriage and
Family 2.2 DESCENT THEORY
2.2.1 Development of Descent Theory
Descent theory also known as lineage theory came to the fore in the 1940s with
the publication of books like The Nuer (1940), African Political Systems (1940)
etc. This theory was in much demand in the discussion of social structure in British
anthropology after the 2nd World War. It had much influence over anthropological
studies till the mid-60s but with the downfall of the British Empire and its loss of
colonies, the theory also sort of fizzled out. However its presence in certain works
even now, like descriptions in ethnographic monographs, or its use by French
Marxists to understand the lineage mode of production etc. makes it eligible
enough for some intellectual enquiry.
Descent theory when it first became popular, it seemed to be a new idea, a
revelation, but deeper studies exhibit that it was actually a part of the ongoing
changes in ideas and notions which took place in the study of anthropology.
Descent theory, in order to be explained clearly can be divided into two periods,
the classical and the modern. Both these periods have three stages each. The first
phase of the classical period involves the creation of the new models of descent
which was done by Henry Maine and Lewis Henry Morgan. These models were
revised and given a new form by some anthropologists of that time, more notably
by John F. McLennan. Finally in the third stage these models were empirically
made use of in field studies by students of Franz Boas. The classical phase
reached a low and remained mere speculations after this but were revived all of
a sudden by British Africanists, and the modern phase of descent theory came up.
The main issues in both the periods however were the same even though the
approach applied to study them differed. The issues were relationship between
blood and soil, kinship and territory, family and clan etc.

2.2.2 Main Exponents and Critical Evaluation

Henry S Maine formulates and discusses the patriarchal theory in his work Ancient
Law (1861) which postulates how society was formed and grounded by families
ruled by the eldest surviving male in it. He also talked about how families formed
aggregations. With the death of the father, the sons stay behind together creating
extended ties of kinship and a broader polity of sorts which formed the basis of
societies. It was much later that attachment to territory created rivalry among
blood ties, which became a matter of study of social organisation. This extended
patriarchal family is known as a unilineal development. It allowed jural stability and
endurance. His opposition towards concepts of societies based on kinship and
those based on territory became the accepted norm in his subsequent generation.
It was Mclennan and Morgan who deliberated that human societies are
fundamentally promiscuous rather than being based on family. In fact promiscuity
only led to matriliny first instead of patriliny as it first created the mother/ child
bond. Patriliny developed much later with the introduction of marriage and legal
paternity.
The descent model of society developed in two ways, one in which theorists
rearranged the fundamentals in a new way to produce assumed patterns of historical
development. The second way was by using the model to cultural sources and to
ethnographic work of native communities. For example, McLennan and Morgan
20
stressed about the importance of exogamy in clans or totemism, was found to be
a common factor in kin groups. Emile Durkheim, in his Division of Labour in Descent and Alliance
Theories
Society (1893) tried to understand how clan based societies operated in reality.
For him, they would be together through mutual solidarity which he named
mechanical solidarity. Clans however also created territorial segments. According
to him this comes out from division of labour and the complex groups thus formed
were united by function. This is what he termed as organic solidarity.
Another development in this theory took place in the early twentieth century where
Boas’ students made use of Morgan’s model in reference to studies they conducted
among American Indians. For Example, John Swanton wrote on the social
organisation of American Indians. He questioned the historical validity of matrilineal
clans as postulated by Morgan. His work showed that many North American
tribes were not matrilineal and if at all matrilineal than they were not advanced than
family based units as deduced by Morgan. Another ethnographer, Frank Speck
demonstrated in 1915 that the Algonkian hunter-gatherers have families and they
are also associated to territories. This evidence too refuted Morgan’s claims.
R.H. Lowie summarized the critique of Morgan by noting that all data showed that
family has been present in all stages of culture. He also noted that there is no fixed
succession of maternal and paternal descent. Both higher and lower civilizations
in many cases give importance to paternal side of the family. His final postulation
was, family (bilateral) and clan, sib, moiety (unilateral) are rooted in local and
consanguinal factor.
The prominent British anthropologists of that time, like Rivers and Radcliffe-Brown
were clearly associated in their views with their American counterparts, more so
with Maine and McLennan than Morgan. The debate about the historical superiority
of ‘father right’ or ‘mother right’ was done away with. Family as a group and its
existence from a very early time was accepted. Clans for the British anthropologists
were associated with territories though for Rivers clans are based on common
descent than on territory. Morgan had identified the classificatory kinship
terminology, though initially was connected to forms of group marriage, later on
got linked to the presence of exogamous clans. Rivers too supported this notion
later on, in relation to studying kinship relationships in America, India, Africa,
Australia etc.
The British and American scholars only differed from each other when Rivers and
Radcliffe-Brown started investigating the corporate role of descent groups. Rivers
talked about ‘descent’ in terms of the way in which membership of a group is
recognised and also for modes of transmission of property, rank etc. but the
second notion was not accepted as these processes do not correspond to each
other all the time. Radcliffe-Brown’s essay on “Patrilineal and Matrilineal Succession”
gave Rivers’ points a concrete basis. He noted that social organisations needed
endurance and finality. Hence societies required corporations which can be either
based on territorial ties or kinship ties. Such kin based ties are unilineal descent
groups which describe group membership on a descent criterion. Radcliffe-Brown
based his ideas from his work on The Social Organisation of Australian Tribes
(1931).
It was A.L. Kroeber who however put forward a critique of Radcliffe Brown’s
study. His critique was mainly on descent theory of Radcliffe Brown, where he
disagreed to his claim of placing descent groups at the centre in Australia. For
Kroeber, moiety, clan and any other unilateral descent groups play secondary
parts in many societies and are not central. Family or clan did not actually have 21
Kinship, Marriage and any historical character about who followed whom. In societies where clans played
Family
an important role, they were always found with basic family units.
The clan model did not die away but came back to the forefront as a functional
model known as lineage model. It was basically used for the understanding of
contemporary relationships between institutions, more so to study particular African
example of segmentary lineage system. The field studies associated with this
functionalist model was aimed at analysis of living societies. Hence relationship
between territorial group and descent groups or between families and lineages
were with the help of this model deciphered as real problems rather than historical
issues.
Works on the Nuer by Evans-Pritchard and the Tallensi by Meyer Fortes developed
theoretical explorations and definition of typologies. In Fortes “The Structure of
Unilineal Descent Groups” (American Anthropologist, 1953) he submitted the
segmentary lineage model as an important offering of British Anthropology of his
times. His formulation suggested that the structure of unilineal descent group could
be generalised and its position in the complete social system can be viewed. For
example he particularly talked about the existing continuous nature of such lineages
in Africa and their political role specially where political centralisation was not
strong. Thus the social structure would exhibit how territory and descent would
connect with each other.
During that time, more classificatory studies continued. They tried to look at the
variety and types of descent groups, how corporateness could be recognised and
the importance to be devoted to unilineality. Leach however, was against typologizing
and even spoke against basic categories like matrilineal and patrilineal. There were
others who supported the pattern of sets of variables rather than the increase of
types and subtypes.

2.2.3 Counter Theories

Considering that so much of effort and time was used for creating the perfect
descent theories, it nevertheless faded out in the 1960s because of the many
complicacies and misunderstandings created by the ideas postulated by the thinkers.
In the 1960s in fact it faced the main challenge from a model which was designed
by Levi-Strauss based on the primitive social structure. It was referred to as the
Alliance theory. This model too agreed to the existence of segmentary organisation
of unilineal descent groups but posited the main arena of the system in exchanges
of marriage between such exogenous groups.
This alternative also critiqued Radcliffe-Brown by offering another interpretation
on the relationship between family and clan. For Radcliffe-Brown the universal
family created sentiments which took solidarity among siblings to a larger grouping
while Levi-Strauss stated the siblings can be linked through the exchange of sisters
in marriage. Similarly Edmund Leach argued on Fortes’ complementary filiation.
For Fortes, ties of affinity while generating importance to ties of descent came
under the expression, which Fortes called complementary filiation. For Leach both
segmentary lineage systems and primitive states could be identified by the system
of preferential unilateral marriage alliances which finally is linked to local descent
groups.
A neo-Malinowskian model was introduced during the same time which was
called the Transactional theory. In his study of a village named Pul Eliya in Sri
22 Lanka, Edmund Leach postulated that the reasoning behind social action was to
be seen at the level of individual management of resources for personal gain. This Descent and Alliance
Theories
was in contrast to the segmentary lineage model. Human beings and the community’s
action are based on kinship and descent principles. For him human beings are
dependent on a territory for their livelihood. Thus the conflict between territory
and descent was brought up again in Leach’s work. However Leach did not
distinguish between kinship relations and between individuals though it works as
a significant critique of descent theories.

2.2.4 Conclusion
In contemporary anthropological study of social systems, the descent model has
no credibility. It does not look into the local models or notions that societies
possess in their own realm. And it is not a ‘repetitive series’ of descent groups
which are essential for organising political and economic events. It however helps
in the study of kinship in anthropology, as it gives us ideas about how earlier
societies were made up. It also helps in moulding itself into other boarder models
of society. Beyond these Descent theories offer no significant contribution in
anthropology today.
Reflection and Action

Delineate the features of the Descent theory.

2.3 ALLIANCE THEORY

2.3.1 Development of Alliance Theory
The alliance theory in the study of kinship is also known as the general theory of
exchange. It bears its roots to the French structuralist Claude Lévi-Strauss and
hence is also known as the structural way of studying kinship ties. The alliance
theory was first discussed in Lévi-Strauss’ monumental book named Les Structures
élémentaires de la parenté (1949). Its English version is known as Elementary
Sturctures of Kinship. Alliance theory was quite popular during the 1960s and
went on to be discussed and deliberated till the 1980s where the issue of incest
taboo was taken up by not only anthropologists but also by psychologists, political
philosophers etc. Alliance theory tries to enquire about how inter-individual
relationships are woven and how finally they constitute society.
The theory developed to study those kinds of kinship systems which exemplify
positive marriage (cross-cousin marriage) rules. However besides providing
conjectures on marriage, it also provides a general theoretical awareness about
kinship. The study of marriage rules have been used from the initial days of kinship
studies to comprehend kinship terminologies. Scholars like W.H.R. Rivers also
used marriage (symmetrical cross-cousin marriage) and terminology (bifurcate
merging) and tried to exhibit a relationship between each other. For him the
marriage rule is the cause and the terminology is the effect. Australian kinship
system, which is quite perplexing, was also studied elaborately by anthropologists
to be familiar with their descent system. They too made use of marriage alliances
for this. Most scholars agree with each other on the notion that in symmetrical
cross-cousin marriage pacts, double descent is always seen, directly or indirectly.
However exponents of descent theories tried to go on about this through various
instances, like for example B.Z. Seligman’s tries to convert types of marriage to
forms of descent or Radcliffe-Brown’s extra stress upon descent where he finds
it worrying that the Australian kinship system has a core matrilineal exogamy along 23
Kinship, Marriage and with what he mentions as classic Australian patrilineal system. Radcliffe-Brown did
Family
accept that relationship between individuals and marriage rules are more important
than descent groups. However, coming back to alliance theory and its development,
Lévi-Strauss’ alliance theory was in complete defiance to Radcliffe-Brown’s
functionalist theory.

2.3.2 Main Exponent

Alliance theory was categorically created by Claude Lévi-Strauss, though analytical
assessment has been also offered by Rodney Needham and Louis Dumont. Lévi
Strauss studied and observed the connections formed between consanguinity and
affinity in his investigation of non-European societies. These two are both opposed
and complementary to each other. Due to this rules of preferential marriage and
marriage prohibitions are an incorporated part of this theory. Such rules in fact rise
due to the connection between blood ties and affinal ties. It is the marriage ties,
according to Levi Strauss and many of his contemporaries which create
interdependence between families and lineages.
According to Levi-Strauss alliance theory is based on incest taboo and the
prohibition of incest is recognised universally. It is viewed as a fundamental condition
of human social life. A man is not allowed to make a woman his wife who is his
immediate kin and in fact he has to give her away to another man. It is this
prohibition of incest that led human groups to follow exogamy. Lévi-Struass says
this prohibition is beyond any sociological explanation and clearly shows a difference
between consanguinity and affinity as the basis of kinship system. For him incest
taboo is thus seen as a negative prescription and it is only because of this that men
had to move out of the core kinship group or come in from another group to it.
This theory has much similarity with Sigmund Freud’s work Totem and Taboo
(1913).
This process of incest taboo where a daughter or sister is sent to a different family
commences a circle of exchange of women. Strauss views marriage as primarily
a process of exchange (between one men and other men or between one domestic
group and others). He observes positive marriage rules from the negative
prescriptions of prohibition. The main notion of alliance theory is then a reciprocal
exchange which creates affinity. It is the positive marriage rules which regulates
this exchange and thus gives rise to what Strauss call ‘elementary’ structures.
For Lévi-Strauss, there are two models of structure in the study of kinship and
exchange in marriage. When women in the ego’s group are proposed to another
group which is eligible for such exchange then such a situation may be called as
elementary structures of kinship. Similarly if the group of possible spouses for the
women are not known and kept open in the ego’s group, excluding particular kin
people like the nuclear family, an uncle, an aunt etc, this Strauss terms as complex
structures of kinship. This is easily seen in the western scenario.
In a society, keeping in mind incest prohibition, a kinship system is made up of
a combination of many traits, like inheritance, affinity, descent, residence etc. and
an understanding is reached by the combination of these features as a whole. If
all the transmission between these features takes place systematically between
generations in one and the same line it is known as harmonic while it is said to
be disharmonic if some of it is passed patrilineally and some matrilineally. It was
observed that the rules of cross cousin marriage where it exists is associated with
this. Theoretically from this, three types of affinal relations can exist, bilateral,
24
matirlateral and patrilateral. In bilateral cross cousin marriage, the spouse is mother’s Descent and Alliance
Theories
brother’s child and father’s sister’s child. It forms a self sufficient unit as two
intermarrying groups exchange women as wives. Lévi-Strauss calls this closed or
restricted exchange. He also connected it with disharmonic transmission.
In contrast to this, he talks about the implications of matrilineal cross-cousin
marriage. Here a man marries his mother’s brother’s daughter. So to elaborate if
a given line A gives their women to Line B and themselves take women from C,
finally at the end a circle is formed where Z after receiving from Y, will give back
to A. This is what Levi-Strauss class generalised form of exchange. It is opposed
to the closed type as it first consists of three groups and can accommodate any
number of groups. This type has similarities to harmonic transmissions, which are
either matrilineal or patrilineal.
It is the network of relationships which shows the identity of the intermarrying
group. Relationships that come out of different generations within the same group
of affines are terminologically compared. It is due to intermarriage being directionally
adapted to, hence a group does not receive wives from a group to which it gives
its daughters, as has been mentioned above. A possibility of disparity in status is
noted between wife-givers and wife takers. Levi-Strauss’ third type, the patrilateral
type has been superficially dealt with. It seems to be there in his discussion as a
failed hybrid of the other two.
Lévi-Strauss’ model tried to offer a proper description of cross-cousin marriage,
exchange of sisters, rules of exogamy etc. He postulated that it is the marriage
rules which after a certain period generate social structures. This he says is because
marriages are a coming together of not just two individuals but also of two groups.
With his root for such relationships as based on incest taboo, he formulated that
it was because of it that natural impulses were kept under check and it also
created the division of labour based on sex. We have discussed the former notion
in the above paragraphs about how women are exchanged and the latter idea
prescirbes work for women at a domestic level. As noted this exchange of wives
are arrangements which advances inter-group alliances and helps in creating
structures of social networks. The kinship structures that Levi-Strauss proposed
were of three kinds, which are created out from two types of exchange. They are
elementary, semi-complex and complex structures.
The first i. e. elementary structures are centered on rules of positive marriage
which indicate whom an individual can marry. Elementary systems work on two
forms of exchange, direct exchange or restricted exchange between two groups
of people which is symmetric. In restricted exchange, father’s sister and mother’s
brother marry and the children born out of them become bilateral cross cousins.
Then to maintain the continuity the two lineages marry again. Restricted exchange
structures are not very common.
Elementary structures have another form of exchange which is called generalised
exchange. Here a man can marry either his mother’s brother’s daughter, which is
a matrilateral cross-cousin marriage or his father’s sister’s daughter, which is a
patrilateral cross cousin marriage. These forms of exchange give rise to asymmetry
between three groups. According to Levi-Strauss matrilateral cross cousin marriages
are common in Asia, especially among the Kachin.
Compared to restricted exchange, generalised exchange was considered to be
finer as it permitted the incorporation of innumerable numbers of groups. Levi-
25
Strauss gave the example of Amazonian tribes who followed restricted form of
Kinship, Marriage and exchange. They were considered to be unstable as they usually were made up of
Family
moieties which broke quite regularly.
Generalised exchange on the other hand allows more amalgamation but exhibits
hierarchy. The wife – givers are superior to wife takers and the last wife taking
group is much inferior to the first wife giving group. Such disparities can weaken
the complete structure of society. Levi Strauss gave the example of the Kachins,
in Elementary Structures of Kinship, to show such behaviour. Levi-Strauss noted
that the matrilateral cross- cousin marriage was better than the patrilateral one,
from the structure point of view. As the exchange sequences are not very long as
the direction of wife exchange is inverted every successive generation, hence it has
less probability to create social integrity. As has been mentioned earlier patrilateral
cross-cousin marriage is very rare and hence not clearly touched by Levi-Strauss.
The peril that matrilateral cross cousin marriage faces is that group A as a giver
has to wait to get a wife from a group which would be very far from the line and
not much obligated to give a woman for marriage. A delay which might be caused
is not found in restricted exchange system.
Between Elementary and Complex structures, Levi-Strauss contributed to a third
structure, the semi-complex structure. It is also known as the Crow-Omaha system
as it is found among the Crow and Omaha native Indians of North America. It is
in many instances like the elementary structures, as for example it also contains
negative marriage rules and almost have rules like prescribing marriage to some
groups.

2.3.3 Analytical Assessment

Levi-Strauss’ alliance theory is not without its flaws. His arguments are based on
societies about which he has given examples of, which are clearly viripotestal and
also that his ideas of marriage was simple. The fundamental character and
explanatory value of exchange as defined by Levi Strauss faced some extreme
criticism. For supporters of consanguinity as a self-explanatory system, the
prohibiton of incest as the basis for the difference in consanguinity and affinity is
redundant. Marriage as been seen as a form of exchange was also questioned,
one because women were seen as possessions, private properties and also because
exchange was used in too wide a sense that it lost its meaning. Strauss’ main
confronter, R. Needham tried to make clear cut distinction between prescription
and preference in rules of marriage. For Needham, prescription on its own has
structural involvements in the whole social system. He states that if prescription
rules are seen not only as a marriage rule but as significant in the entire system,
then the danger arises in underrating the importance of other types, like preferential
marriage. These too have structural elements and the distinctions are sometimes
not visible at all.
The main development in the alliance theory which was observed was that there
was a refinement of the concept of alliance and to make to more empirical, it was
given a more structural identity. Initially the theory was mostly concerned with the
exchange of women between greater exogamous components of the society.
Needham tried to improve the notion that matrilateral marriage rules would result
in groups intermarrying in a circle. It was suggested that the marriage circle was
too limited in number and the people involved should be aware of them. Needham
further asserts that such alliance cycles do exist, and that too implicitly, however
their existence does not bring to an end the function or meaning of marriage
26
alliance. Levi-Strauss himself noted that conscious rules were to be considered Descent and Alliance
Theories
more important than their results in terms of exchange. In the absence of cycles,
the fundamental relationship can be formed from one of the many types of
consanguinal relationship between paired local descent groups. Louis Dumont
points out that where marriage alliance does not result in a system of exchange at
the level of group as a totality, it remains an integral part of the system of categories
and roles as understood by the people studied.
Needham further criticizes Levi-Srauss’ structuralism by calling the mediating
concepts of reciprocity and exchange as facing distinctive opposition. The basic
assimilation is not of groups but of categories as is viewed by the social mind,
where marriage rule is nothing but a gamut of ideas. Social relationships are
demarcated by classification and Needham perceived that asymmetrical
intermarriage, though could not function with less than three alliance groups, can
be dualistically theorized. This was in accordance to a complete dualist arrangement.
Louis Dumont like Needham states that structural entailments which are observed
are diverse from the group scheme on which attention was initially given. The
phrase marriage alliance hence includes both a generic phenomenon of intellectual
assimilation and a particular fact of group integration. Dumont further states that
this structural theory in its limited arena on its own rises above the prejudices in
our own culture. For him words like cross-cousin marriage maybe useful in theory
but in real life is deceptive. A concrete comprehension can be reached according
to him when the marriage rule which is known as marriage alliance is viewed as
offering a diachronic aspect which is only connected to descent or consanguinity.
If this can be done then it will be possible to go beyond our margins of thought
built upon our own society and make evaluations and appraisals on the basis of
the key perceptions involved, in this case consanguinity and affinity.

2.3.4 Conclusion
Allaince theory though quite categorical did not continue to work as a speculation
which bore definite fruits. A lot more was anticipated from the theory. The inference
of marriage alliance for status, economy, and political organisation was never
clearly explained. The etymological investigation remained defectively structural.
The study of terminologies did not finally help in comprehending or bettering this
theory. Though alliance theory had much greater explanatory value than descent
theory, yet in today’s contemporary anthropological setting, investigations have
minimized their interest in kinship studies to understand the diversity of kinship
systems. Hence the question of universal kinship structures remains unanswered
due to which the debates between descent and alliance theories have shrunk.

2.4 SUMMARY
To summarize the unit, we may say that in the study of kinship, two theories – the
descent theory and the alliance theory were proposed by anthropologists. This
was to work out the different structures of kinship through the models based on
birth and marriage ties. However these theories though intricate and complex in
their description and a matter of much debate while they were animate, lost their
significance and worth as they were in reality and in today’s understanding of
society, not enough persuasive or credible. These theories are obsolete in the
present scenario yet their knowledge is necessary for the student as it did play an
important role in the development of kinship studies in anthropology in the past.
27
Kinship, Marriage and References
Family
Durkheim, Emile. (1893)1997. The Division of Labour in Society. New York:
Free Press.
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1940. The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood
and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Fortes, Meyer and E.E. Evans-Pritchard (eds.). 1940. African Political Systems.
London: Oxford University Press.
Fortes, Meyer. 1953. ‘The Structure of Unilineal Descent Groups’. In D. A.
Baerreirs, A. Spoehr and S.L. Washburn (eds.), American Anthropologist, Vol.
55, No. 1 (pp. 17-41). Chicago: The American Anthropological Association.
Freud, Sigmund. (1913) 1918. Totem and Taboo: Resemblences between the
Psychic Lives of Savages and Nuerotics. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company.
Levi, Strauss. (1949) 1969. The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Boston:
Beacon Press.
Maine, Henry. (1861). 2006. Ancient Law. London: Book Jungle.
Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. 1931. The Social Organisation of Australian Tribes.
Melbourne: Macmillan and co., limited.
Speck, F.G. 1915. ‘The Family Band as the Basis of Algonkian Social
Organisation’. In Am. Anthropol. 17: 289- 305
Suggested Reading
Parkin, Robert. 1997. Kinship: An Introduction to Basic Concepts. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Parkin, Robert and Linda Stone (eds.) 2004. Kinship and Family: An
Anthropological Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Schneider, David. A. 1984. A Critique of the Study of Kinship. Michigan: The
University of Michigan Press.
Sample Questions
1) What are the two theories in the study of kinship?
2) Give a detailed analysis of descent theory.
3) Explain how Levi-Strauss designed alliance theory. What were its main
deliberations?
4) How clearly did these theories help in the study of kinship?

28
 UNIT 5 KINSHIP, FAMILY AND MARRIAGE
IN INDIA
Contents
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Marriage
5.2.1 Caste and Marriage
5.3 North and South Indian Kinship
5.4 Family
5.4.1 Household Dimension of the Family
5.5 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objective

At the end of the unit, you should be able to:
 describe the marriage patterns in the Indian scenario;
 explain the difference in North and South Indian kinship; and
 discuss the household dimension of family in Indian context.

5.1 INTRODUCTION
This unit will introduce the students to the concepts of kinship, family and marriage
with illustrative examples from India. We shall touch upon a few debates and also
see that at times the representation of Indian society has been more idealistic than
actual. We shall make an attempt to represent the family and marriage practices
of all sections of Indian society rather than being confined to the sanskritic or
textual norms. It must be emphasised that although marriage and family are universal
for human societies the form and practices vary considerably across cultures and
are also not static, and change with times and situations. As the definitions of
kinship, marriage and family has been elaborated in the earlier units, they would
not be taken up here.

5.2 MARRIAGE
There has been considerable debate about the definition of marriage given the
huge ethnographic variations in what passes as marriage in various societies. The
basic working definition of marriage appeared in the Notes and Queries (1951)
“Marriage is a union between a man and a woman such that the children born to
the woman are recognised as legitimate offspring of both parents”. However such
a definition of marriage as is obvious is highly Eurocentric and has limited cross
cultural applicability. Among the Nuer for example, a rich widow with no children
can enter into a ghost marriage with a young and fertile woman so that the children
born to the ‘wife’ are socially considered as children of the dead man and become
50 legitimate heirs. In India the practice of Niyoga enabled a young widow to achieve
the same end through a brother /classificatory brother or family priest. However Kinship, Family and
Marriage in India
as Kathleen Gough has pointed out the fact of producing legitimate children does
remain the most important function of marriage. She was replying to scholars like
Edmund Leach who were of the opinion that the Nayars of Kerala did not have
a real marriage as the father had no role in the identity of the children who took
on the mother’s name and identity in a matrilineal system of inheritance. The
society had no social role of father as the children were begotten through visiting
husbands who were only sexual partners to the mother and had no rights over
their children. The mother’s brother wielded authority in households comprising of
brothers and sisters and the sister’s children. However Gough points out that
every Nayar woman did undergo a marriage ceremony with a person of proper
caste ranking and wore the tali (a kind of necklace worn as a sign of marital
status). Although the husband did not have any social role, he did have a ritual
status of legitimizing the woman to be socially sanctioned to bear legitimate children.
A woman observed pollution rites at the death of this husband like a woman
would of a regular husband. More importantly if a woman bore a child before this
marriage ceremony the child would be considered illegitimate and the mother and
child banished. Thus a Nayar marriage was a proper marriage in bestowing legal
and social status on the child. She gave a often quoted definition of marriage as
“—a relationship between a woman and one or more other person, which provides
that a child born to the woman under circumstances not prohibited by the rules
of the relationship, is accorded full birth status rights common to normal members
of his society or social stratum” (Gough 1959:32).
Gough’s definition takes care of polygamy that is both polygyny, where a man
may have more than one wife and polyandry, where a woman may have more
than one husband. While polygyny was practiced in many parts of world and is
often associated with horticulture and the practice of bride-wealth, polyandry is
found only in South Asia. Polygyny is associated with those economies where
women play a significant role in the economy, like in hoe cultivation and also
where the number of wives signifies high social status as among the aristocracy of
the East. However polyandry is confined to some rare geographical regions
especially among some communities of the Himalayas, like the Jaunsaries and
Kinnauries; also among some Tibetan and Bhutiya communities. In most such
societies it takes the form of fraternal polyandry where a group of brothers may
have a wife in common. In Hindu mythology polyandry is described in the
Mahabharata where five Pandava brothers have a common wife in Draupadi.
Some scholars have criticized Gough’s definition in that she does not take into
account those societies where children from concubines may also have legitimate
status.
Polygyny has often given rise to conflicts of succession between children, especially
sons of co-wives, as depicted in the popular Hindu epic The Ramayana. According
to law giver Manu, the son of a wife of proper caste ranking and who has been
married in the most appropriate manner, that is gifted as a virgin by her father with
proper ritual has more rights than the sons of other wives and concubines.

5.2.1 Caste and Marriage

In India caste and marriage are almost inseparable among the Hindu majority and
except the indigenous populations, caste is found even among Muslims and Christians
in India. Caste does not aptly describe the Indian social organisation based on two
levels of differentiation, one at the abstract level of Varna, where all beings are 51
Kinship, Marriage and divided into four broad and ranked categories, Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas
Family
and Shudra; plus a category that lies outside the varna system the untouchables
(asprcya or achuyt). At the actual level of social interaction including marriage
and kinship it is the ‘jati’ an endogamous and geographically localised group that
is the effective social unit. Thus jati is an extended kin group as for any person
all relationships of blood and marriage will lie inside one’s own jati. However
rules of exogamy were operative within the jati in the form of gotra exogamy and
sapinda exogamy.
Gotra is a group based on socially constructed mythical ancestry, where some
mythical divine being in the form of an ancient sage is considered the common
ancestor of the group. Since only Brahmins could be the descendants of the rishis
(ancient sages), all other varna had probably taken on the gotra of their presiding
family priests. While gotra exogamy is found among all Hindus, the Sa-pinda
(Sa=together, pinda= a ball of rice) rules are applicable mostly in North India.These
include all those who have right to offer panda (ritual offering to a dead person)
to a man. All those who share the same body, metaphorically the same flesh,
belong to the sapinda category. It includes those who are putatively related by
blood and excludes those who are related by marriage, thus a son and brother’s
son is sapinda but not a son-in-law.
Depending upon the community, the rule of sapinda exogamy was extended to all
persons descended from certain generations from the father’s and mother’s side.
The most common expression of this rule was that a person must not marry
someone who may have a direct male ancestor in the direct male (father’s) line
up to seventh ascending generation and up to fifth ascending generation in the
mother’s line. This obviously excluded all collateral kin through the blood line.
In south Indian kinship the rule of Gotra exogamy is prevalent but not that of Sa-
Pinda exogamy as certain persons in collateral lines are eligible for marriage.
Reflection

The Hindu marriage cosmologically evokes the analogy of the seed and the earth, rooted
as it is in an agricultural economy. The three rules of marriage pertaining to the seed and
earth analogy are:

1) Only those children are considered as equal in rank to the father, who are born of
women of equal caste ranking who have been married as virgins. This will be true
for all caste rankings.

2) It is acceptable for a man to marry a woman of lower rank than himself as the power
of the male seed is superior to that of the earth; hence a man’s progeny even if born
of an inferior woman will have his qualities. Thus hypergamous or anuloma (in the
direction of hair) unions are acceptable though not the best.

3) But the opposite is not true. A woman must not marry down, or hypogamy or
pratiloma (against the hair) is not permissible. If a Brahmin woman marries a shudra
the children are lowest of untouchables.

Thus in real terms it means that women of lower castes are accessible to men of
higher castes and women of upper castes are kept out of bounds for all except
men of their own caste and higher. Thus Brahmin women are the most secluded
and shudra women the most accessible. However for a regular marriage, it is
always preferred that the wife should not be of lower caste. But according to the
laws of Manu an upper caste man can take as his secondary wives women of
lower castes.
52
Hypergamy can take different forms in North and South India. Thus among the Kinship, Family and
Marriage in India
Rajputs of N-W India, the Patidars of Gujarat and the Rarhi Brahmins of Bengal
the hypergamy means marriage between ranked groups of the same caste. Here
the child gets the same rank as the father. In South India the hypergamous marriages
take place between castes and the children are given the rank of the mother. A
famous example is that of the Namboodri brahmins and the Nayar women. Only
the eldest Namboodri son was allowed to marry a Namboodri woman and have
children of his own rank, but the younger sons were compelled to go to the Nayar
women as visiting husbands and their children were only identified as the children
of Nayar matriclans. Although they both follow gotra exogamy and jati endogamy,
there are some substantive differences between North Indian and South Indian or
what is more popularly known in anthropological literature as Dravidian kinship
system.

5.3 NORTH AND SOUTH INDIAN KINSHIP

In addition to the practice of polygyny and hypergamy, marriages in North India
are marked by a higher status given to the bride receivers than the bride givers,
thereby giving the man’s family a higher social status than a woman’s family that
has resulted in a general degrading of women in society, where the mother of a
son receives more prestige than the mother of a daughter and the birth of a
daughter is viewed as a lowering of rank of her entire family. Among the status
conscious Rajputs of North-Western India, it is this status consciousness that is
one of the reasons for widespread female infanticide as the father of a daughter
feels socially degraded. This is also the reason why there is no preference for
women exchange, rather women preferably move in the same direction, that is it
is preferred that sisters be married to a set of brothers rather than an exchange
of siblings take place as it is done in Bengal, in the custom of Palti Bodol, where
to save on dowry, siblings can be exchanged if they are otherwise properly matched.
Since the practice of exogamy is done at the village level, entire villages stand in
relations of bride givers and bride receivers with appropriate rankings and taboos.
Thus a person from a bride giving village will not accept even water from a bride
receiving village.
In South India there are two distinct differences, the first is the separation of the
cross and parallel siblings of the parents and a merging of the grandparents
generation in terms of kinship terminology that had led the south Indian kinship
terminology to be labelled as “bifurcate-merging’, the second is the practice of
what was referred to as the practice of cross-cousin marriage by those following
the ‘descent school’ in kinship studies. In South India it is preferred that a boy
marry his mother’s brother’s daughter or his father’s sisters daughter, neither of
which categories is referred to as a ‘sister’ and the father’s sister and mother’s
brother are also referred to by the same term as used for mother-in-law and
father-in-law.
Louis Dumont in his analysis of kinship on what he calls as the principle of affinity,
takes a different theoretical stand. According to Dumont, where there exists
positive marriage regulations, that is some categories of kin are ear marked for
marriage, the following criteria apply;
1) Marriage becomes part of an institution of marriage alliance, which spans the
generations. This is in opposition to the descent theorist’s views that marriage
relations are confined to one generation and only descent runs through
53
generations.
Kinship, Marriage and 2) The concept of affinity should extend so as to include not only those who are
Family
related to a ego by marriage, but also to people who inherit such a relationship
from their parents. Thus a son will inherit an affinal relationship in the form
of his mother’s brother from his father who already has an affinal relationship
of wife’s brother to him. Thus where there is prescribed cross cousin marriage,
the mother’s brother and father’s sister are never consanguines, but always
affines, as inherited from the parents.
3) In terms of kinship terminology such relationships will have an affinal content.
Thus the Dravidian kinship terminology can be described as one where there is
one term for all males and all females in the grand parent’s generation. The two
terms in father’s generation, namely father and mother’s brother are not simply
different but denote two classes of relatives; one consanguineal and the other
affinal. Thus father and mother’s brother are brothers-in-law to each other, or
linked to each other through the mother.

F = M MB

Ego Z

In the same way the relationship to father’s sister is mediated through the mother,
where the brother of one woman is husband to the other.
Such affinal relationships are continued in ego’s generation, become weaker in
ego’s son’s generation and disappear fully in the grandchild’s generation. The
basic structure of the system is of fathers on one side, including the father’s
brother and mother’s sister’s husband and father’s affines on the other, including
mother’s brother and father’s sister’s husband.
According to Dumont we should differentiate between the immediate or synchronic
affine and genealogical or diachronic affines who are affines by virtue of inheriting
an affinal tie from the earlier generation. Dumont also demonstrated how the
concrete expression to the abstract concept of alliance is given differently in
different social systems taking the examples of the matrilineal Kondaiyam Kottai
Maravar and the patrilinial and patrilocal Pramalai Kallar.
For the Kallar, the category of brothers is split into two, the brothers, one’s own
and the sons of the father’s brothers who are part of one’s local or residential kin
group and the sons of one’s mother’s sisters, who are spread in various places,
depending upon where the mothers were located after marriage. Thus although
they are notionally consanguines, the relationship with such relatives is weak as it
is spread over a large geographical area and tends to be forgotten over the
generations, unlike the enduring ties with the patrilineal kin. The father’s sister on
the other hand is born and remains in the father’s house till she gets married. Thus
although terminologically she is an affine, she has an ambiguous position as a weak
affine having been treated as a kin before her marriage. The mother’s brother in
a patrilineal situation is a strong affine.
The situation is just the reverse in the case of the matrilineal Kondaiam Kottai
Maravars, where the opposition between father and mother’s brother is viewed
differently. In the matrilineal situation the father would be an affine and the mother’s
brother a kin, therefore the ambiguity attached to the father’s sister in the patrilineal
case would be attached to the mother’s brother in this case who will be considered
54 a weak affine, while the father’s sister would be considered a strong affine.
In other words as Dumont puts it, the foremost affine in the upper generation is Kinship, Family and
Marriage in India
the affine of the lineally stressed parent, the mother’s brother in the patrilineal
situation and the father’s sister in the matrilineal one.
The distinction between the two categories of relative is also expressed in
ceremonials and gift giving. F.G. Bailey in Orissa and A.C. Mayer in Malwa have
noted that there is a lot of similarity in the ceremonial functions of relatives like
wife’s brother and mother’s brother, even though the former is an affine and the
latter a relative of blood connected through the mother. In a sense both the
relatives are similarly situated as the wife’s brother becomes the mother’s brother
in the next generation; gifts given by both are referred to as mamere in the local
language so that culturally also the two relatives are put in the same bracket. In
opposition to mamere is dan. These are the gifts given by those who have taken
a woman from the group, the father’s sister’s husband and sister’s husband, in
contrast the mamere is given by those who have given a woman to the group.
Thus Dumont has pointed out that essentially from the cultural point of view the
real difference is between wife giver’s and wife receivers and not between uterine
and agnatic kin.
As an example one can take the case of the Sarjupari Brahmins of U.P. who
ignore the sa-pinda rule. But adhere to the two rules that;
Firstly, a lineage does not ‘take’ a girl from a local lineage to which a girl has
been given by them, as the bride receivers are in a permanent position of superiority
symbolized in the ritual of ‘pao-pujan’ ( feet worship).
Secondly, a man does not marry his sister and daughter (including classificatory
ones) into the same family; for this would mean matrilateral cross cousin marriage,
not permissible in North India.
However among the lower castes such as Dhobis, such marriages are permitted.
Among the upper castes the former rule prohibits reversal of marriage between
larger units such as local descent groups and the latter prohibits the repetition of
marriage between smaller units such as families. Among the lower castes such
repetition leads to stronger community formation at the local level, so necessary
for their survival. The lower castes may also practice bride exchange and widow
remarriage.
In the study of south Indian kinship it is seen that ceremonial gifts are given by
those relatives where the affinal relatives are passed down generations that is by
the mother’s brother, father’s sister or father’s sister’s husband, wife givers in all
cases by the rule of prescriptive marriage to the children of parent’s cross sex
siblings.
Among the high status Sarjupari Brahmins the first rule permits repetition of marriage
between lineages but in the same direction, thus taking care of caste norms, but
not particularly of kinship. In south India marriage rules reflect pure kinship norms.
The Sarjupari Brahmins also have the rules of “three houses, thirteen houses, and
one lakh (hundred thousand) and twenty-five thousand” houses arranged vertically.
Similar rules are seen in Bengal among the Dakhin-Rarhi Kayasthas of the “three
houses (Kulin), eight houses and seventy-two houses”, similarly arranged
hierarchically in order of preference. Such status is attributional while the status
difference between bride-givers and bride-takers is interactional.

55
Kinship, Marriage and
Family 5.4 FAMILY
The form of family is both synchronically and diachronically determined. Among
the upper caste Hindus the Mitakshara school of Hindu law is usually followed in
which the Hindu Joint family is one in which all male agnatic members have a share
from birth and they may demand a share in the property as soon as they reach
the legal age of maturity. The male members along with their wives and children
may share the same roof and hearth and are coparcenaries. In addition there may
be other members in a joint household in the form of dependents like orphans and
widows, usually related women born in the family. A joint family is symbolically
united in common worship of some deity looked upon as the benefactor of the
particular lineage or kul.
The head of the family is usually the eldest male member known as the Karta,
who wields considerable power. However as the well known sociologist Arvind
Shah points out the three generational joint family is only an ideal type and rarely
realized in actual practice.
The biggest difference in family organisation is based upon caste, occupation and
economic status. The large undivided joint households were usually found among
the wealthy upper castes, who found it useful to stay together in a large household
with supportive resources like a large house and many servants. It was functional
for the management of large estates and businesses.
On the contrary the lower castes and poorer sections of the people rarely have
enough resources to form joint households. Also their meagre earnings do not
permit the setting up of larger units. If the family lives at subsistence level the daily
earnings or food does not permit any accumulation or cannot be shared among
large number of members, it is each to his own in such a situation. Similar situation
is found among the tribal populations where the joint household is almost unknown.
Thus the projection of the majority of families in India being joint is only a upper
caste, class and an ideal depiction.
With the use of the historical model many anthropologists have criticized this
idealistic assumption. A.M. Shah, a well known sociologists highly regarded for his
work on family, found in his social and historical study of a village in Gujarat that
the kind of family assigned to tradition was not present even in the pre-colonial
era. Let us see what he has to write about Radhvanaj, a village consisting primarily
of upper caste Rajputs and Brahmins (Shah 1998).
“According to the Census of 1825 Radhvanaj had a population of 716 persons
divided into 159 households and there were 25 castes” ......... “73 % of the total
number of households were very small or small in 1825. The ideal of the so-called
joint family household was not very strong in the village and this was even before
the beginning of industrialisation and urbanization”. But even though there were no
joint families, the Rajputs, namely the Rathods of this region formed exogamous
lineage groups. But in the very same village such lineage groups were not found
among the other caste groups. “By and large, strong and elaborate lineage groups
were associated with control over land”. As Shah has further elaborated land
ownership provided stability of residence and facilitated growth of the lineages.
Land ownership also provided power and therefore, lineages with the help of the
unity provided by the kinship bond, tended to be repositories of power.
56 Among low caste occupational groups like the Dhobis (washer men) in northern
India joint living is not found at all, Channa (1985). As rightly pointed out by Shah Kinship, Family and
Marriage in India
land ownership often provides the economic base for joint living. For households
who have to live off their daily earnings it is a difficult proposition to pool in the
earnings at the end of the day and go for joint living. What the earlier authors had
relied upon was an ideal basis for the family based on values and scriptural norms.
But in reality the economic and political considerations determine at the actual
level what shape is going to be taken by the household. The main resource of the
dhobis for example are the households, referred to them as grahak (clients) from
whose houses they get clothes to be washed. As a couple get older their capacity
to wash and iron clothes decrease. When a son grows up he gets a few clients
from his father but most of his clientele he can built up on his own depending upon
the capacity for hard work, initiative and luck both of his own and that of his wife.
Very soon after their marriage young couples prefer to set up their own chullah
or hearth, in other words set themselves up as separate production and consumptions
units separate from their parents. Because the young couple does not want that
they should do all the hard work and the aging parents should share the fruits of
their labour. Unless they get very old and disabled, their children rarely support
parents.
According to Shah, among the upper castes and elite section families of society,
the sentiments and bonds, both economic and social continue to operate even if
the members are living in different locations because of necessities of work, or
lack of urban space or any such factor; For example, children of middle class
families who are settled abroad or in different places within the country, still
consider the parental house as their own, returning for major ceremonies and
events on a regular basis. Economically too the bonds of sharing and cooperation
persist even from a distance. Thus the joint family as noted by Shah is acquiring
a ‘federal’ multi-centred character.
However in some parts of India, apart from the joint families, or joint sentiments
based on monogamous marriages, some different forms of families are also present.
The polyandrous families are still found in some hilly areas like Himachal, where
it is considered good to marry a set of brothers to a single woman so that scarce
resources of land can be preserved and since these communities still depend upon
sheep grazing and agriculture, the undivided household of several brothers and
their wife leads to more prosperity.
Among the Khasis of Meghalaya, the family property and name is inherited in the
female line with the youngest daughter inheriting the family house and property.
The husband of the youngest daughter in a Khasi family comes to live with her and
she is primarily responsible for the performance of all the household rituals. The
family name also runs in the female line. Thus the patrilineal and patrilocal family
is not absolutely universal in India.
The practice of resident-son-in-law, also called ghar-jawai, ghar-jamai or magpa
is found among many communities of India. Among the Bhutiyas and other hill
people it is a common practice with the son-in-law becoming like the adopted son
of his parents in law and even performing their death rituals. Among the Tibetans
and Bhutiyas the daughter has inheritance rights and even when the resident son-
in-law performs the rituals like a son, it is the daughter who is socially recognised
as the mistress of the property and remains dominant over her husband.
The Muslim households usually follow the Hindu pattern with the wealthy families
living in large joint households and the poorer ones living mostly in nuclear families 57
Kinship, Marriage and along with the urban and educated families, which are also nuclear. Although
Family
polygyny is permitted for the Muslims the actual incidence is rather low and not
any different from those of Hindus.
Values of education of women are often cited as factors for the break up of joint
families as are business rivalries and clash of interests. In the traditional joint
households the money was earned from a common estate or business, with
modernisation, the various sons took up jobs according to their own capacities
and conflicts could ensue over different incomes and contributions to the common
pool. Women’s education further complicated matters as they developed more
individuality and resisted being dominated. Yet deference and respect for elders
still persists and most children do not take major decisions without the permission
or consent of their parents.

5.4.1 The House-hold Dimension of the Family

In addition to the class and caste based difference a family can be viewed in terms
of its development over time and Shah has described the developmental cycle of
the Indian family following the model given by Meyer Fortes. Even the simple of
basic family may exhibit different structures depending upon the stage at which it
is found. The basic household in India is called a ‘chullah’ or ghar. The following
possible compositions are possible
1) Husband, wife and unmarried children
2) Husband and Wife (when there are no children born or they have left the
household by marriage or migration)
3) Father and unmarried children (when the wife is dead or divorced)
4) Mother and unmarried children (for same reasons as above)
5) Unmarried brothers and sisters (because of death of parents)
6) A single man or woman (for various reasons of death or separation or
migration).
In the formation of the simple household, the terms “children”, “father” and “mother”
also include all step children and adopted children, step mothers and adoptive
mothers and step father and adoptive fathers so that in reality a simple family may
at times be a ‘compound family’.
The actual power structure of the household may also vary. Thus widowed mothers
may play a considerable significant role in the affairs of their sons even though by
the rules of patriliny the son inherits the father’s status. Similarly the role of women
as wives and daughters may also be significant in certain situations.
As Shah points out the development process of the household is not random but
may follow a pattern depending on the following factors.
1) The demographic factor, like birth, marriage and death and also the sex ratio
and the actual number of persons who come to live in a household by what
is known as the process of accretion.
2) The second depends on the norms of residence that may also vary; like for
example the phenomenon of the resident son-in-law and the norms regarding
residence of parents.
58
 Kinship, Family and
5.5 SUMMARY Marriage in India

In conclusion we can say that it is difficult to have a uniform description of kinship,

family and marriage in India as there is considerable regional variation (Karve
1963, Kolenda 1987), and also across caste and tribal populations. Some significant
regional works are that of Veena Das (1976) and Paul Hershman (1981) on
Punjabi Kinship, Fruzzeti and Ostor (1976) and Ronald Inden (1976) on Bengali
kinship, Dumont (1966) and Trautmann on Dravidian kinship, and Madan (1965)
on Kashmiri kinship, to name a few. One may also refer to the significant
contribution of Leela Dube (1997) to a gendered approach to the study of kinship.
Some unique features such as of caste and kinship and polyandry are found in
South Asia not found anywhere else. Significant differences exist across North and
South India and among lower and upper classes. There have been changes also
in family and kinship norms due to transformations in social and economic variables.
Thus kinship is just not ideational but practical as well serving existing needs of
society.
References
Ahmed, Imtiaz. (ed.). 1976. Family, Kinship and Marriage among Muslims in
India. New Delhi: Monohar Book Service.
Channa, Subhadra. 1985. Tradition and Rationality in Economic Behaviour.
New Delhi: Cosmo Publication.
Das, Veena. 1976. ‘Masks and Faces: An essay on Punjabi Kinship’.
Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol.10, No.1, Pp 1-30.
Dube, Leela. 1997. Women and Kinship: Comparative Perspectives on Gender
in South and South-East Asia. United Nations University Press.
_____________ 1986. ‘Seed and earth: The symbolism of Biological Reproduction
and Sexual Relations of Production.’ In Leela Dube, Eleanor Leacock and Shirley
Ardner. (eds.) Visibility and Power: Essays on Women in Society and
Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dumont, Louis. 1966. ‘Marriage in India: The Present State of the Question , III-
North India in relation to South’. Contributions to Indian Sociology: Vol.9.
Fruzzeti, Lina and Akos Oster. 1976. ‘Seed and Earth: A Cultural Analysis of
kinship in a Bengali town’. Contributions to Indian Sociology: Vol.10 No.1 pp
97-132.
Gough, Kathleen. 1952. ‘Changing Kinship Usages in the Setting of Political and
Economic Change Among the Nayars of Malabar’. Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 89: 23-34.
Hershman, Paul. 1981. Punjabi Kinship and Marriage. Delhi: Hindustan Publishing
Corporation.
Inden, Ronald B. 1976. Marriage and Rank in Bengali Culture: A History of
Caste and Clan in Middle period Bengal. Berkeley: University of California
Press.
Inden, Ronald B and Ralph Nicholas. 1977. Kinship in Bengali Culture. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
59
Kinship, Marriage and Karve, Iravati. 1963. Kinship Organisation in India. Kolkata: Asia Publishing
Family
House.
Kolenda, Pauline. 1987. Regional Differences in Family Structure in India.
Delhi: Rawat Publications.
Madan, T.N. 1965. Family and Kinship: A study of the Pandits of Rural
Kashmir. Kolkata: Asia Publishing House.
Majumdar, D.N. 1962. Himalayan Polyandry: Structure, Functioning and
Culture Change, A Field Study of Jaunsar Bawar. Kolkata: Asia Publishing
House.
Mayer, Adrian C. 1960. Caste and Kinship in Central India. Great Britain:
University of California Press.
Ostor, Akos, Lina Fruzzeti and Steve Barnett. (Eds.). 1983. Concepts of Person,
Kinship, Caste and Marriage in India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Shah, A.M. 1973. The Household Dimension of the Family In India. Delhi:
Orient Longman.
Trautmann, Thomas. 1995. Dravidian Kinship. Delhi: Sage Publications.
Suggested Reading
Dube, Leela. 1997. Women and Kinship: Comparative Perspectives on Gender
in South and South-East Asia. United Nations University Press.
Dumont, Louis. 1966. ‘Marriage in India: The Present State of the Question , III-
North India in relation to South’. Contributions to Indian Sociology: Vol.9.
Karve, Iravati. 1963. Kinship Organisation in India. Kolkata: Asia Publishing
House.
Sample Questions
1) Describe the basic principles of South Indian Kinship and how it differs from
North Indian Kinship?
2) Discuss the various forms of the household in India with specific reference to
the developmental cycle.
3) Discuss the relationship between bride-givers and bride takers and its ritual
and ceremonial expression among the upper castes of North India.
4) Discuss the various forms of lineality in India, with suitable examples.
5) Describe the changes in joint families and the nature of the changes.

60
 ANTHROGURU

ANTHROGURU

ANTHROPOLOGY

3. Economic organization: Meaning, scope and relevance of

economic anthropology; Formalist and Substantivist debate;
Principles governing production, distribution and exchange
(reciprocity, redistribution and market), in communities,
subsisting on hunting and gathering, fishing, swiddening,
pastoralism, horticulture, and agriculture; globalization and
indigenous economic systems.

4. Political organization and Social Control: Band, tribe,

chiefdom, kingdom and state; concepts of power, authority
and legitimacy; social control, law and justice in simple
societies.

CONTACT:
anthroguru@gmail.com
telegram: anthroguru
UNIT 1 CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
Contents
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Types of Political Organisation
1.2.1 Band Societies
1.2.2 Tribal Societies
1.2.3 Chiefdoms
1.2.4 State Societies
1.2.5 Youth Dormitories

1.3 Social Control and Resolution of Conflicts

1.4 Economic Organisation
1.5 Traditional Economic Organisation
1.5.1 Communal Ownership
1.5.2 Division of Labour
1.5.3 Major Economic Activities
1.5.3.1 Hunting-Gathering
1.5.3.2 Horticulturalists
1.5.3.3 Shifting Cultivation
1.5.3.4 Pastoralism
1.5.3.5 Settled Agriculture

1.6 Traditional Economic System

1.6.1 Barter System
1.6.2 Silent Trade
1.6.3 Jajmani System
1.6.4 Ceremonial Exchange
1.6.5 Reciprocity
1.6.6 Redistribution
1.6.7 Market or Commercial Exchange

1.7 The Distribution of Goods and Services: Two Case Studies

1.7.1 Kula
1.7.2 Potlatch

1.8 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

Once you have studied this unit, you would be able to:
 understand the various types of traditional political and economic organisations
and economic systems studied in social anthropology; and
 describe different forms of “distribution of goods and services” among the
simple societies. 5
Economic and Political
Organisations 1.1 INTRODUCTION
Every society, be it a simple or traditional society or complex or modernised
society has certain rules and regulations to maintain social order. Human societies
have developed a set of customs and procedures for making and implementing
decisions in order to resolve disputes, and for regulating the behaviour of its
member in their day-to-day life. They have also developed collective decisions
about its relationship with other neighbouring societies. The first part of this unit
deals with the general features of political organisation, social control, conflict
resolution and the cultural arrangement by which societies continue and maintain
social order for the betterment of society. While, the second part of the unit will
deal with the economic organisations in social anthropology.

1.2 TYPES OF POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS

Let us now discuss the mechanisms in our society for making and enforcing
political decisions as well as the collective efforts about its relationship with the
neighbouring people for the well being of society. As we know, political organisation
is found in all societies. However the degree of specialisation and formal mechanisms
in functioning of political systems may vary considerably from one society to the
other. As mentioned by Ferraro, Gary P (1992) all societies differ in their political
organisations based on three important dimensions:
1) The extent to which political institutions are distinct from other aspects of the
social structure; that is, in some societies, political structures are
indistinguishable from economic, kinship, or religious structure.
2) The extent to which authority is concentrated into specific political roles.
3) The level of political integration (i.e. the size of the territorial group that
comes under the control of political structure). Ferraro, Gary P (1992, 220)
In order to understand how effectively the political organisations administer
themselves and maintain social order, the above three dimensions are useful. These
dimensions also form the basis for the classification of societies into four important
types of political structures like band societies, tribal societies, chiefdoms, and
state societies. Let us now discuss briefly about the conceptual meaning of these
four important types of political structure.

1.2.1 Band Societies

Band organisation is considered to be the least complex form of political
arrangement which is characterised by small group, also known as local groups,
usually among the nomadic population of hunter and gatherers. The size of a band
can range from 30-50 people or more. However, the size of a band may vary
from one band to the other depending upon the food gathering techniques and the
availability of the food in their natural environment. Band may have little or no
concept of individual property ownership and place a high value on sharing,
cooperation and reciprocity. They may also loosely associate with a specific
territory of their own in the sense that the members of one territory can seek
membership in a neighbouring territory. The members of each band have less role
specialisation and are highly egalitarian. Band organisation is predominantly found
among the hunting and gathering communities representing the oldest form of
political organisation. Common language and common cultural features bound
6
band members together. In band societies, no political allegiance occurs with any Concepts and Definition
one or more supreme authority or with other similar bands of their own ethnic
community. Their political decisions are frequently embedded in the wider social
structure of the local group. It is difficult to distinguish purely political decisions
from those related to the family, economic or religious decisions. In other words,
political life is simply one part of social life.
Leadership roles are iterative within the band; there be could several leaders and
each leader’s role may end with the accomplishment of a particular task. Leadership
tends to be informal having no authoritarian political roles or leaders with designated
authority. But the elderly are respected for their experience, wisdom, good judgment
and knowledge of hunting. So, adult men gave decision. The headman can persuade
and give advice but has no power to impose his will on the group.
Bands may have a headman, as in case of Eskimo bands and the Chenchu who
are recognised by the band members for their special skills in making implements,
hunting, ritual, judgment acumen, folklore, world view, magic, medicinal and
ecological knowledge etc. There were no strict rule of succession to the position
of headman; sometimes it is hereditary as in case of the Kung bushman and a fresh
person can be chosen as in case of the Chenchu.

1.2.2 Tribal Societies

The tribal political organisations are predominantly associated with food production
i.e. horticulture and pastoralism. Tribal societies are little bigger or larger in size
than the band societies. Egalitarian principle is the common feature of both tribe
and band organisations. Both of them are similar in several important aspects as
the political leaders have no marked differences in status, rank, power and wealth.
In addition to these, both of them have local leaders but do not have permanent,
centralised leadership.
However, tribal political forms can be distinguished from bands by the presence
of some impermanent and informal pan-tribal associations that can bring together,
whenever necessary, a number of local groups into one larger unit. Each of these
associations operate autonomously but integrate themselves into one or more
larger units when an external threat arises. The larger unit breaks back into
original local units once the threat is nullified.
The tribal associations emerge based on kinship and kin units like clan, and age
grades, or secret societies. In many tribal societies, the kinship unit called Clan,
a group of kin who consider themselves to be descended from a common ancestor,
serves a mechanism for political integration. Clan elder usually looks after the
affairs of their clan like settlement of dispute between the clan members, negotiating
with other clan groups, etc.
Segmentary lineage system is another form of tribal association where individuals
of different genealogical levels integrate to form a bigger unit in opposition to
another such unit. Genealogical connections bring groups with closer affiliation
together. Such political integration of closely affiliated groups within the tribal
societies is important in order to mobilise their military force in defending themselves
from outside forces or for expanding into the territories of weaker societies. As
mentioned by Evan-Pritchard (1940), the pastoral Nuer of southern Sudan serves
as a good example of a tribal form of political organisation.

7
Economic and Political
Organisations
1.2.3 Chiefdoms
Ferraro, Gary P (1992: 223) has mentioned that the band and the tribal societies
are economically and politically autonomous, authority is not centralised and they
tend to be egalitarian having no specialised role, small population in size depending
largely on subsistence economy. However, societies become more complex as the
population increases with higher technology for fulfilling their subsistence needs. In
Chiefdoms, a number of local communities are integrated into a more formal and
permanent political unit but the political authority rests with single individual, either
acting alone or in conjunction with an advisory council. Chiefdoms may also
comprise more than one political unit, each one is headed by a chief and/or
councils. Societies with chiefdoms are socially ranked and the chief and his family
enjoy higher status and prestige. The chief ship is mostly hereditary and the chief
along with his or her kinfolk comprises social and political elite within their society.
Subsequently, the chiefs have considerable power and authority in resolving or
pronouncing judgments over internal disputes, issues, etc. In addition to these, he
may distribute goods, supervise religious ceremonies and functions military activities
on behalf of the chiefdom. Hawaii and Tahiti are the examples of chiefdom societies.

1.2.4 State Societies

Of all the above mentioned societies, state societies have more complex and
advance form of political organisation. According to Sahlins (1963: 297), state
is defined as “an autonomous political unit, encompassing many communities within
its territory and having a centralised government with the power to collect taxes,
draft men for work or war, and decree and enforce laws”. It is also mentioned
by Robert L Carneiro (1970: 733) that the state societies have complex, centralised
political structure, which include a wide range of permanent institutions having
legislative, executive, and judicial functions, and a large bureaucracy.
The state societies have class stratification with unequal access to economic
resources. These societies are generally supported by intensive agriculture. The
high productivity of the agriculture presumably allows for the emergence of cities,
a high degree of economic and other kinds of specialisation, market or commercial
exchange, and extensive foreign trade. The people pay taxes. (Carol R. Ember,
Melvin Ember, 1995: 375)
The rulers may use force but the threats of force alone do not ensure the legitimacy
of the rulers. Legitimacy of rulers is said to accrue owing to different factors like
divine origin of the rulers, socialisation of children to accept all forms of authority,
the perceived advantage of state by the people in ensuring protection, employment,
security to property etc. If state fails in its duty, the rulers lose their credibility and
ability to control, eventually leading to the fall of state. Nupe kingdom in West
Africa and also the Roman Empire are examples of state societies.

1.2.5 Youth Dormitories

Youth Dormitories are important institutions among the tribal society. These
institutions are quite common among the tribes of North East India, central India.
They are known by different names in different tribes like Morung of Naga tribes,
Gothul of Muria and Gond tribe, Dhoomkuriya of Oraon tribe, etc. The youth
dormitories are centered in big building of straw and thatch having separate houses
for boys and girls. All the members of the dormitories pass their night in the
dormitories. If there is no dormitory for girls, they usually sleep in the house of
8
some old woman. They learn their way of life through their elders. They follow the Concepts and Definition
rules and regulations of the dormitories. They carry out different activities together
like construction of house on the occasion of marriage or village festivals, helping
the villagers in crisis, construction of roads, etc. The boys and girls stay in their
dormitories till they marry. A widow can re-enter the dormitory as its member.
Strictly speaking, youth dormitories are not political bodies. However, youth
dormitories serve to train the youth in various socio-cultural, economic, religious
and political activities. For example among the Dimasa Kachari of Assam, Hangsao
- the bachelor’s dormitory is an important institution of the village. The unmarried
youths of the village spend night in this house. Unlike Nagas, the Dimasas do not
have separate dormitory for maidens. Dormitory youths organise into labour force
to carry out several public works in the village (e.g. construction of the village
path, water hole, etc.) as well as to help the needy villagers in agricultural works
like weeding, harvesting, etc. They also serve as the village defenders. They get
trained to become leaders and organisers to undertake public works and community
works. In this sense youth dormitories can be regarded as quasi political units.

1.3 SOCIAL CONTROL AND RESOLUTION OF

CONFLICTS
Social control and conflict resolution mechanism are those practices such as
customary law for reward and punishment, physical coercion, and various sanctions
(ostracism, avoidance, denial of favours) which a community of people adopt to
safeguard social order and to sustain the behavioural conformity to the accepted
norms. Like any other societies, the simple societies also have rudimentary system
of providing justice. They have their own social control and resolution of conflict
mechanism. Mostly the chief or the elders of the group or kinship take the
responsibilities for identifying and punishing the criminals in their society. When
they face complex problems, they take advice from the council of elders about
the type and nature of punishment to be given to the offenders. They follow the
Oath and Ordeals. The offenders have to take an oath, after which they are asked
if he or she had committed the offence or not. It is generally believed among the
simple society that if the offender tells a lie before their elders, he or she will be
a prey to the supernatural anger for taking a false oath. Sometimes, the accused
person is asked to dip or put his hand in boiling water or oil to justify his innocence
as they believe that the supernatural powers help an innocent person.

1.4 ECONOMIC ORGANISATION

The simple societies of different places in the world passed through various stages
of socio-economic development in due courses of time. It can be mentioned that
hunting-gathering, horticulture, cattle herding, shifting cultivation, settled agriculture,
etc. are different stages of socio-economic development among different tribes in
India.
Food gathering and hunting is said to be the oldest type of economic activity.
During 2 to 5 million years of human existence on this planet Earth, 99 percent
of the time was spent in food gathering, hunting and fishing. Agriculture is said to
have originated some 10,000 years ago. Industrial economy is said to have been
in existence for the past 400 years only.
Human communities of the world practice various types of economic activities.
9
Economic and Political When we say economic activity, it includes subsistence technologies, division of
Organisations
labour, organisation of labour, various customary ways of distribution of goods
and services and consumption and utility and decision-making at various stages in
the processes of production, distribution and consumption. Basing on the subsistence
technologies, the economic activities can be broadly categorised into food collection
and food production. Under food collection, hunting gathering, intensive foraging
and fishing are the major activities. Under food production, we can include
horticulture or incipient cultivation, pastoralism and intensive cultivation or plough
cultivation.
Many communities studied by anthropologists practice more than one of the above
economic activities. Most of the tribes dwelling in the forest and hills like Kadar
of Kerala, Birhor and Kharia of Bihar, Nagas of Nagalands, Kukis of Manipur,
etc. depend on food gathering, hunting small games, fishing, shifting cultivation
activities for their sustenance. These activities form their main source of subsistence
economy. In the same way, the Konda Reddy and the Savara of Andhra Pradesh
depend on horticulture, shifting cultivation and hunting and gathering. The Todas
known for buffalo herding also practice cultivation of crops. The Santals, the
Oraon, and the Gonds practice settled agriculture along with hunting gathering.
Each type of economic activity is organised more or less systematically so that
goods and services are produced, distributed or exchanged and consumed or
utilised in order to satisfy a variety of wants.

1.5 TRADITIONAL ECONOMIC ORGANISATION

According to Hoebel and Weaver (1979: 453), “Economic organisation involves
the behaviours that center upon the production, the allocation and distribution, and
the use and consumption of goods”. The above authors emphasise culturally
defined behavioural networks that operate in various economic activities. Achieving
some rhythm and order in the provision of material goods and services for the
satisfaction of wants is essential for the survival and continuity of society. In
almost all societies, economic organisation exists in one form or the other.
Simple societies have simple mode of production which include simple technology
and most of the labour constitute family members or relatives. It varies from
society to society. The mode of economic organisation is very simple mostly
embedded in direct face to face relationship. Each type of economic organisation
ensures some role to all members of the community by means of creating some
space in the pursuits related to economic activities. Every member has a purpose
to participate in such organised activities.
The major types of distribution of goods and services are reciprocity, redistribution,
and market. Reciprocity is further divided into 3 types: generalised reciprocity,
balanced reciprocity and negative reciprocity. Let’s examine some of the other
components of economic organisation which are very important in understanding
the basic concept of economic organisation in anthropology.

1.5.1 Communal Ownership

In every society, simple or complex, property has important functions. Property
signifies social or economic status of a person or a group. Property can be either
individually owned (private property) or communally owned (communal property).
The concept of property keeps changing with the changes of time. Among simple
10 society, communal ownership is more prevalent over land resources, forest
resources, etc. It can be mentioned that these simple society enjoys the available Concepts and Definition
resources from the forest, river, etc. Hunting and gathering societies do not have
personal properties of their own except some objects like hunting tools, etc. but
the cattle rearing societies consider their cattle as their property.
In some societies, both communal ownership as well as individual ownership of
land is present. The Podu or Jhuming land or shifting cultivation land are community
owned where as the wet land and horticulture lands are individually owned. The
people are issued with pattas (a legal document assigning ownership) with regard
to the individual lands.
Reflection

Property: A Social Creation

Property in its full sense is a web of social relations with respect to the utilisation of some
object (material or non-material) in which a person or group is tacitly or explicitly
recognised to hold quasi exclusive and limiting rights of use and disposition

E. Adamson Hoebel and Thomas Weaver. 1979. Anthropology and The Human Experience.
McGraw-Hill : 262

1.5.2 Division of Labour

Most economic activities, and for that matter any physical activity of some purpose
(be it cooking, child rearing ritual etc.), are accomplished by sharing work between
a group of workers or participants. Division of labour is a form of “customary
assignment of different kinds of work to different kinds of people” (Ember and
Ember 1990: 272). Universally men and women, adults and children do not engage
in same kinds of work. In our society, it is usual for the man to plough and woman
to engage in cooking. Adults perform arduous works whereas children do light
works. Division of labour based on age and sex is universal though there is
variation across cultures. Further, it must be remembered that as the societies
modernise, role reversals and complex specialisations emerge.
In simple society, the division of labour is based on certain factors like sex, age,
etc. Men and women carry out different types of jobs. In certain activities, men
and women perform the same activities without any division of labour. Though
women folk observe certain taboos during times such as menstruation and child
birth, etc., they do not take part in the day to day chores, as during such times
they are considered impure.
For better understanding of division of labour, let us take an example of the
Savara tribe of Andhra Pradesh during their shifting cultivation. In the Savara
community both sex wise and age wise division of labour is observed. All the
family members work collectively as a unit of production under the guidance of the
head of the family. The family functions as an economic and social unit except the
small children and aged old members. The pattern of division of labour can be
classified on the basis of their age and sex. In their daily activities, children from
their early age start helping their parents. From the age of 9-10 years, the parents
ask their children to watch the field, fetch water, fetch tools etc. As they enter
adulthood they start playing a major role in subsistence by taking up labour
intensified works. The men and women have different and corresponding roles to
be played in various activities according to their age. The following statement gives
sex wise and age wise division of labour among the Savara tribe of Andhra
Pradesh:
11
Economic and Political Sex wise and age wise division of labour
Organisations
Name of the Activities in the
podu field
1. Selection of podu field
2. Cutting of large trees
3. Cutting of small trees and
bushes
4. Burning of the podu field
5. Broadcasting of seeds
6. Weeding operation
7. Watching of crops
8. Harvesting of crops
Associated member in labour
division
Adult male
Adult male
Adult female and children
Adult male
Adult male and adult female
Adult male and adult female
Adult male and male children
Adult male, female and children

1.5.3 Major Economic Activities

As pointed out earlier, the tribal societies practice various types of economic
activities, it must be remembered that each tribe may pursue a major economic
activity supplemented by other types of economic activities. The following account
gives a brief description of each of the major economic activity.
1.5.3.1 Hunting-Gathering
A hunter-gatherer society is a society whose primary subsistence method of
livelihood is based on the direct procurement of edible plant, animals, birds, etc.
from their surrounding forest and water bodies. They depend on the nature for
their subsistence. The tribes in the dense forests uses bows and arrows, spears,
net for catching the animals. They also have customs of hunting in group as a
collective activity. They hunt wild birds, fowl, rabbits, deer, rats, etc. During the
rainy season, they carry out fishing from the streams and other water bodies. They
share the hunt equally among themselves. Some important features of hunting
gathering society are; lowest population density; small community size; nomadic or
semi-nomadic; infrequent food shortage; minimal trade; no full-time craft specialists;
least or no individual differences in wealth; informal political leadership; no
domesticated animals except dog; day to day consumption and little storage of
food; minimal planning for the future (the last three are not true with some
communities who are in contact with pastorals or agriculturists). Surplus foraging
is very much limited though some minor forest produce is collected for exchange
or sale in the local /weekly markets or government run agencies.
1.5.3.2 Horticulturalists
Horticulture in anthropology means growing of all types of crops with relatively
simple tools like hoe and methods like sprinkling of seeds on un-ploughed fields.
These fields are cultivated for a few years and then abandoned for new fields.
Thus permanently cultivated fields are absent in horticulture. Horticultural
communities are said to lie in the transition stage of human communities from
nomadic community i.e. hunting-gathering to horticultural communities by
domesticating different varieties of crops like tubers, yams, maise, wheat, rice,
pulses, vegetables, etc. around their dwelling or in a particular plot for their
12 domestic consumption. They select different useful trees, vegetable crops, etc and
plants for their uses. As discussed under political organisation in such societies Concepts and Definition
land is usually communal property and for horticulture the land is redistributed
among the group members. In such a society, women are equally engaged in
horticultural activities. In some case, women are more specialised in growing
crops. Some important feature of horticultural communities are: low – moderate
population density; small - moderate community size; more sedentary but may
move after several years; infrequent food shortage; minimal trade; none or few
craft specialists; minimal wealth differences; part-time political functionaries and
exhibit incipient social differentiation.
Horticulture includes shifting cultivation and growing tree crops like plantain,
coconut, breadfruit tree etc. The latter type of horticulture can be seen among the
Samoans.
Reflection

Samoan horticulture involves mostly three tree crops requiring little work except in
harvesting. Once planted, and requiring hardly more than a few years of waiting, the
breadfruit tree continues to produce about two crops a year for upto half a century.
Coconut trees may continue to produce for hundred years. And banana trees make new
stalks of fruit, each weighing more than fifty pounds, for many years (Ember & Ember,
1990:249)

Sometimes, horticulture is separated from shifting cultivation as the latter has

attracted special attention. In the following section, we will focus on shifting
cultivation.
1.5.3.3 Shifting Cultivation
Shifting cultivation is an age old socio-economic practice among many tribal
communities inhabiting the world. It is a distinct type of agricultural practice generally
practiced on the hill slopes. Since the days of early civilisation several groups of
tribal communities in India are practicing this method of cultivation as their primary
source of subsistence. The beginning of shifting cultivation goes back to the Neolithic
times i.e.8, 000-10,000 years ago (Hasnain, 1994: 193). This process resulted in
a new socio-economic situation for the Neolithic people when they shifted from
nomadic way of living to settled way of life. These groups tried to emerge as food
producers from food gathering stage.
Shifting cultivation is considered as the natural way of eking out livelihood by
some tribal groups. In fact, it is considered as a traditional technique of farming
adopted by different tribal communities in many parts of the Indian Sub-Continent.
Shifting cultivation is prevalent in other parts of the world, especially Sumatra,
North Burma, Borneo, New Guinea, and in many parts of the African continent.
Shifting cultivation is also referred to as slash-and-burn or swidden cultivation.
In India, shifting cultivation is known by different names in tribal regions. In North
East India, it is denoted as jhum, in Orissa as podu, dabi, koman or bringa, in
Bastar as deppa, in Western Ghats as kumari, in South East Rajasthan - the
Matra and Maria tribal groups call it penda, in Madhya Pradesh as bewar or
dahia, (Bhowmick P .K., 1990: I02).
Shifting cultivation is an impermanent cultivation practiced on hill slopes, often
steep, rugged and elevated places. After cutting and burning the vegetation known
as slash and burning method, seeds are sown by using the simple digging stick.
They raise crops for few years and then abandon the field as the soil loses its
fertility due to burning of the vegetation. The people then move on to another 13
Economic and Political place to begin a new cycle. After some years, they return to the same patch of
Organisations
land for shifting cultivation which they had left fallow for the natural vegetation to
grow and also for the soil to regain its fertility. The duration of fallow period
depends upon the availability of land with forest vegetation and the size of the
group practicing shifting cultivation. At present, on an average, the fallow period
by the tribal groups practicing shifting cultivation has come down from few decades
to few years.
1.5.3.4 Pastoralism
Pastoralism is a type of subsistence technology in which procuring food is based
directly or indirectly on maintenance of domesticated animals. Hoebel and Weaver
writes, “ Historically this (pastoralism) occurred in the Neolithic Age, at the same
time that incipient agriculture was developing in regions more suitable to the raising
of crops” (1979: 224). Pastoralist is concerned with the raising of livestock like
tending and use of animals such as goats, sheep, yak, buffalo, etc. They are
usually found in many variations in different parts of the world with different
composition of herds, social organisation and management practices. They move
the herds from one place to another in search of fresh pasture and water for their
animals. They also tend to adapt to the changing environment due to their frequent
movement from one place to another. So, the territory of pastoral nomads far
exceed than that of most horticulturalist societies. Pastoralism is quite popular in
Africa and Asia.
Some important features of pastoral communities are: low population density;
small community size; generally nomadic or transhumant; frequent food shortages;
trade is popular; presence of some full-time craft specialists; moderate individual
differences in wealth; presence of part-time and full-time political leaders.
1.5.3.5 Settled Agriculture
Settled agriculture involves use of a variety of techniques like ploughing, bundling,
use of draught animals, fertilisation, irrigation, weeding, land parceling, crop rotation
etc. that enable cultivation of fields permanently and also to augment productivity.
Many communities practice settled agriculture as one of the major economic
activities. The production is mostly for their own consumption and whatever surplus
production is exchanged for other goods and services. Basically, the unit of
production and consumption in their society is the family. Most of the family
members are engaged in the process of cultivation especially during the period of
weeding and harvesting.
General features of settled agriculture are presence of high degree of craft
specialisation, well developed technology, complex political organisation, marked
social differentiation in terms of wealth, power, status etc. Societies practicing
settled agriculture are prone to food shortage. This is paradoxical because
compared to other subsistence technologies, settled agriculture is more productive.
Then why do frequent food shortages occur in communities professing settled
agriculture? Two possible answers are : (1) in settled agriculture, growing a single
crop as staple crop and /or as commercial crop is a common practice though
other minor crops may be essentially used as supplement to the main staple crop.
If such crops fail due to pests, drought, failure of seasonal rains, food shortage
results; (2) in settled agriculture, it is quite likely to grow commercial crops. If
market demand is very feeble or inadequate, losses are incurred leading to food
shortage. Earlier, the paddy cultivation in settled field was less productive due to
14
the dependence of rain fed irrigation. The situation has improved considerable with Concepts and Definition
irrigation system, use of pesticides and high yield varieties of paddy.

1.6 TRADITIONAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM

Traditional economic system is usually associated with the simple societies like the
tribal societies, rural societies, etc. It is chiefly characterised by subsistence mode
of production with little surplus production. This economy is usually supplemented
by other minor occupations like collection of forest produce etc. However the
most important features of the traditional economic system is that of various modes
of exchange.
Let us now discuss different mode of exchanges prevailing among different societies.

1.6.1 Barter System

Barter system is the direct exchange of goods and services i.e an exchange may
be goods for goods, goods for services, service for service etc. It is considered
to be the earliest form of exchange in Human society. Barter usually replaced
money as the method of exchange during crisis like war, natural calamity, etc.

1.6.2 Silent Trade

Silent trade (also known as silent barter or trade and dumb barter) is a peculiar
form of exchange where the exchanging parties do not come into face to face
interaction during the process of exchange. The exchanging partners could be
enemies or antagonised. One group of people leaves certain quantity of products
at a customary place to be taken by another group, who in turn leaves back some
other products. The pygmy Semang and Sakai of Malaya and the Vedda and
Sinhalese of Sri Lanka practice silent trade.

1.6.3 Jajmani System

William H Wiser (1988) has introduced the term Jajmani system in his book, The
Hindu Jajmani System: A Socio-Economic System Interrelating Members Of
A Hindu Village Community In Services, where he described in detail how
different caste group interact with each other in the agriculture based system of
production, distribution and exchange of goods and services. In different parts of
India different terms are used to describe this economic interaction among the
castes, for example in Maharashtra the term Balutadar or bara batute and mera
or mirasi in rural Rayalaseema of Andhra Pradesh, jajmani in North India,
mirasi in Tamil Nadu and adade in Karnataka.
Jajmani system, (Hindi: deriving from the Sanskrit yajamana, “sacrificial patron
who employs priests for a ritual”) is reciprocal (usually asymmetrical and some
scholars term it non-reciprocal) social and economic arrangements between families
of different castes within a village community in India for the exchange of goods
and services. Here, one family exclusively performs certain services for the other,
such as ministering to the rituals or providing agricultural labour, or some goods
such as agricultural implements, pots, baskets etc in return for payment, protection,
and employment security. These relations are supposed to continue from one
generation to the next, and payment is normally made traditionally, in the form of
a fixed share in the harvest rather than in cash.
Speaking about the composition of villages Williams 1988 stated that each village
15
Economic and Political is composed of a number of jatis/castes each having its occupational specialty.
Organisations
Through jajmani relations these occupational jatis get linked with the land owning
dominant caste. The jajmani system operates around the families belonging to the
land owning dominant caste the members of which are called jajmans and the
occupational/artisanal and service castes called Kameens in North India and panollu
in Andhra Pradesh. The term Kameen or panollu means one who works for
somebody or serves him.
Williams further delineated the characteristics of the jasmani system as stated
below:
 Unbroken relationship: Under the jajmani system the kameen remains obliged
to render the services throughout his life to a particular jajman and the jajman
in turn has the responsibility of hiring services of a kameen.
 Hereditary relationship: Jajmani rights are enjoyed hereditarily. After the death
of a man his son is entitled to work as kameen for the same jajman family
or families. The son of a jajman also accepts the son of the kameen as his
kameen.
 Multidimensional relationship: Due to the permanency of relationship both the
jajman and kameen families become mutually dependent on each other. They
often take part in the personal and family affairs, family rituals and ceremonies.
 Barter exchange: Under jajmani system the payments are made mainly in
terms of goods and commodities. The kameen gets his necessities from the
jajman in return for his services. [William H Wiser (1988)]
The system has been regard as essentially exploitative, characterised by a latent
conflict of interest which could not crystallise due to the prevalent social setup.
The jajmani system has gradually decayed in modern society due to many reasons.
Modern economic systems measure everything in terms of its monetary value. The
decline of belief in caste system and hereditary occupation has given a strong blow
to the system. Growth of better employment opportunities outside the village and
introduction of new transport options have also led to the downfall of jajmani
system.

1.6.4 Ceremonial Exchange

It is a kind of social system in which goods and services are given to relatives,
friends and neighbours on various social occasions like birth ritual, marriage, death
rituals, etc. The basic initiative of this exchange is to establish good relations
between the various social groups in the society.

1.6.5 Reciprocity
Reciprocity consists of giving and taking goods and services in a social medium
without the use of money, which ranges from pure gift giving to equal exchange
to cheating or deceitful. Under reciprocity, there are again three forms: general
reciprocity (the gift giving without any immediate or planned returned), balanced
reciprocity (the exchange with the expectation of return that involves a
straightforward immediate or limited-time span) and negative reciprocity (an attempt
to take advantage of another or something for nothing).

16
1.6.6 Redistribution Concepts and Definition

It involves the accumulation of wealth or labour or goods by a particular individual

for the purpose of subsequent distribution. This type of accumulation for redistribution
is seen in societies having political hierarchies with specialised or privileged political
positions or political agencies. Centralised accumulation and redistribution require
a suitable political organisation. Such a system was reported among the Creek
Indians, the Buniyaro of Western Uganda, the Buin of Melanesia. Here, certain
amount of agricultural produce is deposited in the community granary by each
family. Such accumulated grains can be redistributed to those who lack food or
during lean seasons or famines or on special occasions. The chief or the king is
responsible to oversee redistribution though in some cases the chief may get
benefitted. Besides grains, labour services and crafts are also redistributed.

1.6.7 Market or Commercial Exchange

A market is any one of a variety of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations,
and infrastructure whereby parties engage in exchange. While in some cases goods
and services are exchanged by barter, most commonly these exchanges take place
through the medium of money. It may also involve the transaction of labour, land,
rental and credit and also other services. A transaction becomes a market or
commercial exchange, if the factors of supply and demand determine the price or
nature of exchange. Market exchanges develop when trade increases and barter
becomes increasingly inefficient; when the level of economic development becomes
higher; surplus production is specifically meant for exchange; external trade
develops; kin based reciprocal relations become weak and difficult to operate in
situations of dense population size and complex societal arrangements etc.
Modern trade exchange provides a trading platform system for its members or
clients. The member companies within the network participate in buying and selling
of their products and services to each other using an internal currency. For an
effective method of increasing sales, conserving cash, moving inventory, and making
use of excess production capacity for businesses around the world, markets have
evolved as an arrangement to become a common platform for them. They deposited
into their account as they have the purchasing power of goods and services from
other members utilising their trade credit, etc. Such an exchange plays an important
role by providing the record-keeping, brokering expertise, and so on.

1.7 THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOODS AND

SERVICES: TWO CASE STUDIES
As we learnt in the above account, there are different practices of the distribution
of goods and services. Two important cases are discussed below:

1.7.1 Kula
According to Malinowski (1922), Kula is a ceremonial exchange among Trobriand
Islanders of New Guinea. Kula is also known as kula exchange or kula ring. It
is a complex system of visits and exchange of two kinds of ornaments as well as
trading of food and other commodities with the people of other (nearby or far-
off) islands. Because the islands are differentially endowed with different natural
resources, each island could produce only a few specialised products or commodities
and have to depend upon other islands for other essential things and objects.
Because trading involves visiting distant and strange islands which may be risky, 17
Economic and Political the Trobrianders have worked out kula for a safe and secure trade by establishing
Organisations
trade partnership by means of exchanging kula ornaments and also gift giving.
The essence of such trade relations is not the trade in itself but it is subdued or
embedded in a ceremonial exchange of valued shell ornaments.
The Kula ornaments are of two types. One consists of shell-disc necklaces (veigun
or Soulava) that are traded to the north (circling the ring in clockwise direction)
and the other are shell armbands (Mwali) that are traded in the southern direction
(circling counter-clockwise). Mwali was given with the right hand, the Soulava
given with the left hand, first between villages then from island to island. If the
opening gift was an armband, then the closing gift must be a necklace and vice
versa. These are exchanged in a ceremonial ambience purely for purposes of
enhancing mutual trust relationships, securing trade, and enhancing one’s social
status and prestige. The Kula ornaments are not in themselves remarkably valuable.
However, these ornaments are loaded with folklore, myths, ritual, history etc
which generate a lot of enthusiasm and bind together the trading partners. Exchange
of these ornaments facilitates trading of goods with ease in the island visited as the
trading partner in the host island helps the visitor(s). However, people participating
in the Kula ring never indulge in any bargaining on the objects given and taken.
Individual members trade goods while circulating the Soulava and Mwali in a
cordial atmosphere. (Malinowski, 1922 Sixth Impression: 1964)

1.7.2 Potlatch
Potlatch is an elabourate feast among the American Indian groups of Northwest
Coast at which huge quantities of food and valuable goods (such as blankets,
copper pieces, canoes, etc.) are pompously and competitively distributed to the
guests in order to humiliate them as well as to gain prestige for the host. Burning
huge quantities of goods is also common. Potlatches are organised by individuals
like village chiefs or a group of individuals or villages. The chief of a village invites
a neighbouring village to attend the potlatch which the latter invariably has to
accept. The guests in turn invite the hosts to attend the potlatch to be given by
them. Though such distribution of gifts take place in a competitive way, it also
serves as a leveling mechanism where food and gifts get equally distributed among
various villages in a wide area in the long run.
Similar feasts are organised among the Melanesian societies (New Guinea) wherein
large number of (in hundreds) pigs are slaughtered. Several villages attend these
feasts. It appears that such large scale feasts are a waste. But these feats serve
the mechanism of ‘storing’ surplus food produced during good seasons, not by
storing in bins, but by feeding the pigs. Thus pigs become food-storing repositories
which can be used as food during lean seasons. If successive years are also good,
there will be over production of food that goes to pigs. As a result, the size of
drove grows into an unmanageable proportion, pigs destroy crops. In order to
reduce the drove size, a large number of pigs are slaughtered and a huge feasts
is organised by inviting guests from other villages. As a result, the pig population
gets drastically reduced and their menace on the fields also gets reduced. Such
feasts take place between villages reciprocally and the excess food (pigs) gets
redistributed. These feasts are not necessarily competitive but in a few cases, in
order to keep up one’s status, some ‘Big men’ of Melanesian societies organise
such huge feasts.

18
 Concepts and Definition
1.8 SUMMARY
In summing up this unit, we can say that every society (be it a simple or complex
society) has a political organisation that provides the ways of living as a social
being by maintaining social order and resolve conflicts. The level of the organisation
and its structure differs from society to society. In addition to political organisation,
every society has economic organisation that involves different customary or
traditional ways of transferring economic exchange of goods and services, and
also the customs for distributing them.
References
Bhowmick, P.K. 1990. Applied Action-Development-Anthropology. Calcutta:
Sri Indranath Majumdar.
Carol R. Ember and Melvin Ember. 1990. Anthropology. Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall. P.249.
__________________ 1995. Anthropology. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India
Private Limited. (Page No-375).
Carneiro, Robert L. 1970. ‘A Theory of the Origin of the State’. in Science. pp.
733-38.
Ferraro, Gary P. 1992. Cultural Anthropology. New York, Los Angeles, San
Francisco: West Publishing Company.
Hasnain, Nadeem. 1994. Tribal India. Delhi: Pal aka Prakashan.
Hoebel, A. E. and Weaver. T. 1979. Anthropology and The Human Experience.
New York: McGraw Hill Book Company.
Mauss, Marcel. 1925. The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic
Societies. Originally published as Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l’échange
dans les sociétés archaïques.
Polanyi, Karl. 1957. ‘The Economy as Instituted Process’, in Karl Polanyi, Conrad
Arensberg, and Harry W. Pearson, eds., Trade and Market in the Early Empires.
New York: Free Press. Page no. 243-70.
Sahlins, Marshall. 1963. ‘Poor Man, Rich Man, Big-Man, Chief: Political Types
in Melanesia and Polynesia.’ In Comparative Studies in Society and History.
Pp. 285-303.
__________________ 1972. Stone Age Economics. Chicago: Aldine Transaction.

Wiser, William. H. 1988. The Hindu Jajmani System: A Socio-Economic System

Interrelating Members Of A Hindu Village Community In Services. Delhi:
Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd.
Suggested Reading
Harris, Marvin. 1975. Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: The Riddles of Culture.
New York: Random House.
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1954. Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays.
Garden City, New York: Doubleday Anchor Book.

19
Economic and Political Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. 1922. The Andaman Islander: A Study in Social
Organisations
Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sample Questions
1) What are the similarities and differences between tribal society and band
societies?
2) Compare and contrast the Chiefdoms and State societies?
3) What are the different form of distribution of goods and services among the
simple society? Describe their components briefly.

20
UNIT 3 PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION
AND EXCHANGE
Contents
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Main Theories in Economic Anthropology: A Brief Overview
3.3 Key Components of an Economic System
3.3.1 Production
3.3.1.1 Food Collection
3.3.1.2 Food Production
3.3.2 Distribution and Exchange
3.3.3 Utilisation or Consumption

3.4 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives

Once you have studied this unit, you should able to:
 understand the two main schools in economic anthropology and the fundamental
differences in their approach to the study of economic systems in simple
societies;
 describe the main socio-cultural characteristics of hunters-gatherers, pastoralists
and intensive agriculturists; and
 define reciprocity, redistribution, market/market exchange, utilisation.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Broadly, an economic system may be defined as the one by which goods are
produced, distributed, exchanged and utilised or consumed. However, interpreting
the same for other cultures is not that simple. There is always a natural inclination
towards interpreting the cultures of others through our ethnocentric assertion which
is guided by our own values, beliefs and rationality. Therefore, it is important to
view economy not in isolation but as part of a larger whole, that is, an integral
component of the culture of the people, adopting an emic (insider’s) perspective.
To cite an example, participation of a large number of community members in
jhum (shifting or swidden cultivation) in Meghalaya (India) and its associated
rituals and community feasting could be viewed as unsustainable, unnecessary,
unproductive and a sheer waste of time by someone living in metropolitan cities
like Mumbai or Delhi, where neighbours hardly interact or get to interact with each
other. But the same practices, developed over generations and influenced by the
particular ecological locale and the adaptive challenges faced by the particular
community hold great relevance in their economic life.
33
Economic and Political In this unit, we will learn about some fundamental concepts of economic
Organisations
anthropology. Economic anthropology may be regarded as a subfield of cultural
anthropology pertaining to the study of human economic systems, across different
cultures. When we talk about economic systems, we generally deal with four
important aspects: production, making goods or money; distribution or the
allocation of the goods or money between different people, exchange, which refers
to the transfer of goods or money between people or institutions; and utilisation
or consumption, which involves the using up of goods or money.

3.2 MAIN THEORIES IN ECONOMIC

ANTHROPOLOGY: A BRIEF OVERVIEW
Before going straight into the concepts of production, distribution, exchange and
utilisation, it will be beneficial to have a broad overview of the main theories and
schools of thought in economic anthropology, in order to have a better understanding
of these concepts.
Till the 1920s, anthropologists did not pay much attention to the study of what
later became ‘economic anthropology’ or the anthropological study of the working
of economic systems in human society. The term ‘economic anthropology’ was
coined by N.S.B.Gras (1927:10), an economic historian, who defined it as a
‘synthesis of anthropological and economic studies’ dealing with ‘the study of the
ways in which primitive people obtained a living.’ Gras made a distinction between
economic anthropology and ‘anthropological economics’. According to him, the
latter, in contrast to the former, deals with the ‘study of the ideas that primitive
people held about economic matters’. He strongly advocated greater research
collabourations between anthropologists and economists, as in his view,
‘anthropologists could provide those in the economic field with facts in return for
ideas and the fundamental issues involved in getting a living’ (1927:22). Despite
his pioneering work, Gras did not have much impact upon later anthropologists
working on economic systems.
Malinowski’s Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922) is regarded as one of the
pioneering works in this sub-field. The crux of Malinowski’s argument was that
societies like that of the Trobriand Islanders did not fit the classic economists’
model. In such societies, the motive of economic activities was not confined to the
satisfaction of material wants but embraced much more such as gains in terms of
enhanced social prestige. Further the boundaries between economic activities and
other aspects like religion were interlinked and overlapped . Malinowski’s ‘anti-
economics’ (Honnigman, 1973) approach continued to profoundly influence
anthropologists working in this sub-field till about the late 1930s and then made
a reappearance as a basic tenet of the substantivist position of the 1950s.
A different perspective to the issue came about with the publication of some
seminal works by Goodfellow (1939), Herskovits (1940) and Firth (1965a). This
perspective is basically premised around the belief that anthropologists could stand
to gain by studying certain attributes of conventional economics and putting them
to application to the economies of simple societies. This evolved into what is
known as the ‘formalist’ stance, which centres on the argument that the neo-
classical model of economics based on the study of utility maximisation under
conditions of scarcity, can be applied to any society, with appropriate modifications.
The neo-classical model of economics views material behaviour as an organised
34 way of using means to arrive at certain valued goals or ends. The assumptions are
that man is a self-interested and rational being and that land, labour and capital Production, Consumption
and Exchange
are scarce and productive components in the economy. According to Burling
(1962), all human cultures are, therefore, a collection of ‘choice making individuals
whose every action involves conscious or unconscious selections among alternatives
means to alternative ends’, whereby the ends are culturally defined goals. Goals
refer not only to economic value or financial gain but to anything that is valued by
the individual, be it leisure, solidarity or prestige.
The 1960s witnessed a big controversy in economic anthropology owing to the
conflict between the formalists and the substantivists. In the ‘substantivist revolution’
(Le Clair and Schneider, eds., 1968) of the 1950s, we see the reappearance of
a new version of Malinowski’s ‘anti-economics’ position, with substantivism
advocating the non-applicability of conventional economic theory to the study of
non-western, nonindustrial economies. The so-called substantivist revolution was
heralded by the political economist Karl Polanyi in his famous work The Great
Transformation (1944). According to Polanyi, there are two meanings of economy
– the substantive, which refers to a category of observable behaviour, e.g.,
production, consumption, distribution; and the formal, which refers to the logic of
rational choice. In his view, the logic of rational choice occurs only in modern
market societies and not pre-market societies. In Polanyi’s words (1944: 43), ‘the
outstanding discovery of recent historical and anthropological research is that
man’s economy, as a rule, is submerged in his social relationships. He does not
act so as to safeguard his individual interest in the possession of material goods;
he acts so as to safeguard his social standing, his social claims, and his social
assets. He values material goods only in so far as they serve this end. Neither the
process of production nor that of distribution is linked to specific economic interests
attached to the possession of goods; but every single step in that process is
geared to a number of social interests which eventually ensure that the required
step be taken. These interests will be very different in a small hunting or fishing
community from those in a vast despotic society, but in either case the economic
system will be run on non-economic motives’. The works of Polanyi’s successors
like Sahlins (1965) and Dalton (1968) reinforced the substantive position that the
economy is merely the process of provisioning society or the sociocultural system
and that no social relation, institution, or set of institutions is economic but that it
can only serve economic purposes.
Thus, it would not be wrong to state that till the early 1970s, the growth and
evolution of economic anthropology has basically revolved around these two schools
of thought- formalism and substantivism. On the one hand, there have been the
formalists who seek to study social relations as concomitant to the process of
resource utilisation. On the other hand, the substantivists have consistently argued
that rational choice is only ‘instituted’ in the socio-cultural and political systems
of capitalist societies, and that in other societies, economic behaviour is guided by
non-economic principles.
The 1970s witnessed the influence of Marxian thought on economic anthropology.
Scholars like Wolf (1982) highlighted the fact that European capitalist expansion
had brought about remarkable transformation among traditional economies, which
could no longer be studied in isolation, but in relation to the capitalist world
systems. This perhaps holds even greater relevance in the present time of
globalisation and a world order where market forces reign supreme.
There has also been the growth of other theories in economic anthropology such
as culturalism propounded by Gudeman (1986). He argues that the central processes 35
Economic and Political of making a livelihood are culturally constructed. Therefore, models of livelihoods
Organisations
and related economic concepts such as exchange, money or profit must be analysed
through the locals’ ways of understanding them.
With this brief introduction to the basic theories of economic anthropology, we will
now discuss in detail the concepts of production, distribution, exchange, utilisation
and consumption, with examples from across the world.

3.3 KEY COMPONENTS OF AN ECONOMIC

SYSTEM
Production refers to the process by which human beings transform, through their
work, matter or natural resources into some goods, which is consumable or capable
of being used to satisfy their need or want. Distribution is the process of allocation
of goods between different individuals or groups while exchange helps an individual
or group acquire particular products into which he/she wishes to convert the
quantity allocated to him through distribution. Consumption, as the word indicates,
refers to the use of the goods or services. As far as the inter-relationship between
these components of an economic system goes, Marx (1904a: 274-75) provides
a very apt description which is as follows: ‘Production yields goods adapted to
our needs; distribution distributes them according to social laws; exchange distributes
further what has already been distributed, according to individual wants; finally, in
consumption the product drops out of the social movement becoming the direct
object of the individual want which it serves and satisfies in use. Production, thus,
appears as the starting point; consumption as the final end; and distribution and
exchange as the middle; the later has a double aspect, distribution being defined
as a process carried on by society, while exchange, as one proceeding from the
individual’.

3.3.1 Production
Economic anthropologists, particularly the substantivist scholars, have generally
displayed a tendency towards over-emphasising on the study of exchange processes
and relations, with the result that study of production modes has not been accorded
much priority. To cite Honnigman (1973), ‘they do not analyse or theorise about
the forces and relations of production or about the creation of commodities, but
invariably restrict themselves to the circulation and destination of commodities
already produced’. He further opines that Polanyi’s tripartite scheme of reciprocity,
redistribution, and market exchange presupposes production modes but does not
link up with them; the social concomitants of transactional modes, not of production
modes are of dominant concern to him and his followers.
In economic anthropology, production has been given its due importance by the
Marxian anthropologists, with Marx emphasising on the centrality of production to
the economy. According to Dalton (1961:6), Marx perceives the economy as a
process of interaction between men and their environment, a process through
which men as producers ‘integrate the use of natural resources and techniques and
assure continuous cooperation in the provision of material goods’. Also, according
to Marx (1904a:11), the economic base or mode of production in every society
is made up of two components: (i) the force of production, the physical and
technological arrangement of economic activity, and (ii) the social relations of
production, the interpersonal and intergroup relationships that men must establish
with one another as a consequence of their roles in the production process.
36
To state in simple terms, production involves human-nature interaction, with human Production, Consumption
and Exchange
beings interacting with nature through the means of their culture to wrest their
material means of existence. It is perhaps for this reason that Godelier (1967a:
259) argues that production embraces all kinds of production operations regardless
of the specific societal context in which they are performed and that economies
ranging from the very simple (hunting, gathering and fishing) to more advanced
agricultural and industrial economies can be studied within the same analytical
framework.
We would now be looking into the various modes of production ranging from the
‘simple’-hunting, gathering and fishing, where human beings occupy and wrest
from nature their sustenance without transforming it, to the more complex such as
animal husbandry and followed by cultivation, which involves the transformation of
nature. In the evolutionary scheme of society, cultivation and animal husbandry
invariably appear after hunting, gathering and fishing (Lowie 1938:282). Production,
for the purpose of simple societies, may be basically studied under the two heads:
food collection and food production.
3.3.1.1 Food Collection
Food collection, encompassing the production strategies of hunting, fishing and
gathering, refers to all forms of subsistence technology in which food is secured
from naturally occurring resources such as wild plants and animals, without significant
domestication of either. Food collection is the oldest survival strategy known to
man. But in the present day, there are very few communities left in the world who
are entirely dependant on hunting and gathering for livelihood such as the Australian
aborigines, the Inuits living in the arctic regions of Canada, the Andamanese tribes
like the Onge and Jarawa etc. However, a number of communities continue to
practice hunting-gathering and fishing to supplement their nutrition from agriculture.
For instance, in the state of Assam, many of the tribes such as the Karbis, Tiwas,
Mishings, Rabhas etc. are experts in the art of fishing and hunting, which they
practice in conjunction with agriculture.
While the study of exclusively hunter-gatherer communities may help us arrive at
some understanding of man’s life in the past, Ember and Ember (1994) cautions
against the excessive use of contemporary observations to draw inferences about
the past for a number of reasons. In their view, we must understand that the earlier
hunter-gatherers lived in almost all types of environments, including some very
bountiful ones and not like the contemporary ones who live mostly in marginal
areas and, therefore, are not comparable. Moreover, the contemporary hunter-
gatherers are not relics of the past and like us have evolved continuously. Nor in
the past did hunter-gathering communities have the opportunity to interact with
agriculturists, pastoralists, industrial/capitalist societies.
Contemporary hunters-gatherers live in a variety of geographical locations and
climates but mostly in marginalised areas where agriculture is not feasible.
Nevertheless, such groups seem to share a number of cultural attributes like the
fact that most live in small groups in sparely populated areas and adhere to a
nomadic lifestyle. For them, the camp is the main center of daily activity and the
place where food sharing actually occurs. According to Honigmann (1973), the
hunter-gatherer society is egalitarian, does not recognise individual land rights and
do not accumulate surplus foodstuffs, often an important source of status in
agricultural societies. Such communities usually do not have a class system or
specialised or full-time political officials. Division of labour is largely on the basis 37
Economic and Political of age and sex. Ethnographic and archaeological evidence indicate that with few
Organisations
exceptions, such societies generally have a sexual division of labour, where men
hunt and usually do the fishing while women gather wild plant foods. Sahlins
(1968) calls them the ‘original affluent society’ despite the fact that hunter-gatherers
consume less energy per capita per year than any other group of human beings.
According to Sahlins, ethnographic data indicates that hunter-gatherers worked
far fewer hours and enjoyed more leisure than typical members of industrial society,
and they still ate well. Their ‘affluence’ came from the idea that they are satisfied
with very little in the material sense.
3.3.1.2 Food Production
The origins of food production began about 10,000 years ago in the Neolithic
period when man took the first steps from merely utilising to transforming nature
through the cultivation and domestication of plants and animals. Archaeological
data indicate that various forms of domestication of plants and animals arose
independently in six separate locales worldwide during the period from 8000 to
5000 BC, with the earliest known evidence found throughout the tropical and
subtropical areas of southwestern and southern Asia, northern and central Africa
and Central America (Gupta, 2010). According to anthropologists, on its own, the
physical environment has more of a limiting rather than a determining impact on
the kinds of subsistence choices made. For instance, according to Binford (1990),
further away from the equator, food collectors depends much less on plants for
food and much more on animals and fish.
Food production systems may be generally divided into three main kinds: horticulture,
pastoralism and intensive agriculture.
i) Horticulture
The term ‘horticulture’, denotes a simple food production strategy involving the
growing of crops using simple hand tools such as the digging stick and hoe, in the
absence of permanently cultivated fields. Horticulture generally does not involve
any efforts at fertilisation, irrigation, or other means to restore the fertility of the
soil once the growing season is over. As far as the cultural attributes of horticulturist
societies are concerned, land is generally owned by the community or kin groups.
Horticultural practices are generally of two kinds. The most common one is extensive
or shifting cultivation also known as swidden or slash-and-burn (jhum in the
Indian context). This method of horticulture involves the cultivation of a particular
plot of land for a short time, followed by a long fallow period, when the land is
left alone to regain its fertility. The process of preparation of a piece of land for
shifting cultivation involves clearing the undergrowth and felling of trees which are
then left to dry. Just before the seasonal rains are to begin, they are set afire. The
ash is also supposed to rejuvenate the soil and immediately after the first shower
of the season, a mix of crop seeds such as maise, gourd etc. are sown with the
help of the digging stick. Generally, all adults are involved in food production, with
a division of labour based on sex. This particular form of cultivation has been
derided by many as a main reason for deforestation and decimation of forests, and
a number of environmental problems stemming from it. In India, shifting cultivation
continues to be widely practiced in many states of the North-East like Assam,
Meghalaya etc. and there have been many policy initiatives to wean away
communities from this practice.
38
The other form of horticulture pertains to the planting of long-growing tree crops Production, Consumption
and Exchange
such as coconut and banana, which after a few years, continues to yield crops for
a number of years.
Most horticultural societies, according to Ember and Ember (1994), do not rely
on crops alone for food but rely on a combination of subsistence strategies which
includes hunting, fishing, the raising of domestic animals like pigs, chickens, goats
etc.
ii) Pastoralism
Pastoralism is characterised by a heavy though rarely exclusive reliance on the
herding of domesticated animals for a living. It is usually practised in areas not
particularly amenable to agriculture such as grasslands and other semiarid habitats.
A classic attribute of a pastoral society is mobility of all or part of the society as
a normal and natural part of life. This mobility might be permanent (nomadism) or
seasonal, which is referred to as transhumance. The reason behind the mobile
nature of their lives lies in that fact that their territory, by necessity, has to be
spread over a large area. Once their herds have grazed in an area to the maximum,
it has to be left alone for the grass to renew and they have to move on in search
of newer pastures. Pastoral communities are generally small in size. In India, for
instance, the Bakarwals are a pastoral nomadic community inhabiting the high-
altitude meadows of the Himalayas and the Pir-Panjal ranges. Every year, they
take their sheep high into the mountains, above the tree-line to the meadows,
which are reachable only after a long arduous journey.
Among pastoral nomads, grazing lands are generally held communally and a chief
may be the designated owner of the land. According to Sneath (2000), pastoralist
systems are commonly organised into patrilineal clans and lineages that function as
corporate livestock owning units, with men being typically the owners of livestock
wealth. There is sexual division of labour, with men being in charge of the herding,
while women process the herd’s products such as milk. Such communities,
according to Ember and Ember (1994), often make agreements with settled
agriculturalists about rights to graze unused fields or even to clear a harvested field
of leftover.
While pastoralism has been an effective and sustainable economic strategy in
resource-poor environments, it could lead to overexploitation of the environment
when outside forces constrict the available space.
iii) Intensive Agriculture
Intensive agriculture enables human beings to cultivate fields permanently by
adopting a variety of techniques. It involves the use of fertilizers, both organic such
as cow dung and inorganic chemical fertilisers, the use of technologies ranging
from the humble plough to the tractor and could also incorporate complex systems
of irrigation and water control. Societies practicing intensive agriculture generally
have individual ownership of land. Such societies are also likely to be characterised
by a higher degree of economic specialisation, more complex political organisation,
and disparities in the distribution of wealth and power among different sections of
the society. The basic unit of production is the family and division of labour takes
place according to gender and age. Women in such a society have a number of
duties associated with the food processing stage but they also spend a lot of time
in the fields. In fact, apart from ploughing which is a taboo in many communities
of rural and tribal India, women have an important role in intensive agriculture, 39
Economic and Political particularly wet paddy cultivation, including planting of seedlings in nurseries,
Organisations
transplanting them to flooded fields, weeding, harvesting etc.
While most intensive agriculturists particularly in countries like India live at
subsistence level, with the produce barely enough to cater to their own needs,
others have increasingly grown crops as surplus for the market. In fact, following
the Green Revolution of the 1960s, farmers in the state of Punjab in India grew
increasingly more to cater to the market. Contemporary Indian agriculture is also
characterised by the increased trend of farmers, motivated by the market, to grow
more cash than food crops. Such a trend coupled with the fact that intensive
agriculturists may rely more often on single crops, subject to the vagaries of the
weather, could result in food shortage.

3.3.2 Distribution and Exchange

Distribution and exchange has consistently remained the central focus of
anthropologists interested in the study of economic systems and their working in
society. While being closely related concepts, the main point of distinction between
the two is that while distribution determines the proportion of total output that the
individual will receive, exchange determines the specific products into which the
individual wants to convert the share allocated to him by distribution (Honigmann
1973). He further opines that distribution implies a reward system in which produce
is channeled out among individuals or groups by reason of their control over the
factors of production or for the labour they expended in the productive process.
Exchange, on the other hand, refers to the various processes by which goods (and
services) move or are being transferred between individuals or groups, as, for
example, between producer and consumer, buyer and seller, donor and recipient.
Firth’s (1965a) work among the Tikopia is a seminal study on distribution. In his
view, every society has explicit or implicit norms on how the total pool of products
is to be shared among its members and that these norms are geared to address
the issue of division of a joint product and the compensation of the factors of
production, especially labour. His observation of the principles of distribution in
the Tikopia economy, which hold equal relevance for many pre-industrial economies,
led him to certain conclusions. According to him (1965a:313), there is a ‘definite
concept that all participants in a productive activity should receive a share of the
product, but that social considerations do not make it necessary for this share to
be exactly proportionate to the contribution in time, labour, or skill that each
individual has made’. Such inequalities in terms of allocation are particularly evident
in tribal and peasant societies, where social and/or political achievement entitles
some individuals to more than an equal share of material reward. Sahlins’ (1968)
study indicates that despite these ‘inequalities’ in distribution, the relationship between
a chief and the followers in most tribal societies is not exploitative in nature but
based on the principle of generalised reciprocity (we will come to it later in our
discussion).
Now, we shall discuss the ‘action, or act, of reciprocal giving and receiving’
(Gregory, 1998) or exchange. According to Commons (1954), the concept of
exchange, from the anthropological viewpoint, embraces two distinct kinds of
transfer events: physical transfers and jural transactions. While the former involves
locational movement and physical control; the second involves the transfer of
culturally defined ownership and use rights. It is the latter aspect which has aroused
the interests of anthropologists from the very beginning.
40
Significant understanding on exchange and the motives for it came from Malinowski’s Production, Consumption
and Exchange
(1922) work on trade and gift giving among the Trobriand Islanders and Mauss’s
classic essay The Gift published in 1922. Malinowski studied the ceremonial
exchange system- the Kula ring spread over eighteen island communities of the
Massim archipelago, including the Trobriand Islands and involved thousands of
individuals. Members of the Kula ring travelled long distances by canoe to exchange
Kula items - red shell-disc necklaces (veigun or soulava) traded to the north in
clockwise direction and white shell armbands (mwali) traded in the southern or
counter clockwise direction. If the opening gift was an armshell, then the closing
gift must be a necklace and vice versa. Malinowski (1922: 177) came to the
conclusion that exchange among Trobrianders was better seen as a social act than
a transmission of useable objects. Exchange, in his view, did not result in economic
gain; quite the contrary, it represented a superiority of the giver over the receiver
and placed a burden upon the receiver. Similarly, the basic argument of Mauss’s
essay is that gifts are never free and that they always give rise to reciprocal
exchange. According to Gregory (1998), an important notion in Mauss’
conceptualisation of gift exchange is ‘inalienability’ or the fact that the object is
never completely alineated from giver; hence, the act of giving creates a social
bond with an obligation to reciprocate on part of the recipient. To not reciprocate
means not only loss of honour and status, but may also have spiritual connotations
in some societies.
Later on, Polanyi and a group of scholars (eds., 1957) tried to distinguish between
two kinds of processes involved in exchange among simple communities- goods-
handling and goods- receiving, and raised a number of pertinent questions: ‘Who
passed on goods to whom, in what order, how often, and with what response
among those listed under whom?’ Based on the answers arrived at after analysing
a number of ethnographic cases, they identified three kinds of exchange: (1)
reciprocative sequence among fixed partners; (2) redistributive sequence between
a central actor and many peripheral actors; (3) random market sequence (1957:
vii-ix). In a later work, Sahlins (1965b) reduced these three kinds of exchange
into two broad types: (1) ‘reciprocity’ or ‘vice-versa’ movements between two
parties and (2) ‘pooling’ or ‘redistribution’ involving collection from members of
a group, and redivision within this group. We will now try to understand the
concepts of reciprocity and redistribution with a few ethnographic examples. We
will also spend some time understanding market exchange, as in today’s monetised
economy, almost all societies of the world are coming within its ambit.
i) Reciprocity
Reciprocity constitutes the main basis of exchange in most non-market economies.
According to Sahlins (1965b:145-49), reciprocity may be defined into three types
based on the criterion of the stipulation of material returns, which are as follows:
a) Generalised reciprocity, involving unstipulated reciprocation, is gift giving
without consideration of any immediate or planned return. In such a case, the
value of the gift is not calculated and the time of repayment not specified.
Such type of reciprocity generally occurs only among close kin or people
sharing close emotional bonds such as between parents and children, between
siblings, close friends etc.
b) Balanced or Symmetrical reciprocity occurs when someone gives to
someone else, expecting a fair and tangible return - at a specified amount,
time, and place (Bonvillian, 2010). Here, the exchange occurs owing to the 41
Economic and Political desire or need for certain objects. Giving, receiving and sharing constitute a
Organisations
form of social security and according to Honigmann (1973), it promotes an
egalitarian distribution of wealth over the long run. While generally practiced
among equals who are not closely related, balanced reciprocity principles
may also be evident in gift giving among kin. To cite a particular example,
among relatives in many parts of India, it is common practice for kin to give
valuable items and even monetary contribution when a relative’s daughter is
being married off. The implicit expectation being that when their own daughter
is married off, similar contributions could be expected from the receivers.
Sometimes there is a fine line between generalised and balanced reciprocity
particularly gift giving in urban society, where though it might appear to be
generalised reciprocity, there may be strong expectations of balance. For
instance, two families residing in the same neighbourhood in Delhi may try to
exchange gifts of fairly equal value, say based on calculations of what last
year’s Diwali gift’s cost.
While balanced reciprocity generally operates on egalitarian principles, it
could also take on a competitive form. Normally, it might be a means for
villagers to ‘bank’ surplus food by storing up ‘social credit’ with fellow
villagers by giving feasts, with the expectation that the credit will be returned.
But affluent villagers might use this mechanism to enhance their social status
by throwing lavish feasts and giving costly gifts. This seems to be the primary
objective of chiefs among many Native American groups of the Northwest
coast in holding a potlatch (ceremonial festival), where he would give away
gifts, food and even destroy items of value in a spirit of competition with rival
chiefs .
c) Negative reciprocity is the exchange of goods and services where each
party intends to profit from the exchange, often at the expense of the other
(Bonvillian, 2010). Practiced against strangers and enemies, it could range
from barter, deceitful bargaining to theft, and finds social sanction among
many societies. For instance, among the Navajo, to deceive when trading
with foreign tribes is considered morally acceptable (Kluckhohn, 1972). Barter
is believed to fall within the realm of negative reciprocity, as it is a means by
which scarce items from one group are exchanged for desirable goods from
another group. According to Honigmann (1973), relative value is calculated
and despite an outward show of indifference, sharp trading is more the rule.
While talking about the kinds of reciprocity, Sahlins (1965b: 149-74) points out
that reciprocity leans toward generalised extreme on the basis of close kinship and
that it moves towards the negative extreme in proportion to a diminution in kinship
propinquity, and that it varies with other factors such as social rank, relative wealth
and need, and type of goods.
ii) Redistribution
Redistribution refers to a kind of economic exchange characterised by the
accumulation of goods (or labour), with the objective of subsequent distribution
within a social group according to culturally-specific principles. While, redistribution
exists in all societies within the family where labour or products or income are
pooled for the common good, it emerges as an important mechanism in societies
with political hierarchies. In the latter, it requires a centralised political mechanism
to coordinate the collection and distribution of goods. While it serves as a mechanism
42
for dispensing goods within a society, it could also be a means for a chief to
consolidate his political power and gain in prestige. This seems to be an objective Production, Consumption
and Exchange
of the potlatch where chiefs compete with each other to give away and destroy
goods of value.
In less centralised societies that do not have formal chiefs, the economic
entrepreneur or the ‘big man’ may carry out such acts. In modern market economies,
redistribution takes place through taxation by the state, whereby resources are
allocated back to individuals or groups within society, either through the provision
of public services or directly through welfare benefits.
iii) Market/Market Exchange
In very broad terms, a market/ market exchange involves the buying and selling
of goods, labour, land, rentals, credit etc. by persons, using an intermediary token
of common exchange value. According to Honigmann (1973), such a two party
market transaction could very well become a form of negative reciprocity, unless
some sort of arrangement has been made to ensure at least an approach to
balance. Although market exchange need not necessarily involve money, most
commercial transactions, particularly nowadays do involve money (Ember & Ember,
1994). Again, while most of such transactions take place in a specifically designated
market place, a market may exist without a designated physical place. This is
more so in the contemporary world, where significant market transactions take
place on the internet. On the other hand, in simple societies, a market place may
signify much more than a place where economic transactions are performed. In
rural and tribal India, even today, weekly haats or markets provide an opportunity
for people to renew friendships, exchange local gossip, arrange marriages, while
some may also have deep cultural significance. Reliance on the market and the use
of general purpose money is increasing universally, with traditional subsistence
giving way to commercialisation due to factors like demand, increased interaction
with other societies etc. According to Plattner (1985), the substantivist stance in
economic anthropology is rendered redundant in the context of markets in the
present day. In his words, ‘the pretense that theories of markets and marketing
were irrelevant became less viable’ in a world that increasingly resembles a market
system. At the same time, according to Dilley (1992), over-simplistic notions of
economic man as individual maximiser of economic value, as enunciated by the
formalist position, have now receded in the face of theoretical criticism that such
assumptions provide few convincing explanations of socio-economic status.

3.3.3 Utilisation or Consumption

The third component of the economic system following from production, distribution
and exchange is utilisation or consumption. If we go by what Herskovits (1952:
298-309) says, then, utilisation has to be considered to be broader in scope than
consumption. According to him, the process of utilisation involves two aspects:
those leading to further production by employing the resources obtained as ‘capital’;
and those involving direct, immediate consumption to satisfy current wants.
While scholars like Dalton (1969) and Sahlins (1969) have been critical of extending
the capital concept to pre-industrial societies, scholars like Firth (1965a) have
argued that many simple societies do use capital in the economic process either
as a productive asset or as a means of facilitating control over purchasing power;
or as a fund for investment. However, the comparatively high liquidity or ease of
convertibility of many goods in primitive and peasant economies from one use to
another, creates problems in this. Firth (1965a: 237-38), for instances observes
43
Economic and Political that pandanus mats, on which the Tikopians slept, and bark cloth used for blankets
Organisations
and clothing, were also utilised in the manufacture of objects like canoes, troughs
and sinnet cord, thereby serving both production and consumption purposes.
Coming to the issue of consumption in simple societies, a key concept is that of
the consumption unit which is a kin-based income-pooling or household unit that
typically incorporates males and females of varying ages and is found in all
preindustrial societies (Lee 1969). According to Firth (1965a:33-35) and Epstein
(1967:160-61), variation occurs in consumption within the unit, on the basis of
status and occupational differences. For instance, in many poor rural households
of India, men’s consumption needs may get priority over that of women; on the
other hand, an expectant mother might be given better nutrition than the other
women etc. The patterned way in which a consumer in a simple or peasant
economy makes his consumption decisions over time ultimately represents his
standard of living.

3.4 SUMMARY
From the above unit, we have thus learned that an economic system in simple
societies cannot be studied in isolation but must be understood as part of the
larger culture. Production, distribution, exchange, utilisation and consumption are
not dependant only on pure economic gain, but on a host of social factors. The
formalist school in economic anthropology led by scholars like Raymond Firth
believes that anthropological studies of economic systems could benefit from the
application of the neo-classical model of economics based on the study of utility
maximisation under conditions of scarcity, with appropriate modifications. However,
substantivists led by Karl Polanyi firmly maintain that conventional economic theory
cannot be applied to the study of non-western, non-industrial economies. While
this remains one of the enduring debates on the study of economic systems, it
needs to be borne in mind that the modern world is a global village and simple
societies are increasingly experiencing the impact of globalisation and the market
economy. Modern day anthropologists going to study such societies are bound to
encounter situations where many of their notions gleaned from books and theories
might be challenged. But it is for them to rise to the occasion, document and
maybe, propound new theories on the changes occurring in simple economies
under the impact of modernisation and the market.
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Lee, Richard. 1969. ‘Kung Bushman Subsistence: An Input-Output Analysis’. In
D.Damas, ed. Contributions to Anthropology: Ecological Essays. Ottawa:
National Museum of Canada bulletin no. 230. Anthropology Series no. 86.
Lowie, Robert H. 1938. ‘Subsistence’. In F. Boas, ed. General Anthropology.
Boston: D.C.Heath.
45
Economic and Political Malinowski, B. 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London: George
Organisations
Routledge & Sons Ltd.
Marx, Karl. 1904a. A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.
Chicago: Kerr.
Mauss, M. 1922. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic
Societies. Reprint in 1990. London: Routledge.
Plattner, Stuart. ed. 1985. Markets and Marketing. Monographs in Economic
Anthropology. No. 4, New York: University Press of America.
Polanyi, K. 1944. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic
Origins of Our Times. USA: Beacon Press.
Sahlins, Marshall D. 1969. ‘Economic Anthropology and Anthropological
Economics’. Social Science Information. 8:13-33.
___________________ 1968. ‘Notes on the Original Affluent Society’. In R.B.
Lee and I. DeVore (eds.). Man the Hunter. New York: Aldine Publishing Company,
pp. 85-89.
___________________ 1965a. ‘Exchange Value and the Diplomacy of Primitive
Trade’. In J.Helm. ed., Proceedings of the 1965 Annual Spring Meeting of the
American Ethnological Society. pp. 95-129, Seattle: University of Washington
Press.
___________________ 1965b. ‘On the Sociology of Primitive Exchange’. In M.
Banton ed. The Relevance of Models for Social Anthropology. pp. 139-227.
London: Tavistock.
Sneath, D. 2000. Changing Inner Mongolia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wolf, E. 1982. Europe and the People without History. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Suggested Reading
Ember, Carol R., and Melvin Ember. 1994. Anthropology (7th ed.). New Delhi:
Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited.
Haviland, William A. 1989. Anthropology (5th ed.).Chicago: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, Inc.
Honigmann, John J. ed. 1973. Handbook of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
Chicago: Rand McNally and Company.
Firth, Raymond. 1965a. Primitive Polynesian Economy. 2nd ed., London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, Originally published in 1946.
Polanyi, K. 1944. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic
Origins of Our Times. USA: Beacon Press.
Malinowski, B.1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London: George
Routledge & Sons Ltd.

46
Sample Questions Production, Consumption
and Exchange
1) What are the two main schools in economic anthropology? What are the
fundamental differences in their approach to the study of economic systems
in simple societies?
2) What are the main socio-cultural attributes of hunters-gatherers, pastoralists
and intensive agriculturists?
3) What is the primary motive, according to anthropologists, for exchange in
simple societies? Elabourate with examples.
4) Is consumption different from utilisation? Do simple societies have the concept
of ‘capital’?

47
Economic and Political
Organisation UNIT 2 ECONOMIC ORGANISATIONS

Contents
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography Argonauts of the Western
Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the
Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea is an Example
2.3 Description of the Ethnography
2.3.1 Intellectual context
2.3.2 Fieldwork
2.3.3 Analysis of data
2.3.4 Conclusion
2.4 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
2.5 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography The Trobrianders of Papua
New Guinea is an Example
2.6 Description of the Ethnography
2.6.1 Intellectual context
2.6.2 Fieldwork
2.6.3 Analysis of data
2.6.4 Conclusion
2.7 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
2.8 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives

At the end of this Unit, you will have:

 a broad overview of the scope, focus and findings of the two ethnographies
on Trobriand Islanders/ Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea;

 a understanding of the evolution of the discipline of anthropology and

particularly, ethnology, with the two field studies separated from each other
by more than sixty years;

 an appreciation of how societies adapt to changes over time and with

exposure to the outside world; and

 an understanding of the economic life of the people and the changes that
have occurred over times.

18
 Economic Organisations
2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this Unit, we shall undertake a comparative study of two ethnographies on the
Trobriand Islanders/ Trobrianders of now modern Papua New Guinea. One of
them is the classic monograph authored by Bronislaw Malinowski entitled
Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure
in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea, first published in 1922. The
other is a much recent monograph by Annette B. Weiner named The Trobrianders
of Papua New Guinea, published in 1988. The Trobriand Islanders and their
culture have received considerable attention from anthropologists, representing
a classic anthropological case and in the words of Spindler and Spindler (1988:
viii), ‘Trobriand society is one of the ‘holy places’ in the anthropological
cosmography’, with Malinowki first putting it on the anthropological map. The
Trobriands comprise mainly four islands- Kiriwina, Kitava, Vakuta and Kaileuna,
off the eastern coast of New Guinea, which was first colonised by Great Britain,
then came under the subjugation of Australia and finally became part of the
nation-state of Papua New Guinea in 1975. The inhabitants of these islands
generally speak Kilivila, which is one of the approximately five hundred
Austronesian languages common to Polynesia, Micronesia, Indonesia and much
of the coastal and island areas of Melanesia.

As Weiner (1988:3) puts it, Malinowski’s study on the Trobriand Islanders ‘marks
a watershed in British Social Anthropology, making ethnology come of age as a
scientific discipline..[It]… not only brought to the fore new theoretical
assumptions about the way individuals and institutions functioned in ‘primitive’
society but also radically changed the way ethnographers approach fieldwork’.
As Sir James Frazer observes in the preface to Malinowski’s book, ‘Dr.
Malinowski lived as a native among the natives for many months together,
watching them daily at work and at play, conversing with them in their own
tongue, and deriving all his information from the surest sources- personal
observation and statements made to him directly by natives in their own language
without the intervention of an interpreter’. Malinowski’s work established
participant observation as the most important method for anthropological
fieldwork. As Malinowski says in the Introduction to the book, the ultimate goal
of ethnographic fieldwork is ‘to grasp the native’s point of view, his relation to
life, to realise his vision of the world’ (1932: 25).

Weiner’s fieldwork was conducted almost sixty years later following

Malinowski’s work, but also adhering to the Malinowskian tradition of prolonged
fieldwork and viewing reality from the native’s point of view.

The main focus of Malinowki’s book is the remarkable system of exchange,

locally called Kula, among the Trobriand Islanders, which is economic or
commercial only in part and which also examines the motives and feelings
underlying this, with magic playing a very important role in it. Weiner’s much
recent work also has a strong focus on the many kinds of exchange prevalent and
how they are inextricably linked with different aspects of their culture but as she
herself admits, a significant point of departure is her attention to women’s
economic role and productive activities which Malinowski largely ignored.

19
Economic and Political
Organisation 2.2 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE
ETHNOGRAPHY Argonauts of the Western Pacific:
An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in
the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea IS AN
EXAMPLE
Malinowski’s work is a fascinating example of the first hand fieldwork (lasting
close to 30 months from 1914-1918) he carried out among the Trobrianders.
Before him, anthropology was dominated by ‘arm-chair scholars’ or those who
spent time with the so-called primitive people to know about their past so that
these scholars could lend support to the evolutionary theory. Malinowski by
contrast, was more interested in studying how the society actually functioned,
rather than how it has evolved. Thus, Malonowski’s work contributed to the
Functional theory.

2.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

2.3.1 Intellectual Context
Malinowski in his classic monograph refers to the fact that the Papua-Melanesians
(inhabiting the coast and outlying islands of New Guinea) are daring sailors,
industrious manufacturers and keen traders. As the manufacturing centres of
valuable articles like pottery, stone implements, canoes, baskets and ornaments
are localised in several places, thus, they have to be traded over wide areas with
people having to undertake voyages over considerable distances for this purpose.
While many definite forms of exchange along definite trade routes exist among
the various tribes, this book focuses on a ‘very extensive and highly complex
trading system’ known as the kula, which link the Trobrianders with people living
on other islands in the Massim region. In Malinowski’s words, ‘it is an economic
phenomenon of considerable theoretical importance. It looms paramount in the
tribal life of those natives who live within its circuit, and its importance is fully
realised by the tribesmen themselves, whose ideas, ambitions, desires and vanities
are very much bound up with the Kula’ (1932:2).

2.3.2 Fieldwork
In this monograph, prior to embarking upon a description of the kula, Malinowski
devotes the first chapter to describing the methods used in collecting ethnographic
material; methods which have stood the test of time and continue to be relevant
for modern anthropologists as they embark on field studies. According to
Malinowski (1932: 24), ethnographic fieldwork must adhere to the following
three cardinal strategies:

1) the organisation of the society and the anatomy of its culture must be recorded
in firm, clear outline adhering to the method of concrete, statistical
documentation;

2) within this frame, the ‘imponderabilia of actual life’ and the ‘type of
behaviour’ have to be filled in. These have to be gathered through minute,
detailed observations, noted in some form of an ethnographic dairy and
made possible by close contact with native life;
20
3) a collection of ethnographic statements, characteristic narratives, typical Economic Organisations
utterances, items of folk-lore and magical formulae has to be given as a
corpus inscriptionum, that is, as documents of native mentality.

Malinowski further stresses that these three lines of aspects should lead to the
final goal of grasping the native’s point of view. In his words, ‘to study the
institutions, customs, and codes or to study the behaviour and mentality without
the subjective desire of feeling by what these people live, of realising the substance
of their happiness is, in my opinion, to miss the greatest reward which we can
hope to obtain from the study of man’ (1932: 25).

2.3.3 Analysis of Data

Coming to the people under study, Malinowski, found that the Trobriand Islanders
were totemic and divided into a number of exogamous clans. The system of
kinship was matrilineal and women yielded considerable influence and played a
prominent role in tribal life. He found that sorcery was a matter of great importance
and dread, and this fear became considerably enhanced when natives went to
distant places. While adolescents enjoyed considerable sexual freedom, this was
not the case following marriage. In his words, ‘the most important feature of the
Trobriand marriage is the fact that the wife’s family has to contribute, and that in
a very substantial manner, to the economics of her household, and also they have
to perform all sorts of services for the husband’. There is no recognition of the
physiological role of the father in procreation and the mother’s brother is
considered to be the real guardian of the children. However, the father is perceived
to be ‘by far the nearest and most affectionate friend of his child’ (1932: 71).

Malinowski found that the natives invested considerable time and labour in
cultivating their gardens, particularly yam gardens, with magic believed to play
a big part in their success. He also noted that men cultivate these gardens not for
themselves but for their respective sisters. However, each gardener takes
considerable pride and receives societal appreciation for a good harvest, which
is put on display for others to admire, compare and praise.

Chieftainship among the Trobrianders, according to Malinowski, is the

combination of two institutions: village headmanship and totemic clanship, with
each clan having more or less a definite social ranking. The position of village
headmanship does not amount to much unless he is a member of the clan of high
rank, in which case his power might even extend beyond his village. His wealth,
needed to yield power, is enhanced by taking multiple wives from subject villages,
whose relatives have to supply him with large amounts of crops. A chief is also
expected to have access to the best sorcerers, who have to be rewarded generously
for services rendered.

About five hundred pages of this monograph are devoted to a description of kula
exchange, which is carried on by communities inhabiting a wide ring of islands,
forming a closed circuit. Two kinds of articles constantly travel along this route
in opposite directions. In the clock-wise direction, moves long necklaces of red
shell called soulava, while in the anti-clock-wise direction, moves bracelets of
white shell called mwali. Malinowski observes that ‘each of these articles, as it
travels in its own direction on the closed circuit, meets on its way articles of the
other class, and is constantly being exchanged for them. Every movement of the
kula articles, every detail of the transactions is fixed and regulated by a set of
21
Economic and Political traditional rules and conventions, and some acts of the kula are accompanied by
Organisation
an elaborate magical ritual and public ceremonies’ (1932: 81). He found that a
limited number of men on every island and in every village receive these particular
goods, hold them for a short time, and then pass them on. Thus, every kula
participant periodically, though not regularly, receives one or several mwali, or a
soulava which then has to be transferred to one of his partners, from whom he
receives the opposite commodity in exchange. Malinowski observed that ‘once
in the Kula, always in the Kula’, as the partnerships between two kula partners is
an enduring affair and also because the valuables are constantly travelling and
cannot ever settle down in one place. While the ceremonial exchange of the two
articles is the primary reason for the kula, simultaneously, the natives conduct
ordinary trade, bartering (or gimwali) from one island to another to obtain
unprocurable, indispensable utilities. Also, Malinowski notes that there are other
activities, preliminary to the kula, or associated with it, such as the building of
sea-going canoes for the expeditions, certain big forms of mortuary ceremonies,
and preparatory taboos.

As to the underlying reasons for the kula, Malinowski observes that it cannot be
for a moment considered as ephemeral, new or precarious, as its highly developed
mythology and its magical ritual indicate its deep rootedness in tradition of the
Trobrianders. He observes that ‘a half commercial, half ceremonial exchange, it
is carried out for its own sake, in fulfillment of a deep desire to possess. But here
again, it is not ordinary possession, but a special type, in which a man owns for
a short time, and in an alternating manner, individual specimens of two classes
of objects. Though the ownership is incomplete in point of permanency, it is in
turn enhanced in point of numbers successively possessed, and maybe called a
cumulative possession’ (1932: 510). He also stressed that perhaps the most
important aspect of the kula is the people’s mental attitude towards these valuables,
which are neither used or considered as money or currency and bear little
resemblance to these economic instruments. Kula that way is a unique kind of
exchange where the valuables acquire their high value just by ‘their being constantly
within reach and the object of competitive desire, through being the means of
arousing envy and conferring social distinction and renown…’ (1932: 511).

2.3.4 Conclusion
Malinowski’s monograph, while focused on the kula exchange, attempted to
provide answers to certain questions regarding economic behaviour in simple
societies. As to what motivates exchange in such societies, Malinowski (1932:
177, 189) noted a continuum of seven types of exchange ranging from ‘pure
gifts’ (given for the sake of love) to ‘trade, pure and simple’. With ‘pure gifts’
being rare, most gifts (also social obligations and duties) have the underlying
expectation that something would be given in return. Exchange among
Trobrianders is more aptly seen as a social act than a transmission of objects
with exchange resulting not in economic gain but indicating the superiority of
the giver over the receiver. Prestige among the Trobrianders is obtained mainly
from the ability to give. Temporary ownership and the act of giving are perceived
to be more important than permanent ownership, which is thought to be an
expression of stinginess, one of the worst qualities a person could possess.

22
 Economic Organisations
2.4 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE
OUR UNDERSTANDING
Malinowski was a remarkable fieldworker. Not only did he carry out his intensive
fieldwork with the Trobrianders (and later on in Mexico and Africa), but also
guided a large number of anthropologists. It is said that at one time, almost very
budding anthropologists in the United Kingdom used to attend Malinowski’s
seminars in which they were trained in the nuances of fieldwork. The study of
ceremonial exchange among the Trobrianders, which the economists found
whimsical and non-rational, was a unique contribution, for it showed the functions
it performed. Malinowski founded a brand a functionalism, known as
‘psychological functionalism’, which argued that the functions of customs is to
fulfill the biological need of the individual. In fact, Malinowski was the first
anthropologists to recognise the importance of the biological system, a point
which later was integrated in the theory of social system by Talcott Parsons.

2.5 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY The Trobrianders of Papua
New Guinea IS AN EXAMPLE
Annette B. Weiner’s study of the Trobrianders finds many cultural items among
the Trobrianders that Malinowksi did not find. Weiner also corrects certain things
which Malinowski misunderstood or overlooked. Moreover, it records the changes
that have occurred over a period of sixty years. The most important contribution
of this ethnography is its contribution to the understanding of women’s work,
influence, and wealth in determining male behaviour. That is why, Weiner’s work
is of central importance in gender study.

2.6 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

2.6.1 Intellectual Context
Based on fieldwork conducted more than sixty years following Malinowski’s
work, this book centres largely around the ability of Trobrianders to resist change
and their acumen in transforming ‘new ideas into ways that remain distinctively
Trobriand’ (1988: 12). An important concern of this book is dominance and
hierarchy as this is a society with ranked chiefs, who by virtue of their birth, are
accorded special privileges and powers, which are, however, not absolute and
could be easily lost through ones’ own miscalculations, sorcery by others or
societal demands at death. As Weiner observes, right from birth, each person’s
social identity is enhanced by others who give their own names, knowledge,
magic spells, and wealth to create culturally the potential power of a child. In
adulthood, the exchanges of yam, men’s and women’s valuables reiterate a
person’s status and build their social and political identity, which is undermined
by death. To quote Weiner herself, ‘this book explores the relationship between
power and death as men and women, each in their own way, with their own
valuables, confront the eternal problem of sustaining hierarchical relations in
the face of loss and decay. It is in the attempts made to resolve these problems-
for all societal solutions to the existential problems of power and death are only
partial-that we see the roots of Trobriand resiliency to change’ (1988: 13).
23
Economic and Political 2.6.2 Fieldwork
Organisation
The fieldwork for this book was conducted over a period of time covering both
the periods of pre and post-independence (with independence obtained in 1975).
Hence, it is but natural that the monograph also talks about the hopes and
aspirations which Trobrianders had at this critical juncture. In the early 1970s,
the islands witnessed a tourism boom and many villagers were engaged in
traditional woodcarving to serve this market (which Weiner initially planned to
study) and some of the profits of which were spent in either of the two European
trade stores to buy tinned meat, rice, tobacco, clothes, etc. However, due to certain
events which included the setting up of a local economic association led by a
university educated Trobriander and which fuelled old political rivalries, the
tourism boom ended. As income from wood carving waned, villagers went back
to tending their yam gardens and young people began to spend more time in
traditional village events. Weiner found that faced with almost a hundred years
of new ideas and changes instituted by a colonial government, missionaries,
traders and even Allied soldiers during World War II, Trobrianders held firm to
many of their most important values and reflected a worldview which is not
easily threatened or disturbed.

2.6.3 Analysis of Data

Chapter II of the monograph which focuses on the rituals surrounding a death
emphasise how these act as a conservative force ameliorating the disjuncture
between change and tradition as the things of most value such as material wealth,
land, and social and political relationships are reconstituted for the living. With
Trobriand society being a matrilineal society, it falls upon the members of a dead
person’s matrilineage to repay at his death all those members of other
matrilineages who were close to him during his life, including his friends, allies,
wives and children. They are required to give away resources such as yams, pigs
and stone axe-blades which constitute the traditional male valuables and skirts
made of red fibre and bundles of banana leaves, which are women’s wealth.
Weiner observes that this act of repaying at death has strong political connotations
as the members of the dead person’s matrilineage demonstrates publicly their
strength, with everyone reading the social message in numbers as to how
politically vital is this matrilineage. In her own words, ‘power is never limitless;
everyone recognises sorcery as the ultimate threat. Even chiefs must reckon with
such limits from within their own group. Succession to a chieftaincy is inherited
within the matrilineage, so the right to become chief can only be taken at the
death of the encumbent chief. In many cases, the chief’s heir is suspect’ (1988:41).

As far as birth is concerned, women and men are believed to have complementary
roles, though the former are perceived to have a far more basic role. The foetus
is believed to be formed by a combination of a woman’s blood and an ancestral
spirit from her matrilineage. An infant is named after a deceased member of the
mother’s matrilineage and thus, according to Weiner (1988: 54), ‘ancestral names
and ancestral spirits, each in their own way, thus regenerate matrilineal identity
through time’. She, however, stresses the point that this does not mean that the
father has a lesser role to play in the life of his child as the public responsibility
for its economic care falls on him. Men are not only expected to provide food for
the child but to be responsible for enhancing the child’s beauty by providing it
with valuable shell necklaces, earrings and other decorations. Such decorations
24
convey to the society at large the father’s social and political worth, which in Economic Organisations
turn secures for his child an entry into the world of politics.

A focus in the monograph is on how young people are culturally expected to

make efforts to enhance their physical and social beauty as a powerful means of
persuasion and seduction, with their being no taboos on pre-marital sexuality.
Weiner observed that among the Trobriand Islanders, attracting lovers is not a
frivolous, adolescent pastime but the ‘first step towards entering the adult world
of strategies, where the line between influencing others while not allowing others
to gain control of oneself must be carefully learned’(1988: 71). In Trobriand
society, marriage, despite the emphasis on seduction and love during adolescence,
is usually an important political step and rarely a love match. Thus, through each
marriage, new affinal alliances are built or old ones reinforced between the
members of the new husband’s and new wife’s matrilineages. Also, after marriage,
the priority accorded to beauty and its power recedes and is replaced by an
emphasis on one’s talents for producing and controlling objects of wealth. Among
the Trobrianders, official recognition of a marriage comes when a couple eats
yams together, which are cooked by the girl’s mother. This, according to Weiner,
marks only the beginning of the way their future married life will be organised
around yam production. Following marriage, the wife’s parents make a large
presentation of raw yams, in exchange of which valuables like axe-blades and
clay pots or kula shells are given to each person from the bride’s side who
contributed to the yam presentation. In the years following marriage, a couple
receives harvested yams cultivated by the bride’s father and her matrilineal kin.
In Trobriand society, while a man is cultivating yams for his sister and daughter,
the same is being done for him by his wife’s brother and/ or her father and it is
this complex network which forms the basis for all important kin and affinal
relationships between women and men.

A person can acquire political power in the society only if he has the support of
his wife’s relatives, which is demonstrated mainly through yam production. For
chiefs in Trobriand society, these networks are enhanced through polygyny but
such marriages are only feasible when villagers decide that a chief has acquired
enough influence to be supported by them, Chiefs attempt to win fame and
consolidate their influence through the ownership of powerful magic spells which
enable them to control other villagers’ lives and the growing cycle of yams as
well as the expenditure of huge resources.

Weiner, unlike Malinowski, has closely studied the importance attached to

women’s wealth in Trobriand society, which consists of skirts made of red fibre
and bundles of banana leaves. Following a death, there are huge exchanges of
women’s wealth to mark the end of the mourning period and men, including
chiefs, remain dependent on women and their valuables. As observed by Weiner
(1988: 120), ‘as a woman and her husband receive yams from her brother every
year, her husband must help her find bundles whenever someone dies who was a
member of her matrilineage…by giving yams each year to his sister, a man secures
women’s wealth from someone in another matrilineage for his own matrilineage’.
When men need to find bundles for their wives, they exchange these against
food, pigs, manufactured goods except with the exception of their stone-axes
and shells, and this often leads to considerable draining away of men’s economic
resources. The women of the deceased’s matrilineage give away these valuables
to hundreds of ‘others’ beyond the matrilineage and in a symbolic manner, ‘untie’
25
Economic and Political the dead person from his or her attachments and obligations to ‘others’ who have
Organisation
looked after the deceased during his or her lifetime.

The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea also pays attention to the inter-island
kula exchanges. According to Weiner, Malinowski’s major emphasis in the context
of the kula was on the circularity of the shells’ movements as they passed from
one man to another, with a timelessness dictated by custom. But her later study
indicates that it is not merely a mechanical give and take, but rather a complex
set of exchanges that contribute towards acquisition of strong partners and the
highest-ranking valuables and provide opportunities to men ‘to write the history
of their own immortality in the shells they exchange with others’ (1988: 14).

2.6.4 Conclusion
Finally, in the concluding chapter of the monograph, we see how objects inform
the most important stages in a Trobriander’s life. The Trobrianders’ almost
compulsive focus on exchange of things is reflective of individual effort to control
others while managing their own self-images, autonomy and political destinies.
However, there is a pathos embedded in the most valued objects and which
makes us appreciate the fragility of social and political relations which define
people and where they belong, with death destroying both individual lives and
complexes of social relationships. Against this finality, in the words of Weiner,
‘men strive in exchanges for the freedom of power whereas women in their
exchanges strive to transform death into a hope for the future’ (1988:15).

The monograph concludes with the observation that Western money, education,
religion and law, while making much inroad into Trobriand society, has not been
able to uproot the importance accorded traditionally to yam production, production
of women’s wealth and kula activities. These continue to be the acts through
which Trobrianders express their self-identity and their relationship with others.

2.7 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
Main points of difference
As to the question of comparison between Malinowski’s monograph and that of
Weiner’s, the latter observes that ‘taken together, our two studies profoundly
exemplify the scientific basis that underlies the collection of ethnographic data.
Like all such data, however, whether researched in a laboratory or a village, the
more we learn about a subject, the more we can refine and revise earlier
assumptions’ (1988: 5). Hence, according to her, the lack of agreement on many
aspects between Malinowski’s and her work must not be taken as an adversarial
attack against an opponent. It must be appreciated and understood that their
differences can be traced historically within the discipline of anthropology.

The main point of departure between Malinowki’s and Weiner’s analysis is the
attention which Weiner gave to women’s productive work. In the Argonauts of
the Western Pacific, Malinowski referred to the high position of women among
the Trobriand Islanders but attributed it mainly to the principle of matrilineal
descent. Weiner’s deeper probe indicated that this importance was underwritten
by women’s own wealth, as distinct from men’s wealth, which was the sole
focus of Malinowski’s work. Her work indicated that exchanges of women’s
26
wealth create stability in the exchange relationships between men and the need Economic Organisations
for women’s wealth at mortuary rites necessitates the expenditure of certain kinds
of men’s resources.

Weiner’s focus on women also compelled the revision of many assumptions

about Trobriand kinship. As she observes, ‘Malinowski conceptualised
matrilineality as an institution in which the father of a child, as a member of a
different matrilineage, was excluded not only from participating in procreation
but also from giving any objects of lasting value to his children, thus provisioning
them only with love’ (1988: 6). In contrast, Weiner found that apart from an
acknowledged complementary role in conception without compromising the
matrilineal identity, fathers had public responsibility for the economic care of
the child, enhancement of the child’s beauty as well as to provide the child
opportunities to gain things from his matrilineage. This giving creates reciprocal
obligations upon the child which last even beyond the father’s death.

Also, Malinowski’s monograph did not provide a very clear picture of the question
of chieftainship in the different islands of the Trobriands. On the other hand,
Weiner’s work indicated that it was only in Kiriwana that chiefs have extensive
authority and power, while in some other islands, they had very little advantage
over others and in Kitava, inherited positions of chieftainship are non-existent.
In Weiner’s view, it must be acknowledged that Malinowski did most of his
fieldwork on Kiriwina and therefore, he could not have known about these
variations.

A criticism leveled against Malinowski by Weiner is that his functionalist

orientations, whereby he tried to attribute a pragmatic function for each custom
or institution, prevented him from understanding the subtleties and the
significance of symbolic action. His interest, according to Weiner (1988: 8),
‘was in the cause and effect of certain actions and activities rather than in the
cultural meanings that Trobrianders give to the things and people around them’.
While Malinowski demonstrated that Trobrianders perceived the world through
rational thought, it must be appreciated that in all societies, logical understanding
of events and circumstances has its limitations. This is most evident in
Malinowki’s understanding of the rationale behind the kula exchange, which he
believed to be driven only by custom and for its own sake; while Weiner’s later
study unraveled many complexities underlying it.

2.8 SUMMARY
Thus, in the final analysis, it may be concluded that a comparative study of these
two ethnographies, separated in time by about sixty years and focusing on the
same society helps us to appreciate better the evolution of the discipline of
anthropology over time. It also helps us understand how societies adapt to change
over time and with exposure to the outside world, in a manner which could be at
once accommodative and resilient. At the same time, the comparative study also
brings home to us the timelessness of certain anthropological fieldwork methods
and tools and reinforces the fundamental anthropological tenet of looking at
societies from an emic or insider’s perspective.

27
Economic and Political References
Organisation
Frazer, J.G. 1932. “Preface”, in B. Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific:
An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of
Melanesian New Guinea. London: George Routledge and Sons Ltd.

Malinowski, B. 1932. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native

Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea.
London: George Routledge and Sons Ltd.

Spindler, G., L. Spindler. 1988. “Foreword”, in A. B. Weiner, The Trobrianders

of Papua New Guinea. California, USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Weiner, Annette B. 1988. The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea. California,

USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Suggested Reading

Malinowski, B. 1932. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native

Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea.
London: George Routledge and Sons Ltd.

Weiner, Annette B. 1988. The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea. California,

USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Sample Questions

1) Evaluate critically the main points of difference between the two

monographs- Malinowski’s Argonauts of the Western Pacific and Weiner’s
The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea.

2) What, according to Malinowski, should be the goal of anthropological

fieldwork and how can it be reached? Did Weiner adhere to similar strategies
in her field study?

3) Briefly describe the kula exchange as found by Malinowski and the reasons
for it as attributed by him. Does Weiner have a different perspective on the
reasons for it?

28
UNIT 2 STATE AND STATELESS SOCIETIES:
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS
Contents
2.1 Introduction
2.2 State and Stateless Societies and Contribution of Anthropology
Case-1
Case-2

2.3 Political Unit

2.4 Kinship and Power
2.4.1 Segmentary Lineage System

2.5 Political System among the Indian Tribes

2.5.1 Juang
2.5.2 Hill Kharias
2.5.3 Kondhs
2.5.4 Political Organisation in Other Tribal Inhabited Region
2.6 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives

After reading this unit, you would be able to understand:
 the meaning of state and stateless societies and the anthropological contributions
to the study of the same;
 relationship between kinship and power; and
 political organisations in some of the Indian tribes.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In anthropology we have studied about social system and its subsystems such as
political organisations, economic organisations, religious organisations, etc. In this
unit, we will focus on political systems. We must understand that political institutions
are not isolated components but they are part and parcel of social system and are
interconnected with other subsystems in a society. Thus in any social system, the
economic system, the political system or the kinship system and the ritual life are
all interconnected. While the study of political system seems more concerned to
political science, anthropologists too have studied political system of both state
and stateless societies. Anthropologists are interested in studying political institutions
and the underlying principles on which these institutions act upon. In anthropology,
inductive and comparative approaches are used in studying political institutions
and explaining the uniformities found among them and to interpret their
interdependencies with other features of social organisation (Fortes and Evans-
Pritchard, 1940 : 5). Since long anthropologists like Fortes, Evans-Pritchard and 21
Economic and Political Mary Shepardon have emphasised that both state and stateless political systems
Organisations
are part of social structure through which political action takes place. Southall
(1974: 154) has noted that social anthropologists are gradually more interested in
studying the political aspects of contemporary times and intensive analysis of local
political behaviour and processes. Thus, the interest in studying political pattern,
behaviour and processes is gradually expanded with wider attention in both simple
and complex societies. However, in this unit we are going to emphasise the political
system in simple societies, be it state or stateless societies.

2.2 STATE AND STATELESS SOCIETIES AND

CONTRIBUTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology has noteworthy contribution to the study of traditional societies, the
tribes or peasant communities. The ethnographic contributions of anthropologists
have helped us understand different aspects of social and cultural life and political
system of these communities. Studies of tribes in India, Africa or in Australia have
recorded the fact that every society has definite norms, values and recognised
rules of conduct. Individuals violating such norms or values or breaching rules of
conduct are punished or subjected to various sanctions. Within a locally defined
community, an individual who commit some act which goes against the norms of
the community invites punishment by recognised coercive authority. Political
community, whether or not it is organised in the form of state has its own territory
(Mair, 1962). Protection of defined territory and its individuals, organising social
activities like rituals and religious activities, and organising economic activities
entail organised authority. The authority decides over the level of punishment for
each defied activity which goes against the societal norms or values. Every society
has certain authority, whether centralised, decentralised or lack of centralised
authority. Lucy Mair makes the useful remark that ‘there is no society where rules
are automatically obeyed’. Anthropologists like Gluckman and others have tried to
show that in all primitive societies-ranging from small bands of hunters or fishermen
to kingdoms-there exists some basic mechanism of social control which regulates
the affairs of the tribe and resolves conflicts arising among its component groups
(Eisenstadt, 1959: 201).
The general assumption is that most of these social control mechanisms are in one
way or another common to all types of traditional or preliterate societies-whether
segmentary, centralised or some other (ibid.). According to Fortes and Evans-
Pritchard (1940) the societies which have centralised authority, administrative
machinery, and judicial institutions were labeled as ‘primitive states’. Some groups
like the Zulu, the Ngwato, the Bemba, the Banyankole and the Kede are regarded
as “primitive states”. They observed sharp differences in the distribution of wealth,
status and privileges, corresponding to the distribution of power and authority in
all ‘primitive’ states.
Stateless societies on the other hand, had no great distinctions between the rank,
status, or wealth of their members (Haskell Fain, 1972). But they may not be
egalitarian societies. Fortes and Evans-Pritchard (1940: 5) have defined that the
societies which lack centralised authority, administrative machinery, and constituted
judicial institutions-in short which lack government-and in which there are no
sharp divisions of rank, status, or wealth are called stateless societies. They are
the Logoli, the Tallensi and the Nuer in Africa. Examples of such tribes in India
are some Andaman Islander tribes namely, Jarwa, Sentinelese, etc. Some other
hunters and gatherer groups where there is no centralised political system can be
22
included in the stateless societies. Historically speaking, many other tribes in India
were stateless societies. But the evolution of political system from stateless to state State and Stateless
Societies: Political
has taken place subsequently. Institutions
Like state, in the stateless societies, the political activities are supported by group
behaviour. In stateless societies, the community members select the leader who
possesses dominant characters with strong personalities, well-built physical feature,
and may be with possession of wealth. In the study of the Nuer, Evans-Pritchard
has reported the behaviour of the ‘leopard skin chief’ who is a dominant character
selected from outside the clan group. However, this clan is not necessarily a
dominant clan. He stands outside the lineage and tribal system. The leopard skin
chief possesses bounty wealth in the form of cattle. He is offered cattle by
community members or by the members of the guilty. Murder/killing of a fellow
community member is often regarded as a serious offense to the community as a
whole. Therefore, the leader takes appropriate action to compensate the kin of the
deceased and the community he belongs to. Lucy Mair (1962) pointed out that
in the absence of centralised political system if a man was wronged, his lineage
supported him in seeking redress by force. When they got tired of fighting they
invite an influential man to mediate between the two sides. However, collective
action takes place in war or in maintenance of peace. The community members
support the leaders in war and feud. This could be for protection of territory or
could be for taking on revenge in case of murder of fellow members. While in
more complex state societies, the guilty is punished by appropriate court of law
or well developed judiciary system. In stateless societies there are no obvious
political institutions like that in state. A leader is an institution in these societies. He
also possesses ritual power. Appropriate quantum of punishment is decided by the
leader. He maintains peace in the community. A leader resolves the disputes between
community members both within and outside. In addition, the protection of territory
or resolving territorial disputes is significant part of the decision making authority.
Allocation and distribution of resources takes place with appropriate leadership.
Both state and stateless societies protect social norms and values. Factors like
religion, wealth and other socio-economic factors are closely interconnected with
and determine political behaviour in stateless societies. In stateless societies, both
kinship and politics are often diffused.
Case-1
The Polynesians of the Hawaiian Islands had an exceedingly complex political system
based on hereditary rank and classes, and theocracy and divine right.
Among Polynesians, there are three hereditary social classes-commoners, nobles, and
inferiors. Agriculturists, fishermen and artisans are the commoners, work under the
shadow of nobles. The nobles are warriors, priests and political officials. The hereditary
ranking of nobles was based on descent from the gods, genealogically traced. Rank of
individuals and segments was traced in terms of birth order. The highest rank traced
through first born child. The islands were divided into chiefdoms ruled by a paramount
chief. The paramount chief’s rule was administered and maintained through a cluster of
high ranking nobles who served as priests, counselors and military leaders. The districts
of chiefdom were in turn ruled by local chiefs of high rank. The nobles were supported
almost entirely by tribute extracted from commoners in local areas which in turn were
administered by chosen chiefs and overseers of lower rank. Being of the highest rank
and sacredness himself, the chief approached the status of the god who conveyed on
him these divine rights. This system was stable and immutable. The paramount chief is
however not permanent and is often unstable and flexible. The political fortunes of
paramount chiefs coaxed and waned by with their success in holding their chiefdoms
together in the face of insurrection and intrigue.
Source: Roger M. Keesing, Cultural Anthropology A Contemporary Perspective (2nd
Edition), 1981, CBS College Publishing, New York.
23
Economic and Political
Organisations
Case-2

A Nuer tribe is the largest group whose members are duty bound to combine in raiding
and defense. There is no overarching government. The Nuer maintains a measure of unity
and orderly political relations between the territorial divisions. Evans-Pritchard calls tribe
to each territorial sub-division. A tribe is sub divided into segments. The relationship
between segments is conceived in terms of hierarchies of patrilineal descent. There is
fight between territorial divisions but when two neighbouring groups fight with third
party both the neighbouring groups fight together against the third party. Disputes begin
over many grievances such as damage to property, adultery, rights over resources, to
name a few. The Nuers are prone to fighting and many disputes lead to bloodshed.
Confrontation between members of different groups or villages can lead to use of spears
and bloody war between men of each village. A leopard-skin chief is the mediator who
resolves the disputes. Such a chief has ritual powers and a role as mediator and negotiator
but he has no secular authority and no special privileges. His performance in peacemaking
is possible because he stands outside the lineage and tribal system. The leopard skin
chief was also a wealthy leader partly because of the cattle he received for his services
as mediator who could mobilise the support of a substantial coalition of followers.

Source: Roger M. Keesing, Cultural Anthropology A Contemporary Perspective (2nd

Edition), 1981, CBS College Publishing, New York, pp. 282-285

Contribution of Anthropologists
In this section, we will briefly outline the contributions of anthropologists to the
study of state and stateless societies. The contribution of anthropology to political
thought has emerged from its apprehension with stateless societies. The growing
interest in political anthropology has been observed in the early writings on
primitive state and stateless societies by M. Fortes and Evans-Pritchard (1940),
J. Middleton and David Tait (1958), David Easton (1959), L. Mair (1962) M.L.
Perlman (1969), Balandier (1967) and recent studies by J. Vincent (1990) and E.
Wolf (2001) amongst others. The series of works by Hegel and Kalr Marx and
their argument on “state” have also contributed substantially to the study in political
anthropology.
Meyer Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard are perhaps the first anthropologists who
have classified the political systems of African communities as state and stateless
societies. The study on ‘African Political System’ by Meyer Fortes and E.E.
Evans-Pritchard (1940) is a monumental piece to theoretical contribution in political
anthropology. In the beginning of the essay the authors have propounded that in
any social system you will find the political institutions, the kinship organisation, the
economic institutions and the ritual life which are interlinked and interdependent.
One institution influences another. Both Fortes and Evans-Pritchard (1940) have
emphasised that the definition of ‘political’ in anthropology has to be marked off
clearly. The political institutions with its true meanings should be established to
make it distinct from other features of social system. Thus the foundation to
theoretical contribution in political anthropology was observed in their writing
which was gradually facilitated the emergence of a separate discipline of Political
Anthropology. Shepardson (1963) pointed out that in African Political Systems,
Fortes and Pritchard have clearly defined the type of social structure through
which political action takes place and revealed the distinctions of political behaviour
whether state or stateless society (kin based, segmentary and state societies).
However, some anthropologists like David Easton and Balandier have raised the
concern with uncertainties of political anthropology, which they believed had not
marked off differently from other areas in anthropology or uncertainties found with
definitions of state. For example, Balandier (1967, 1970) in his book Political
24
Anthropology has pointed out that definitions of state or political institution are State and Stateless
Societies: Political
usually too wide and consequently non specific. Institutions

Paige (1974) supported the argument of anthropologists about understanding

relationship between systems of kinship and forms of political organisation. He
further emphasised that the organisation of kinship and the organisation of the
polity are closely integrated in stateless societies. Kinship roles frequently determine
patterns of group interests and solidarity and lines of political cleavage and conflict.
He derived the Gluckman’s (1965) argument that the maintenance of political
order in stateless societies depends on a network of cross cutting kinship ties. He
has particularly cited Murphy (1957), Van Velzen and Vanwetering (1960) and
Otterbein (1968) to argue that matrilocal and patrilocal residence rules produce
different patterns of group ties and consequently, different pattern of political
conflict. It has been assumed that both matrilineal and patrilineal descent rules
should have similar effects on inter-group conflict. Swanson’s original findings that
patrilineal descent correlates with factional polities and matrilineal descent are
consequence of the forms of political organisation has been contrasted by other
anthropologists. Paige has, however, concluded that association between rules of
descent and the organisation of the polity was a special case of a more general
principle underlying patterns of group conflict and cleavage in all political systems.
Hegel and Karl Marx are pioneers in contributing to the study of state and political
systems. Their thoughts still found to be very relevant and contemporary to the
studies in political anthropology. Hegel starts from describing the state and makes
man the subjective aspect of the state. He believed, democracy starts from man
and makes the state into objectified man. People make the constitution. Democracy
has relation with other forms of state. Democracy is the essence of all constitutions
of the state and is considered to be Old Testament in relation to other political
forms. Socialised man is the particular constitution of the state. All that exists, law,
constitution, democracy and other political forms are for the benefits of man. But
it is not that man is there for benefit of law or other political forms. Law has a
human existence and in other political forms man has only a legal existence. That
is the fundamental character of democracy (McLellan, 1971:215).
For Karl Marx state in many ways is a most characteristic institution of man’s
alienated condition. State is a negation of man, similar to religion, law and morality,
and equally based on a particular mode of production. Meanwhile, he also talked
about positive elements of state. The early work of Feuerbach’s critique of Hegel’s
philosophy and his own experience as editor of the Rhheinische Zeitung could
help him in to elabourate his ideas on the state. He narrated his ideas in a manuscript
as a critique of Hegel’s political philosophy. Marx provides an idealistic form of
government where the state and civil society are not separate, but directly
correspond to the ‘essence of socialised man’. He called this ‘true democracy’.
In a democracy the constitution, the law and the state itself are only a self
determination of the people and a particular content of them in so far as it is a
political constitution (KMSW: 29). He viewed state like religion, as a statement
of man’s ideal aims and also a compensation for their lack of realisation (McLellan,
1971). He differentiated between state and polity. He pointed out that the more
political the state is and the more it constitutes separate sphere, the more incapable
it is to solve the society’s problems.
While in early writings, Marx emphasised on gap between the state and society
in later part he focused on analysis of the function of the state in society. He later
25
Economic and Political considered state as a part of society. He discussed about origin of the state and
Organisations
other social institutions. The state is a manifestation of interest of certain dominant
class by which the individuals of a ruling class assert their common interests.
Sometimes Marx says that the state need not be representative of the whole of
a class but only a section of that class. State acts as intermediary among fully
developed classes for benefit of one and other classes and sometimes it acts
independently where the classes are not fully developed. The state acts as an
intermediary in the formation of all communal institutions and gives them a political
form. The state in turn modeled other social institutions.
Marx considered America as a modern state. He considered bureaucracy to be
the most essential part of this modern state apparatus. His manuscript, Critique of
Hegel’s Philosophy of the State in 1843 with special focus on Prussia described
how the bureaucracy had eventually become a caste which claimed to possess,
through higher education, the monopoly of the interpretation of the state’s interests.
The real aim of the state thus appears to bureaucracy as an aim against the state.

2.3 POLITICAL UNIT

Now let us discuss about what should be the unit of study for political system.
While most of the studies have highlighted the tribe as a social unit or as a political
unit, we should remember that the political unit is not only confined to one unit,
the tribe; it could be a horde or clan as well. In seeking to define the political
system, as suggested by Radcliffe-Brown, we have to look for a territorial
community which is united by the rule of law. Thus, it could be a tribe, a local
horde or clan. Middleton and Tait (1958: 8) have noted that “the basic unit of the
political system is also a joint or extended family based on a three or four generation
lineage. Its component families are generally the productive and consuming units,
but the joint family is the largest purely domestic unit and is under the domestic
authority of a single head who may also represent it as a corporate unit in political
and ritual situations”. The units are distinct in case of defined political system such
as state. However, in stateless societies there is no spatially defined distinct political
unit. It is noteworthy that the political unit in the societies with a state organisation
is numerically larger than in those without a state organisation. The largest political
groups among the Tallensi, Logoli, and Nuer cannot compete in numbers with the
quarter to half million of the Zulu state (in about 1870), the 101,000 of the
Ngwato state, and the 140,000 of the Bemba state. But it is suggested that a
stateless political unit need not be very small. But it is probably true that there is
a limit to the size of a population that can hold together without some kind of
centralised government. Similarly, a political unit with state organisation should not
be very large (Fortes and Evans-Pritchard, 1940: 7).
While a political unit could be a tribe, local hoard or clan, the political system
expands beyond one tribe, a local hoard or a clan. One important point discussed
by Fortes and Evans-Pritchard (1940) is that societies which have a high degree
of general cultural resemblance need not have the same type of political system.
Within a single linguistic or cultural area we often find political systems which
differ from each other in important features. Conversely, similar political structures
are found in societies of different cultures.

26
 State and Stateless
2.4 KINSHIP AND POWER Societies: Political
Institutions
There is a close relationship between kinship and power. Political anthropologists
have revealed the complex ties between these two systems. They have analysed
and developed the theory of kinship and power relation. There is little differentiation
between political functions and kinship institution. In stateless societies, the kinship
ties often determine the political behaviour. Balandier (1967, 1970) has cited Van
Velsen’s case of Tonga of Malawi that the political relations were expressed in
terms of kinship and the manipulations of kinship are one of the means employed
in political strategy. The relationship between state and kinship often seem to be
complimentary as well as antagonistic as discussed by Durkheim. The most important
characteristics in centralised chiefdoms such as Zulu, Ngoni, Swazi, etc. are that
the political sphere is distinct from that of lineage and kinship relations, and political
positions acquire a certain degree of autonomy. In the above said chiefdoms, the
relative importance of corporate descent groups, lineages, clans and the like for
the definition of the territorial units of society and for the general political life of
the tribe is insignificant than among the various segmentary tribes (Eisenstadt:
210-211).

2.4.1 Segmentary Lineage System

Smith (1956) pointed out that ‘the lineages are corporate groups of a segmentary
character defined in terms of unilineal descent’. An important feature that
separates political character of lineage system from kinship association is that the
political character of lineage organisation is linked with the corporate character of
lineage groups. This feature normally lacks in kinship associations. Lineages are
local groups which discharge political functions within their areas. This condition
provides a subdivision of the population into territorial segments and the correlation
of these territorial segments with the genealogical segments of the lineage units in
stateless societies. Segmentary lineage system is common feature of every society.
In stateless societies the political authority is often passed through lineage system
or internally organised on a lineage basis. Lineage principles provide substitute for
governmental organisation. The usages of lineage systems vary across societies
with different degree and freedom. This may be used to express and validate
forms of common action, such as reciprocal help and protection, joint responsibility
in bride wealth and blood compensation, help in feud and war, regulation of inter
marriage and observance of responsibility to the dead (Middleton and Tait, 1967:
6). In stateless societies the lineage system possesses key features of political
relations and other social relations. The political power and authority are exercised
between groups and statuses. External political relations of local groups are often
conceived in lineage terms when there is no centralised political authority. The
internal political authority could also be attached to lineages while this could be
attached to other structures such as age-sets and age classes, ritual congregations,
village councils and associations, ritual congregations, secret societies and other
associations (ibid.).
Stateless societies do possess lineages or other type of segments. These grow or
change through fission, accretion, and fusion of various units (Fortes, 1945, Smith,
1956, Easton, 1959). Depending upon the kind of kinship structure, stateless
societies break down into two subclasses. One subclass is characterised by
corporate lineage segments. Order is maintained in such societies by means of
equilibrium of competing lineage segments. The other subclass is distinguished by
a pure kinship structure in which no segmentation takes place. In centralised 27
Economic and Political primitive states, the segmentation may not be corporate lineages but localised
Organisations
groups, age-regiment, or associations. In complex modern ones there is segmentation
and the units of division are quite different and take the form of political parties,
interest groups, political leaders with specific followings, etc. (Easton, 1959: 222).
Middleton and Tait (1959) have identified several ways in which descent groups
may be linked into a single system. First group, a single all inclusive lineage
genealogy, which is sufficient to explain significant political identification of lineage
with territorial segmentation, and the political institution is built upon a framework
of agnatic lineages which are units into a single pyramidal system. This pyramidal
system covers the whole jural community. It need not cover the entire society.
Examples: the Tiv. The societies of this type, like the Lugbara and the Nuer, there
is continual migration and spatial movement of groups. They are relatively
economically and socially autonomous. These societies have little specialised
political authority. The functionaries who are politically important are also primary
holders of domestic or ritual roles. Second group, the political units of these
societies consist of small descent groups, usually of shallow genealogical depth,
which are relatively interdependent. They are grouped into overlapping clusters by
ritual links of various kinds (often by forming the congregations of earth cults and
other cults not based on descent) and by quasi- kinship ties. The internal hierarchical
administrative organisation of any single major political units is based upon a single
lineage genealogy. At the political level units are not linked by a single genealogy
but rather by the recognition of mutual obligations. Exogamy is an essential aspect
of ties of clanship where these provide a framework of political importance. They
may be explained by the people as resulting from common agnatic ancestry, but
they are explained in terms of clanship. Exact genealogical relationship is not
reckoned. Examples of these societies are the Konkomba, the Amba, and the
Tallensi. In these societies lineages are arranged in a segmentary organisation, but
are concerned with inheritance, exogamy and family matters rather than with political
relations proper. Third group, it composed of lineages from different clans, a
compound structure of lineages which cannot be placed into a single pyramidal
system. Relationships between all its territorial segments cannot usually be explained
by reference to a single agnatic genealogy. These systems are characterised by the
lack of an all inclusive lineage genealogy at any level of organisation except that
of the nuclear group itself. They also have chief with certain specialised functions.
Example of such type is the Dinka.

2.5 POLITICAL SYSTEM AMONG THE INDIAN

TRIBES
Many primitive communities in India have transformed their political system from
stateless society to state. The process of formation of state has been discussed by
Southall (1974) and Sinha (1987) amongst others. The change in management of
law and order from family and kinship ties to more centralised authority of the
tribal chief is discussed in many studies. Village councils are the intermediary
political institutions commonly found among the tribes in the country. However,
these village councils have close connection with non-tribals too. F. G. Bailey has
discussed about several political institutions in his study in highland village in
Kandhamal district of Orissa. Village council and caste council are some of the
well defined political institutions by Bailey in his study about political system. He
observed that a village council is engaged in formulating new set of rules, allocating
responsibility, organising labour, decision making in ritual process and festivals,
28
judicial process, etc. He found that formal management of the village lies in the State and Stateless
Societies: Political
hands of the village council (panchayat). The council has judicial, legislative, and Institutions
executive functions (Bailey, 1957: 192). Mutha political institution has significant
role in the Kondh tribal villages. A mutha consists of several villages. The political
units like mutha and village councils have also significant role in determining
economic bahaviour. A creation of state, both mutha and village councils are
engaged in collection of land revenues.
The study of political system in India has also been extensively discussed by
Surajit Sinha and Harmann Kulke. They have discussed about formation of state.
Surajit Sinha’s study discusses about political system in eastern India as well as
in the North eastern region of the country. The edited book on ‘Tribal Polities
and State Systems in Pre-Colonial Eastern and North-Eastern India’ is a
collection of essays by contributors who have discussed different aspects of political
systems. Sinha (1987) has primarily focused on the evolution of political system
from pre-state to sovereign states in this book. The levels and types of politics
described in his book are: Small chiefdoms-Miso chieftaincies, evolved chiefdoms
on the hills (mainly following pre-settled agricultural technology): Khasi Siyems,
principalities in the forest regions of eastern India: Orissa Princely States,
Chhotnagpur Raj and Mallabhum, and Archaic sovereign states in North-east
India: Ahom, Jaintia, Manipur and Dimsa State of Sikkim. He stressed that in all
the above cases the higher levels of polities were evolved by coagulation of
lineage or clan based units of one or more ethnic groups and/or by conquest of
segmentary tribes by larger principalities or states. Chiefdoms provide a centralised
direction to a higher tribal society. They do not have true government. The chiefdom
is a development of the segmentary tribal system to a higher level of integration.
A chiefdom is however not a class society (Elman, 1963). Sinha has further
mentioned that in the pre state level structures like the Miso Chiefdoms in North-
East India are entirely dependent on stratification of clan and lineage segments.
But in more complex political formations in Eastern India like Chotnagpur Raj,
Mallabhum, Panchkot, Barahabhum and feudatory states of Orissa, it is observed
that the controlled terrain of the Raja is surrounded by segmentary clan-lineage
based political formations.

2.5.1 Juang
Juang is one of the primitive tribes inhabited in Keonjhar District in Orissa.N.
Pattanaik (1989) has reported that a Pirh is the village council among the Juang.
Each Pirh is headed by a Sardar who maintains law and order, collect land
revenue, etc. Each Pirh is divided into six sub Pirhs and each Sub- Pirh is
headed by a Sardar. Pradhans are the village headmen of the village councils
which are governed under Sub-Pirhs.A Pradhan takes decision on judicial matters
and maintain law and order.A Pradhan also calls meeting which is attended by all
village council members. Sacerdotal chief is called Nigam who takes decision on
ritual and religious matters. The Dangua acts as messenger to the Nigam and the
Pradhan. The village council consists of the formal leader and the Barabhai or
elderly man of the village.

2.5.2 Hill Kharias

Hill Kharias are very primitive. The council of the traditional government consists
of a headman called Pradhan which is mostly hereditary and a sacerdotal head.
Pradhans are actively held and supported by the family heads. Since the family
heads have consanguine or affine relationship with each other, the people under 29
Economic and Political the Pradhan may be considered members of a large family. Decision on disputes
Organisations
at individual level, family level, village level, quarrels, conflicts, contribution for
religious and social affairs, marriage, social crimes and so on are taken up by the
Pradhan. As a rule, the council meetings are arranged in the courtyard or verandah
of the offender. It may also be held at times under a shady tree or in the house
of the Pradhan. Bhandari is the village crier (Vidyarthi and Upadhyay, 1987).

2.5.3 Kondhs
N. Pattnaik (1988) mentions that Mutha Organisation is closely akin to centralised
authority with marginal administrative and judicial institutions. Among Dongria
Kondhs, a Mutha head is called Mandal. Among Dongria Kondhs, a village chief
is called Jani who is also the spokesman of the village. Bismajhi and Barika
work under the Jani. A sacerdotal leader is called Dishari. Among Kutia Kondhs
village chief is called Majhi. Gonda is the village messenger. In the past the
Mutha was an important socio-political organisation. The functions of Mutha
organisation are to arbitrate cases like village boundary disputes, land disputes
and disputes over bride capture.

2.5.4 Political Organisation in Other Tribal Inhabited Region

The traditional political organisation in Inumanda village in Paderu Block in
Vishakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh studied by P. V. Rao (1987) has the
similar structure like other tribes. The political organisation is in the hands of the
village headman who works with a group of elders in the village who are collectively
called Peddala Panchayat. Rich influential persons were recognised by the
zamindars and local rulers as their representatives in the village for looking after
collection of revenue and law and order maintenance. Such representatives are
variously called as Naidu or Pettamdar. Naidu or Pettamdar is usually assisted
by a Barika. Chellani acts as attendant to Naidu. Kula Panchayat is the body
consists of all important members of the particular tribe. Village level issues and
issues concerning persons from different tribes fall under the purview of multi tribal
village elder council. Kula Panchayat is absent due to lack of sufficient strength
of the tribe.

2.6 SUMMARY
The political system is a part and parcel of social system. Both state and stateless
societies are part of political system. State is a dominant political feature with
centralised authority, administrative machinery and judicial institutions. The
centralised societies maintain some specificity and shares almost similar basic
political and administrative structure. The stateless societies on the other hand lack
centralised authority and lack well developed administrative machinery or judicial
institutions. There are sharp differences in the distribution of wealth, status and
privileges, corresponding to the distribution of power and authority, in all primitive
states. Kinship is an important constituent of social structure and plays significant
role in determining political behaviour in stateless societies. Lineage group is
primarily segmentary and an important characteristic of stateless societies. However,
lineage connection is also found in non-centralised societies, which is different
from stateless societies and centralised ones. In stateless societies it is often difficult
to differentiate between kinship and polity. Kinship is also an important political
institution in stateless societies. Irrespective of position in both state and stateless
societies, the central purpose in both these societies is maintenance of peace, and
30
stability of the society, protection of territory, values and norms, etc. The state is State and Stateless
Societies: Political
powerful force under the political system where more organised behaviour is Institutions
controlled by political institutions.
References
Bailey, F.G. 1957. Caste and Economic Frontier: A Village in Highland Orissa.
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Balandier. 1967/1970. Political Anthropology. London: Penguin Books.
Critique of Hegel ’s Philosophy of Right (1843); KMSW, p.28. in David McLellan
(1971) 1980 The thought of Karl Marx, P.215.
Easton, David. 1959. “Political Anthropology”. Biennial Review of Anthropology.
Vol.1. Stanford University Press. pp. 210-262.
Eisenstadt, S.N. 1959. “Primitive Political Systems: A Preliminary Comparative
Analysis”, in American Anthropologist. New Series. Vol. 61. No.2. pp. 200-
220
Fain, Haskell. 1972. The Idea of the State. Nous. Vol.No.1, Blackwell Publishing.
pp. 15-26
Fortes, M. 1945. Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi. London: Oxford
University Press.
Fortes, M. and E.E. Evans-Pritchard. 1940. African Political Systems. London:
Oxford University Press.
Gluckman, M. 1965. Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Mair, Lucy. 1962. Primitive Government. Indiana: Penguin Publishers.
McLellan, David. 1971/1982. The Thought of Karl Marx an Introduction.
McMillan
Melvin L. Perlman. 1969. “Methodological Problems in Political Anthropology”.
Canadian Journal of African Studies, Vol.3. published by Canadian Association
of African Studies.
Middleton, John and David Tait. 1958. Tribes without Rulers. London: Routledge
& Kegan Paul.
Murphy, R.F. 1957. “Inter-group Hostility and Social Cohesion” in American
Anthropologist. pp. 1018-35
Otterbein, K.F. 1968. “Internal War: A Cross-cultural Study”. in American
Anthropologist. 70: 277-89
Paige, J.M. 1974. “Kinship and Polity in Stateless Societies” in The American
Journal of Sociology. Vol.8. No. 2. The University of Chicago Press, pp.
301-320
Pattnaik, N. 1988. The Kondh. Bhubaneswar: THRTI.
———————— 1988. The Juang. Bhubaneswar: THRTI.

31
Economic and Political Rao, P.V. 1987. Institutional Framework for Tribal Development. New Delhi:
Organisations
Inter India Publication.
Shepardson, Mary. 1963. “Navajo Ways in Government: A Study of Political
Processes” (Menasha, Wisc., 1963), 44 quoted in Melvin L. Perlman (1969)
Methodological Problems in Political Anthropology, Canadian Journal of African
Studies, Vol. 3, published by Canadian Association of African Studies.
Sinha, Surajit. 1987. Tribal Polities and State Systems in Pre-colonial Eastern
and North-eastern India. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi & Company.
Smith, M.G. 1956. “On Segmentary Lineage Systems” in The Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. 86, no.2, pp
39-80
Southall, Aidan. 1974. “State Formation in Africa”. Annual Review of
Anthropology. Vol. 3, pp. 153-165
Van Velzen, H.U.E. Thoden, and W. Van Wetering. 1960. “Residence, Power
Groups and Intra Societal Aggression”. In International Achieves of
Ethnography. 49 (2): 169-200
Vidyarthi, L.P. & V.S. Upadhyay. 1980. The Kharia: Then and Now. New
Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.
Wolf, Eric. 2001. Pathways of Power. California: University of California Press.
Suggested Reading
Fortes, M. and E.E. Evans-Pritchard. 1940. African Political Systems. London:
Oxford University Press.
Gluckman, M. 1965. Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Mair, Lucy. 1962. Primitive Government. Indiana: Penguin Publishers.
Middleton, John and David Tait. 1958. Tribes without Rulers. London: Routledge
& Kegan Paul.
Sample Questions
1) Mention important characteristics of both state and stateless societies.
2) Discuss how lineage segmentation is an important political feature of stateless
society.
3) Identify important political institutions in stateless societies.
4) What are the common features of political organisation discussed among the
Indian Tribes?

32
 Economic Organisations
UNIT 3 POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS

Contents
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography The Nuer: A Description of the
Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People is an
Example
3.3 Description of the Ethnography
3.3.1 Analysis of data
3.3.2 Conclusion
3.4 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography Political Systems of Highland
Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure is an Example
3.5 Description of the Ethnography
3.5.1 Intellectual context
3.5.2 Fieldwork
3.5.3 Analysis of data
3.5.4 Conclusion
3.6 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
3.7 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives

In this Unit, we will try to understand the:
 meaning of politics in simple societies;
 way political systems work in different societies;
 nature of organisation of stateless societies; and
 approach to the study of political systems.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Anthropologists have devoted a lot of time and attention to the study of political
systems of preliterate societies. Systems like custom, laws, order and social control
are described under the milieu of such studies. Under the auspices of Political
anthropology, anthropologists study how political power is used within a larger
social and cultural context. It examines how political cultures and political
institutions change historically. Political anthropology as a distinctive branch of
social and cultural anthropology is a late growth stimulated by the publication of
the African Political Systems (edited by Fortes & Evans-Pritchard 1940).

The period from 1940 to 1960 was dominated by the synchronic study of political
structures in a state of assumed equilibrium and by the creation of typologies.
The period after 1960 showed an increasing interest in the development of a
theory that could deal with change, faction, party, and political maneuver. This
shift was signaled in 1954 by the appearance of Edmund R. Leach’s Political
29
Economic and Political Systems of Highland Burma, which emphasised the existence of political
Organisation
alternatives and the search for power as an effective basis for individual choice
between alternatives. Real impetus to Political anthropology was received from
Malinowski’s experience in Melanesia as well as when students trained by
Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown encountered still functioning large-scale
political units when they began to work in Africa in the 1930s. As Fortes has
pointed out, they were forced to study government, whereas their predecessors,
who had dealt with small-scale societies, had studied social control (1953,
p. 18).

While dealing with political systems of simple societies, anthropologists on one

side, were influenced by Morgan and on the other by British anthropologists like
Radcliffe-Brown, M. Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard who employing
anthropological fieldwork studied the political systems of African societies.
Lowie was perhaps the only American anthropologist of the period who made
any notable contribution to political anthropology through his work, The Origin
of the State (1922).

Lowie (1922), however, had earlier shown the importance of associations both
as institutions of political integration and as organs of government in various
tribal societies. Later, Radcliffe-Brown (1940, p. xiv) was to sum up the
accumulating ethnographic evidence in the sentence “Every human society has
some sort of territorial structure”. The interest in segmentary lineage systems- a
marked feature of the 1940s and 1950s-produced new confusion on this particular
issue (Fortes 1953, p. 30; Mair 1962, p. 11-14). Schapera returned to attack in
1956 in his study of South African political systems, Government and Politics in
Tribal Societies.

Few contemporary anthropologists of Morgan equated government with state.

Maine and Morgan both believed that the conception of political allegiance owed
to a territorial authority. Schapera believe that membership of political
communities/units does not solely depend upon kinship. Simultaneously he also
believed that all the individuals who are linked through kinship ties are subject
to common authority.

3.2 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY The Nuer: A Description of the
Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a
Nilotic People IS AN EXAMPLE
A comparative study of various African societies, on which ethnographic writings
were available, led to a division of the types of authority. Societies that has states
and carried out legislative executive and administrative functions were called
‘state societies’ or ‘tribal societies’ and those lacked these functions and where
the cleavages of wealth and power did not exist, were known as ‘stateless’ or
‘acephalus’ (meaning headless) societies. The question of significance in state
societies was how they functioned and in which terms they were different from
states in contemporary world. For stateless societies, the question pertained to
the maintenance of order, for in the absence of political functions, there existed
every probability that the society would fall into disharmony. In other words
there would be anarchy. Evans-Pritchard’s monograph on the Nuers shows that
30
inspite of the absence of a centralised authority, the system functions as an ordered Political Organisations
whole. He says that the Nuer are a case of ‘organised anarchy’. The segmentary
political system- operating on the principle of division and fussion- is the key to
the understanding of order. Difficult segments of the society are opposed to one
another but only the equivalent segmentary came in a relationship. Thus, the
segments are held together in a relationship of equivalence and opposition. The
Nuer study is a classic because of its contribution to the understanding of the
principle of segmentation an idea that has also influenced the study of the other
ways of social organisation, for instance, caste system.

3.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

E.E. Evans-Pritchard’s classic ethnography, The Nuer (1940a), created much
interest in the study of societies with uncentralised segmentary political
organisations. His insightful analysis has greatly influenced thoughts about such
political systems, and has generated other interpretations of the data.

3.3.1 Analysis of Data

Politically, the Nuer are organised into patrilineal clans and lineages. They have
the traditional system of authority to enforce decisions. The main actor in conflict
resolution is kuaar twac / kuaar muon. His office is spiritual and the symbols of
his office are the “spear” and the “leopard skin” (twac) respectively. The office
is hereditary, which is held by special priestly clans. He has no political or
executive authority to compel parties in a conflict to abide by the decision to pay
compensation. However, the Nuer respect this person who alone had a moral
force to make the parties to a conflict to comply. He performs sacrifices, oaths
and mediates in all types of conflict. His residence is sacred. Any offender who
seeks refuge in the residences of the kuaar twac is spared by the offended. Before
going in detail on political organisations among the Nuers it is necessary to
understand Nuer social structure which has a lot of bearings on their political
system.

Fission and fusion are two aspects of the segmentary principle. The Nuer tribe
and its divisions are understood as a relation between these two contradictory,
yet complementary, tendencies. Physical environment, way of livelihood, mode
of distribution, poor communications, simple economy, to some extent explain
the incidence of political cleavage, but the tendency towards segmentation seems
to be inherent in the political structure itself. Socially much significant institution
among the Nuer is that of the age-set system. Similar to clan system age-set
system, is not bound by lines of political cleavage though it has tribal connotation.
The age-sets neither have to perform corporate activities nor have any specific
political functions. Grades, elders, regiments, leadership is absent in age sets.
Rites of initiation have no educative or moral training. However, they reflect
how duties and privileges get affected when a boy moves to manhood. Since age
sets divide the male tribal children into age-based groups and are segmented
tribally hence regarded as political institution.

The Nuer are split into primary, which are divided into secondary and which in
turn are divided into tertiary tribal sections. Tertiary section consists of village
communities which are made up of kinship and domestic groups. The segment
itself has characteristics of a tribe, viz. distinctive name, solidarity and strong
31
Economic and Political social ties among members; smaller the segment the more the age-set system
Organisation
determines behaviour and produces corporate action. The clan is not an
undifferentiated group of persons who recognises their common kinship, as are
many African clans, but is highly segmented. The segments are genealogical
structures, and are referred to as lineages. The clan is an exogamous system of
lineages which trace its descent to a common ancestor. Its lineages are distinct
groups only in relation to each other. Nuer lineages are not corporate, localised
communities, though their members often have an association with a locality
and speak of the locality as though it were an exclusive agnatic group. Nuer
clans are everywhere much dispersed, so that in any village or camp one finds
representatives of diverse clans. Indeed, not only do political relations affect the
clan structural form, splitting it into segments along the lines of political fission,
but also the clan system may be said to have a corresponding action on the political
structure. Segments are further divided and a type of opposition exists between
its parts itself.

The members of any segment unite for war against adjacent segments of the
same order and unite with these adjacent segments against larger sections. Nuer
clearly state this structural principle and it is an expression of their political
values. This principle of segmentation and the opposition between segments is
the same in every section of a tribe and extends beyond the tribe to relations
between tribes, especially among the smaller Western Nuer tribes, which coalesce
more easily and frequently in raiding the Dinka and in fighting one another than
the larger tribes to the east of the Nile.

A B
X Y

X1 Y1

X2 Z1 Z2 Y2

Diagram-I

• A and B are the sub-tribes of the Nuer

• X and Y are the primary segments of B
• X1 and X2 are the secondary segments of X
• Y1 and Y2 are the secondary segments of Y
• Z1 and Z2 are the tertiary segments of Y2
Similarly all the sub-tribes are divided into primary, secondary and tertiary
segments.

32
Among the Nuer, kinship is the focal point. Nuer are organised in terms of kinship Political Organisations
groups. Each segment is complete in itself because of descent ties. Conflicts
arise due to grievances like cattle grazing some one’s crop, damage to property,
adultery, watering rights in the dry season, pasturage rights, a man borrows an
object–particularly a dance ornament, without asking its owner’s permission,
etc. Now, this can be understood through above illustration in Diagram -I. If a
dispute arises between X and Y the entire segments of X (X1 and X2) combines
and stand against Y (Y1 & Y2).When any dispute arises between Z1 and Z2, no
other section is involved. When Z1 fights Y1, then Z1 and Z2 unite as Y2. When
Y1 fights X1, Y1 and Y2 unite, and so do X1 and X2. When X1 fights A, X1, X2, Y1,
and Y2 all unite as B. When A raids the Dinka, A and B may unite. Above
illustration shows principle of segmentary opposition. From the same illustration
it also appears that political values are relative and that the political system is
equilibrium between opposed tendencies towards fission and fusion, between
the tendency of all groups to segment, and the tendency of all groups to combine
with segments of the same order. Hence, segmentation is the fundamental principle
of Nuer social structure.

Feud among Nuers and its resolution

Feud is an ongoing conflict between people; the Nuer say that the fueds never
die. The Nuer are an egalitarian, classless society in which no man recognises
the authority or superiority of another. Evans-Pritchard writes, “The ordered
anarchy in which they live accords well with their character, for it is impossible
to live among the Nuer and conceive of rulers ruling over them. The Nuer is a
product of hard and egalitarian upbringing, and is easily roused to violence. His
turbulent spirit finds any restraint irksome, and no man recognises a superior.
Wealth makes no difference. A man with many cattle is envied, but is not treated
differently from a man with few cattle”.

However, blood feud may be seen as a structural movement between political

segments through which the form of Nuer political structure is maintained. The
Nuer as described by Evans-Pritchard have no real state structure – neither is
there a system of law: “There are conventional compensations for damage,
adultery, loss of limb, and so forth, but there is no authority with power to
adjudicate on such matters or to enforce a verdict”. Is this then a situation of
anarchy? Political rules do apply. In case of homicide, vengeance is a duty for
the agnates of the dead man. In instances where the parties are neighbours, the
security problem of potential fighting can even be prevented by the immediate
gift of a cow. Smaller sections are unlikely to fight since they share grazing land,
but between larger groups blood feuding does occur and fighting is also likely to
break out over shared interests – commonly territorial – with tribal sections
making successful land grabs for grazing land using sheer force.

Disputes are also settled either by stealth theft of cattle or through the mediation
of the leopard-skin chief. Whilst the role is ceremonial with no right to command
obedience, the ostensible reluctance to compromise exhibited by parties involved
invariably masks compliance and a desire to avoid bloodshed without loss of
dignity – the leopard-skin chief is the only person who can end a blood-feud.

33
Economic and Political
Organisation
Reflection
‘Kuaar twac’ also known as‘kuaar muon’ because he alone wears
a leopard skin (twac) across his shoulder. The word ‘kuaar’ has
ritual associations in all the Nilotic languages. His function is
political, for relations between political groups are regulated through
him, though he is not a political authority controlling them. His
activities are chiefly concerned with settlement of blood-feuds, for
a feud cannot be settled without his intervention; and his political
significance lies in this fact. They always try to stop the feud and
disputes by discussion. He has no judicial or executive authority. It
is not his duty to decide on the merits of a case of homicide. He has
no coercive authority but has the power to curse, for he is a religious
personnel.

Cases of clearly accidental homicide do not require the services of the leopard-
skin chief. The murderer does not need sanctuary, and mediation between the
parties is not necessary. In other words, the situation in which the leopard-skin
chief is called upon to mediate a homicide is rather specific. It is one in which
the murder was intentional, involving coalitions of kin who are economically
and politically interdependent and yet are differentiated in other economic
activities and kin alliances. The dispute originally involves only the immediate
kin of the murderer and the murdered man. At this point few people have an
immediate interest in the blood dispute.

Reflection
Other than leopard skin chief, other ritual man is wutghok, most
prestigious also known as the ‘man of cattle’. He can cure sick
beasts and can make barren cow fruitful. They are members of
stranger lineages and not of the aristocratic clan of their tribe. It was
told that their curse is feared as it can be directed to cattle and that
Nuer donot dare to offend them. Like leopard-skin chiefs, men of
the cattle are often members of stranger lineages and not of the
aristocratic clan of their tribe. Other prestigious and ritual persons
are prophets. A prophets is one who is possessed by one of the sky-
spirits or Gods, whom Nuer regard as sons of the sky God. Nuers
have great respect for these spirits and fear and readily follow, those
whom they possess. They have greater sanctity and wider influence
in Nuer land. Also known as ‘guk’ and also referred as cok kwoth –
an ant of God.

Evans-Pritchard leaves us with an extremely vague picture of conflict resolution

within the Nuer communities. Somehow people “decide” to end hostilities, and
the leopard-skin chief legitimises this with traditional ceremonies. Within highly
interdependent villages and within a village the legal process appears to be simply
the rallying of a coalition in support of one’s claim. The outcome of the dispute
is determined by the ability to rally a strong coalition. An individual who is a
member of a large and therefore powerful kin group can make a more compelling
claim against another person who is a member of a smaller kin group. Variations
occur in the expected relative values attached to the strategies of “revenge” or
“compensation” (i.e. continued cooperation). It is clear that the value of continued
cooperation increases as “social distance” and economic and political
independence decrease. The payment of blood wealth is, therefore, an exchange
34 of wealth (value) in order to obtain the expected value of continued cooperation.
Feuds, on the other hand, become more likely, more prolonged, and more severe Political Organisations
as “social distance” increases and ties of interdependence decrease. Thus, the
expected relative values or returns from the strategies “compensation” and “feud”
are inversely related as “social distance” is varied.

The Nuer would not ordinarily be regarded as having political institutions at all
no chiefs, no village or tribal councils, no courts, none of those institutions
customarily associated with the regulation of group life. The principle of
segmentation, which figures most prominently in the conceptual framework
employed in analysing social structures, now enters as an aid in this analysis.
Affiliations are relative Evans-Pritchard writes: Out of this arrangement the
principle of contradiction is derived-that any segment sees itself as an independent
unit in relation to another segment of the same section, but sees both segments
as a unity in relation to another section; and a section which from the point of
view of its members comprises opposed segments is seen by members of other
sections as an unsegmented unit.

3.3.2 Conclusion
It may be said that the structural relations between Nuer tribes and other peoples
and inter-tribal relations are maintained by the institution of warfare and the
structural relations between segments of the same tribe are maintained by the
institution of feud. There is no central administration, the leopard-skin chief
being a ritual agent whose functions are to be interpreted in terms of the structural
mechanism of the feud. Law is relative to the structural distance between persons
and has not the same force in different sets of relations. However, it also seems
that the leopard-skin chief possesses political power. He is often the head of a
coalition of kin, and thus possesses a base of political power and prestige.
Furthermore, when mediating a blood dispute, he leads a coalition containing
most of the villagers. He has power by virtue of his ability to rally and maintain
these coalitions.

3.4 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY Political Systems of Highland
Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure IS AN
EXAMPLE
Sir Edmund R. Leach (1910-1989), was a British social anthropologist who has
influenced, and in many ways shaped, the development of modern social
anthropology. His Political Systems of Highland Burma (1954) was profoundly
influential in the development of political anthropology, and demonstrates the
complex interrelationship of ideal models and political action within a historical
context. The major significance of the monograph rests in its contribution to the
theory of social systems.

3.5 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

3.5.1 Intellectual Context
When Leach worked with the Kachins of Burma, anthropological theory was
largely structural-functional, which examined the contribution a part makes to
35
Economic and Political the whole for its well being, maintenance and continuity. But Leach, was not
Organisation
convinced with this idea, for he thought that ‘society is a process in time’. What
brought the downfall of functionalism was the fact that it could not account for
the change in society. The approach that Leach proposed was called ‘processual’
– he examined society as a process a dynamic entity.

3.5.2 Fieldwork
The monograph is about the Kachin and Shan population of north-east Burma,
respectively highland and valley-based rice cultivators. Edmund Leach had spent
the months of war among the Kachin, from 1939 to the end of World War II.
First seven months of his fieldwork were spent in the village of Hpalang in the
Namkham- Bhamo area doing orthodox fieldwork and mastering Jinghpaw
language. Although his entire original field notes, photographs and draft thesis
were lost “as the result of enemy action”, he had to prepare a doctoral thesis
from historical documents. The book is not, therefore, a conventional monograph.
Its main attraction is theoretical: it was this book that interrogated functional
paradigm in British social anthropology.

Leach believes that in Kachin Hills Area, within this major social system there
are, at any given time, a number of significantly different sub-systems that may
be typed as Shan, Kachin gumsa and Kachin gumlao which are interdependent.
Kachins and Shan belong to different racial stocks (on linguistic grounds), but
both are mixed up together in ordinary affairs.

Let us try to develop an understanding of cultural characteristics of Shan and

Kachin and their various Sub-divisions

Shan

Burmese ‘Shan’= ‘Sam’ (Kachin Jinghpaw equivalent)

All the inhabitants Tai (Inhabitants of Yunnan-Burma frontier)

of Political Burma

• Territorially scattered in North Burma but fairly uniform in culture.

• Shans reside in river valley i.e. they are valley dwellers, and are much similar
in their culture to that of the Burmese. All ‘Shan’ settlements are associated
with ‘wet rice cultivation’, use buffalo-drawn ploughs and harrow in
cultivation.
• Shan population consists of Burma Shan, Chinese Shan and Hkamti Shans
who are classified into aristocrats, commoners and low caste.
• Organised politically into States known as mong and each state has its own
hereditary Prince called saohpa.
• Dialect variations are found, their languages are- Tai, Maru, corrupted form
of Burmese, Jinghpaw (with Tai and Assamese Mixture) and Hpon
(Intermediate of Maru and Burmese). All Shans are Buddhists. When a
‘Kachin’ becomes a ‘Shan,’ the adoption of Buddhism is a crucial part of
36 the procedure.
 Kachin Political Organisations

• Kachin = Kakhyen
• Kachin is the collective name for a related family of highland peoples who
live in north-eastern Myanmar (Burma) as well as the adjoining parts of
China’s Yunnan Province and northeast India. The Kachin language is
classified as a branch of the Tibeto-Burmese linguistic group, and the Kachin
people are culturally distinct from the Shan, Burman, and Chinese
communities that inhabit many of the same areas.
• Within Kachin state, six ethnic subgroups or branches of the Kachin people
exist: the Jinghpaw, Maru, Lashi, Azi, Nung-Rawang, and Lisu. Elsewhere
in Myanmar the Lisu are not included as Kachin. Moreover, there are
significant variations in languages and dialects among different Kachin
subgroups. In recent decades, this has led to the promotion of the dialect of
the Jinghpaw majority as the standardised form of Kachin. The nationality
term “Wunpawng” is also used by most Kachins to describe them.
• The Kachins are thought to have been among the last migrants to arrive in
the present-day Myanmar, crossing the mountains from China within the
past thousand years. Today Kachin-speakers are the majority ethnic group
throughout much of the Kachin state and also parts of the northern Shan
state where around 100,000 Kachins live. Population statistics are disputed,
with Kachin leaders claiming a Kachin population in Myanmar of around 1
million, compared with government estimates of half that number.
• Until the British annexation of present-day Myanmar in the nineteenth
century, most Kachins were traditional spirit-worshipers, inhabiting the
higher mountain regions/highlands where they practiced swidden/shifting
cultivation (slash and-burn) agriculture. Under British rule, however, many
Kachins converted to Christianity and moved down to the plains. In modern
Myanmar, most Kachins are Christians, predominantly Baptists.
• Kachin culture is uniform throughout Kachin hills area.
• Languages and dialects spoken are: Jinghpaw, Gauri, Maru, Atsi, Lashi,
Lisu.
• Sub categories of Kachin- (a) linguistic (b) territorial (c) political. Atsi, Maru,
Lisu, Nung, Jinghpaw speaking Kachins, Assam Singpho, Burma Jinghpaw
and Hkahku are few linguistic and territorial distinctions of Kachin.
• Apart from languages, Kachins are different in their dress also.
• Patrilineal clanship exists which is elaborately segmented.
• Kachin society includes a number of different forms of political organisation
but Leach emphasises the two polar types or political distinctions i.e. Kachin
gumsa and Kachin gumlao.
• Kachin gumsa- an aristocratic species of organisation. The political entity
here is known as mung which has at its head a prince of aristocratic blood
called as duwa who assumes the title Zau.
• Kachin gumlao- a democratic species of organisation. Here the political
entity is a single village and there is no class difference between aristocrats
and commoners.
37
Economic and Political Ecology and Economy of Kachin Hills Area
Organisation
• Inhabit the drainage area of Irrawaddy and Salween rivers; expanded in
mountainous and precipitous region.
• Dense semi-tropical monsoon, shrubs, grass lands and pine forest exist in
Kachin Hills Area.
• Irrigated rice cultivation/terrace cultivation is found and hill agriculture is
of three categories, viz. mansoon taungya, grass land taungya and irrigated
hill terraces. Paddy was planted in May, harvested from October to December
and agriculture off season remained between January to April.

Reflection
Tangya = Hill field and Jhum system. The term tangya is a Burmese
term which describes a technique resembling that described as jhum
in the literature of Assam and as lading in the literature of Malaya. In
this system the larger trees are felled and the jungle burnt over. The
resultant clearing is cultivated with various crops. When the original
fertility and that contributed by the wood ash are exhausted the
clearing is abandoned and reverts to tangled scrub and bracken (Leach
1954:22).

General Features of Kachin’s Economy

• Mode of exchange/ transaction mainly in the form of barter.
• Rich and poor class exists.
• Cooked rice and vegetables twice a day was normal staple food for all with
additional forest roots and maize in the months before harvest. Rich and
poor had more or less the same diet though rich had more quantity of liquor.
• Apart from hunting, only meat received from religious sacrifice was eaten
and sacrificial meat was widely shared

Descent
• Exogamous patrilineal of small span i.e. patrilineal form of descent among
Kachins is found. Those who share household surname are of one household
though practically they may have different houses.
• Feeling of ‘we’ among the Kachins who belong to Htinggaw amying - ‘house
name’. Matrilineal cross-cousin system prevails but it exists in the format
of classificatory cross-cousin marriage.
After having a glimpse of populations and cultural traits of Kachin Hills area we
should now turn to opinions of Leach regarding social systems and how political
organisations and social system work together in any society. This will help us to
develop an insight on Kachin political system explained by Leach in the present
book.
Leach raises a question ‘what is meant by continuity and change’ with regard to
social systems. He argues that those social anthropologists who follow Radcliffe-
Brown use the concept of social structure as a category in order to compare one
society with another. Though he himself believes, “while conceptual models of
society are necessarily models of equilibrium systems, real societies can never
38
be in equilibrium” (Leach, 1954:4). He further opines that, “The discrepancy is Political Organisations
related to the fact that when social structures are expressed in cultural form, the
representation is imprecise compared with that given by the exact categories
which the sociologist, qua scientist, would like to employ. I hold that these
inconsistencies in the logic of ritual expression are always necessary for the
proper functioning of any social system” (Leach, 1954:4).

Leach believes that social structure in practical situations being different from
abstract model incorporates various set of ideas regarding the distribution of
powers between persons and groups of persons. Hence he opines, “the form is
cultural form; the expression is ritual expression” (Leach, 1954:4). After M.
Fortes, he also explains changes under two heads- first being changes that are
consistent with a continuity of the existing formal order and second being-changes
in formal social structure. After Radcliffe-Brown he considers Kachin unit society
as ‘any convenient locality’ and after Nadel, he calls ‘a society’ as ‘any self
contained political unit’.

3.5.3 Analysis of Data

• Political organisation is structurally diverse.
• Leach cites ‘Hpalang’ – single specific kachin ‘Gumsa’ community covered
by him.
• Explains how Kachins of a Gumsa persuasion suppose that their society
actually functions- as a ‘ fiction’ as explained by Leach (1954:63)
• Functional inconsistency is intrinsic to Kachin social organisation.
Political units in Kachin hill areas are of varying size and of very unstable nature.
In Kachin and Shan states, varieties of ‘societies’/self contained political units
or various types of political systems exist. These systems differ in their size as
well as their organising principles. Leach discusses the instability of the political
units since the nineteenth century. He explains that small political units are
aggregating into larger units/systems and large-scale feudal hierarchies are
breaking into smaller ones and this process involves structural change.

In political aspects, Shan system of government is approximately feudal hierarchy

and other system which the Kachins have is known as the gumlao (essentially
anarchistic and equalitarian). Kachin communities oscillate between two polar
type- (a) gumlao (democracy) and (b) Shan autocracy. But a majority of Kachin
communities neither accept gumlao nor Shan as their type but they are organised
according to gumsa system.

However Leach (1954:9) also opines that Kachin social organisation is always
described as ‘gumsa system’, but in social reality, gumsa political structures are
essentially unstable.

Leach believes that structural change means changes in the ideal system itself,
i.e., changes in the power structure. He justifies that a conscious or unconscious
wish to gain power/esteem is a very general motive in human affairs. Leach
(1954:14) opines that, “…ritual action and belief are alike to be understood as
forms of symbolic statement about the social order.”

39
Economic and Political
Organisation
Reflection
Gumsa and Gumlao are the range of ideal-typical forms of social and
political organisation among the Kachins of highland Burma. The
gumlao form is essentially egalitarian and acephalous while the gumsa
form is characterised by ranked lineages and hereditary chieftainship,
mimicking in less stable form their low land Shan neighbours who
lived under a hierarchical system of hereditary princes. Leach
described this system as “a kind of compromise between Gumlao and
Shan ideals” (1954:9)

Leach describes the Hpalang- Kachin Gumsa in the following manner:-

Background of topography; Formal system of structural relations- system of
persisting affinal links between small groups of patrilineal kinsmen; how Hpalang
kinship structure was rationalised by the Kachins?
• Hpalang community has multiple linguistic factions but usually looked like
culturally homogenous. Hpalang which is located close to present frontier
of Burma and China was earlier part of Shan state of Yunnan and became
part of Burma formally after 1896.
• Sub-groups of Hpalong community –Jinghpaw, Gauri, Atsi, Maru, Lisu and
Chinese speaking people.
• However, Kachins consider Hpalan, as a ‘village cluster’ with unequal nine
subdivisions. Subdivisions are termed as ‘Kahtawng’ = village.

Certain features of villages (Kahtawng)

• The households in any one village spoke the same language as their lingua
franca
• Each village had a headman (hereditary).
• The lineage ‘surname’ of head man and village was mostly common.
• Individuals in the villages were linked through affinal ties rather than common
clanship. Lineages are ranked as the chief’s lineage, aristocrats, commoners
and slaves.
• Hpalang was a Gumsa community; it was the domain of a specific aristocratic
lineage which regularly provides the territorial chief (Mung duwa). Chief
(Mung duwa) is the ipsofacto headman in his own village and headman of
all other villages are his tenants- i.e., land title is vested in lineages rather
than in individuals.

The total territory of the domain is owned by a single aristocratic lineage

represented by the chief, and other lineages have tenancy rights in this domain.
Such subordinate lineages are represented in the persons of the various village
headmen. In each village, minor lineages exist who are entrusted with the rights
of the lineage of the headman. This all were in theory and in practice there were
so many claimants for the title of the chief (duwa).

40
 Political Organisations
Reflection
In Hpalang, the headmen of various villages are linked to each other
through clanship and affinity and hence, web of kinship ties crossed
the linguistic barriers for grouping. Generally rival factions did not
intermarry (though it was not a rule) and they usually presented a
solid front to outsiders. Usually the matters of dispute like cases of
water disputes among Kachins during paddy cultivation, were settled
by village headman by arbitration but in case if the dispute was with
a Shan then all allied together against Shan.

Types of lineage in Mayu-dama system of Kachins

• Kahpu-Kamau ni (hpu-nau ni) lineages which are treated as being of the
same clan as ego’s own and are near enough related to form an exogamous
group with ego’s own lineage.
• Mayu ni are lineages from which males of ego’s lineage have recently taken
brides- usual affines.
• Dama ni- lineages into which ternales of ego’s lineage have recently married.
‘Dama’ are vassals of the ‘mayu’ however, in economic terms the goods of real
value go from the ‘dama’ to the ‘mayu’ only. Dama means ‘the permanent
children,’ mayu /dama relationship resembles in many ways that of the father to
the son. It also emphasises the inferior status of the ‘dama’ towards their ‘mayu’.
More permanent ‘mayu-dama’ links serve to display the formal political status
relations between different htinggaw (house hold) lineage groups i.e. ‘dama’ are
political subordinates to ‘mayu’ in theory though it seldom happens in practice.

‘Myth’ of Hpalang Feud

• Idea of territorial locality exists.
• Idea of a village is found.
• Localised lineage segment are found.
On analysis of story of feud it appears that:-
• For Kachins every kind of offence is a debt (hka) which can be settled by
the process of arbitration and compensation.
• Offences like bunglat (feud) calls for heavy penalties and are considered to
justify the offended person in taking violent repraisals.
Causes of feud
• Homicide, unjustified enslavement, accidental wounding of a chief and most
serious one includes ‘death of an unmarried girl while delivering a child’.
• Though in Kachin feuds, the death toll may be less but they can only be
settled by compensation.
• Leach accepts that Kachin feuds were all totally different from those
recounted in ‘myth’ and stories. In actual Kachin feuds, vengeance seems
always to have been achieved by guile rather than valour.

41
Economic and Political Leach (1954:97) also opines that “Had the community been organised on gumlao
Organisation
principles with no aristocrats, no chiefs and no tributary dues, the de-facto situation
would have been almost the same. This is an illustration of the fact that the
contrast between gumsa and gumlao is a difference of ideal order rather than
empirical fact”.

Kachin villages may be independent political units but it is more usual, in the
gumsa system that the villages clustered around a particular peak/ridge and appear
as wards of single settlement. The political relationship between the component
villages of a village cluster is virtually homologous to the relations that exist
between the lineage groups of a single village.

In the cluster of villages (mare) the headman of the senior village if politically
independent is entitled to certain rights like he can receive part of paddy
cultivations from all persons except his home villagers, hind leg of animals
sacrificed or hunted, also entitled to have free labour at his rice field, and paddy
as tribute per household per year and hence such chief with tribute rights is
called ‘thigh- eating chief’.

Settlement claims
Hpaga may be translated as ‘the items which are specified in a statement of
claim’. Leach discusses two types of claim: the ‘claim’ related to transactions of
an ordinary trading type; and a ‘claim’ relating to a civil offence. For the Kachin,
legal claims and commercial claims are alike hka (debts). The only difference is
that with commercial claims the items may be anything, depending on the
circumstances of trade, while, with legal claims, the items are stereotyped
according to a traditional pattern.

Authority - Political and Religious Office

Office of Duwa (chief)
Judicial Role
• Kachins have no native concept of judge.
• Salang hpawng (council of salang) is the judicial body.
• Chief is not a judge but he has a vested interest in law and order as chief
may also dubbed/ become a party in disputes.
Military Role
• In all military and paramilitary activities, the chiefs, even when they initiated
a quarrel did not themselves take a leading part as soldiers.
Economic Role
• Duwa plays a very important role in the distribution of consumption goods.
He is considered as the receiver of tribute and thigh eating chief.
Religious Role
• The chief’s office is a ritual in case of Kachins but not a priestly office.
• He was responsible to carryout certain annual sacrifices on behalf of the
community.
• Priestly office consists of jaiwa- saga teller, Dumsa- priest, Hkinjawng-
42 ritual butcher and Hpunglum- assistant ritual butcher
There is no particular rule for becoming a priest. Diviners (nwawt) and mediums Political Organisations
(myihtoi) are not necessarily priests though the roles are often combined. Mediums
are at higher status than diviners though both play similar type of duties/roles.

Gumsa model:
Descent: Patrilineal lineages and clans, ultimogeniture (youngest son
inherits), each lineage headed by an elder.
Allliance: Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage is the ideal. Clans are
ideal exogamous, but almost always so at the level of the lineage.
Leads to the mayu-dama system in terms of understanding hierarchy:
• Mayu: lineages from which ego’s lineage have taken brides.
• Dama: lineages in which women from ego’s lineage have recently
married.
• Lawu-lahta: recognised as descent relatives, but distant
relationships. Neither mayu nor dama.
• Closely related lineages with which one cannot marry.

Contradictions in the Gumsa ‘Model’

• Mayu/dama relationship is hierarchical.
• If a son-in-law cannot give gifts as bride-price, he must work for
his father-in-law.
• Tendency is for the chief of the village to try to act like a Shan
prince (saohpa) and treat the dama relationships as if they were
feudal serfs.
• At a certain point the dama lineages rebel, instituting a gumlao
‘democracy’

Understanding Kachin Gumlao System

• In this system - all notions regarding hereditary class differences are

repudiated. Gumlao regard gumsa as tyrants and snobs. Gumlao and Gumsa
consider themselves as traditional feud enemies though both are Kachins,
they represent two fundamentally opposed modes of organisation.

• In Gumlao system all villages are considered at equal status and each village
makes its own sacrifice. All lineages are of one rank. Village headman do
not demand debts or expect any tributes from villagers. All the debts in this
system are at very low scale and scale of compensation is not arbitrary.

• Ranking or differentiations between mayu-dama are not a common feature.

System is endogamous in nature.

• In gumsa system, the youngest son ranks highest but in gumlao system no
rank differences exist. All gumlao of a local area consider themselves of a
common clan; lineages are virtually neglected.

• Gumlao ‘headman’ and ‘chief’ are at the same scale of authority and judicial
authority rests with Council of elders (representatives of lineages).
43
Economic and Political
Organisation
Contradictions in the Gumlao ‘Model’
• In principle, all lineages are equal and there should be no
distinction between wife givers and wife receivers.
• However, the terminology and language of mayu and dama is
retained.
• Over time, the mayu lineages try to reassert their authority by
requiring high bride price and the village begins to resemble a
gumsa autocracy.

At village festivals, in this system lineage heads make sacrifices to household

nats and spirits related to founding of the community. Though equality exists in
the system but politically unstable.

Leach’s achievements in this book was to argue against the view that ‘the
boundaries of society and the boundaries of culture can be treated as coincident’
and thereby powerfully to dissolve the older ethnographic fixation on tribes as
bounded entities and wholes, and to unveil for our viewing a landscape of highland
Burma as an open system of many lineages linked in circles of wife givers (mayu)
and wife takers (dama).

Kachin Gumsa type social order was not inherently unstable and threatened with
break up by virtue of internal intra-kinship processes generated by the marriage
rules towards greater inequality and imbalances as Levi-Strauss maintained; what
has to be considered in a fuller analysis is how arrangements by which a women
travel ‘down’ and marriage goods move up in compensation are interlinked with
territorial sovereignty, land tenure, and patron client relations, so as to maintain
a dynamic tension a stratified political system of the Gumsa type. Leach provides
an elegant analysis of how the prescriptive marriage exchange among the Kachin
is integrally linked up with and sustained by the wider political and economic
circumstances. Leach appears to be asserting that the Gumsa system can be
presented as stable and in equilibrium in terms of a ‘model’ but that in fact it was
an ‘unstable’ form owing to various dynamic processes (cf. Tambiah 1998:313).

3.5.4 Conclusion
Conclusively, it be said that the three categories of the ideal political order that
the Kachin themselves used in their political dialogues were gumlao and gumsa,
which were respectively ‘democratic egalitarian’, and ‘ranked-aristocratic’ in
their connotations and which gave conceptual gloss and a mental ordering to
their own activities; the third, Shan, pertained to the monarchical/feudal
conceptual ordering of the neighbouring valley centered people. In Leach’s
language gumlao and gumsa categories are ‘transformations’ of each other in the
mathematical/structuralist sense. The Shan model is predicated on entirely
different principles for example, the Shan chief who is polygamous receives
wives and concubines as ‘tributes’ from his petty chiefs and political subordinates
and as wife-taker is superior to the givers thus reversing the Kachin mayu-dama
(wife-giver-wife-taker) evaluation; and building blocks of Shan monarchical
polity are not segmentary descent lineages. A fundamental misunderstanding is
generated when a Kachin chief gives a wife to a Shan prince: the former in his
own terms as mayu is the ritual superior; the latter in accepting a tributary gift

44
from a political subordinate is in his terms the superior overlord. Therefore the Political Organisations
Shan model is not a transformation of the gumlao-gumsa dyad; individual gumsa
Kachin chiefs may try to ‘become’ Shan by adopting Shan pretensions and claims,
but such developments are subverted by the Kachin themselves whose basic
valuations and practices resisted this kind of political subjection. (cf. Tambiah
1998: 314). Leach’s explication of the gap between ‘ideal categories’ and ‘actual
behaviour’, ‘rule and practice’ focused on how individual Kachin actors driven
by self-interested power motives instrumentally manipulated the ambiguous
meanings and contested the application of those categories to their on the ground
situation.

3.6 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
Edmund Leach’s work on the Kachins of Burma is an exemplary contribution to
the understanding of society as a process in time. The functional approach that
studied how society was an ordered arrangement of parts also promoted a
typological work – finding out the types of society. Leach says that these different
types are not ‘distinct categories’, but one changes into the other over time,
depending upon several external factors. Instead of creating types of society, we
should see these types are aspects of process. The ‘types’ of society are always in
flux. This approach is known as ‘processual’.

3.7 SUMMARY
Evans-Pritchard’s work among the Nuer has elaborately described how in a
headless society the political and administrative functions are executed by the
leopard skin chief who is basically a ritual agent. This study is a classic in itself
and has added to the understanding and further research in such avenues. Leach’s
work on the Kachin’s of highland Burma looks at the political system from a
processual approach and he examined the society as a dynamic entity. The work
explained the nuances of wife taker and giver which basically formed the building
blocks of administrative hierarchy.

References

Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1940. The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood

and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Fortes, Meyer. 1953. “The Structure of Unilineal Descent Groups”. American

Anthropologist New Series 55:17–41.

Leach, Edmund. R. 1954. Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin

Social Structure. A publication of the London School of Economics and Political
Science. London School of Economics and Political Science; Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press.

Tambiah, Stanley J. 1998. ‘Edmund Ronald Leach 1910-1989’. Proceedings of

The British Academy 1997. p 293-344. The British Academy.

45
Economic and Political Suggested Reading
Organisation
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1940. The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood
and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Leach, E.R 1954. Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social
Structure. Cambridge. Mass: Harvard University Press.

Sample Questions
1) What type of political organisations exists among the Nuers and the Kachins?
2) Try to compare ‘feud’ among the Nuers and the Kachins.

46
 UNIT 4 POLITICAL POWER AND
DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES
Contents
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Political Power: Some Definitions
4.2.1 Band
4.2.2 Tribe
4.2.3 Big-man and Big-woman System
4.2.4 Chiefdoms
4.2.5 States

4.3 Social Control in Small-scale Societies

4.4 Social Control in States
4.4.1 Specialisation
4.4.2 Trials and Courts
4.4.3 Prison and Death Penalty

4.5 Resolution of Conflicts

4.5.1 Peaceful Resolution of Conflict
4.5.2 Avoidance
4.5.3 Community Action
4.5.4 Negotiation and Mediation
4.5.5 Ritual Reconciliation-Apology
4.5.6 Oaths and Ordeals
4.5.7 Violent Resolutions of Conflict
4.5.8 Individual Violence
4.5.9 Feuding
4.5.10 Raiding
4.5.11 Large-scale Confrontations

4.6 Distribution of Resources

4.6.1 The Allocation of Resources
4.6.2 The Conversion of Resources
4.6.3 Types of Economic Production
4.7 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives

The main objective of this unit is to make the students understand the:
 different types of political organisations existing in human society and their
basic features;
 distribution of power and social control mechanisms in simple society;
48  different types of conflict resolution systems;
 allocation and utilisation of natural resources in human society; Political Power and
Distribution of Resources
 distribution of goods and services; and
 marketing exchanges.

4.1 INTRODUCTION
Political organisations refers to groups that exist for the purpose of public decision
making and leadership, maintaining social cohesion and order, protecting group
rights, and ensuring safety from external threats. Political organisations have several
features:
 Recruitment principles: Criteria for determining admission to the unit.
 Perpetuity: Assumption that the group will continue to exist indefinitely.
 Identity markers: Particular characteristics that distinguish it from others, such
as costume, membership card, or title.
 Internal organisation: An orderly arrangement of members in relation to each
other.
 Procedures: Prescribed rules and practices for behaviour of group members.
 Autonomy: Ability to regulate its own affairs. (Tiffany, 1979:71-72)
Social anthropologists cluster the many forms of political organisations that occur
cross-culturally into four major types. The four types of political organisations
(given below) correspond, generally, to the major economic forms. Societies in the
ethnographic record vary in level of political integration- that is, the largest territorial
group on whose behalf political activities are organised- and in the degree to
which political authority is centralised or concentrated in the integrated group.
When we describe the political authority of particular societies, we focus on their
traditional political systems. In many societies known to anthropology, the small
community (band or village) was traditionally the largest territorial group on whose
behalf political activities were organised. The authority structure in such societies
did not involve any centralisation; there was no political authority whose jurisdiction
included more than one community. In other societies political activities were
traditionally organised sometimes on behalf of multilocal groups, but there was no
permanent authority at the top. And in still other societies political activities were
often traditionally organised on behalf of multilocal territorial groups, and these
have been incorporated into some larger, centralised political system (Ember,
2007: 420). Elman Service (1962) suggested that most societies can be classified
into four principal types of political organisations: bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and
states. Although Service’s classification does not fit for all societies, it is a useful
way to show how societies vary in trying to create and maintain social order. We
often use the present tense in our discussion, because that is the convention in
ethnographic writing, but the reader should remember that most societies that used
to be organised at the band, tribe, or chiefdom level are now incorporated into
larger political entities. With a handful of exceptions, there are no politically
autonomous bands or tribes or chiefdoms in the world any more.

49
Economic and Political
Organisations 4.2 POLITICAL POWER: SOME DEFINITIONS
4.2.1 Band
Band is the form of political organisation found among foragers and hunters
comprising anywhere between twenty people and a few hundred people, who are
related through kinship. Because foraging has been the most long-standing form of
political organisation, these units come together at certain times of the year,
depending upon their foraging patterns and ritual schedule (Barbara D. Miller,
2002).
Band membership is flexible. If a person has serious disagreement with another
person, one option is to leave that band and join another. Leadership is informal,
and no one person is named as a permanent leader. Depending on events, such
as organising the group to relocate or to send people out to hunt, a particular
person may come to the fore as a leader for that time. This is usually someone
whose advice and knowledge about the task are especially respected. (ibid)
There is no social stratification between leaders and followers. A band leader is
the “first among equals”. Band leaders have limited authority or influence, but no
power. They cannot enforce their opinions. Social leveling mechanisms prevent
anyone from accumulating much authority or influence. Political activity in bands
involves mainly decision making about migration, food distribution, and resolution
of interpersonal conflicts. External conflicts between groups are rare because the
territories of different bands are widely separated and the population density is
low (ibid).
The band level organisation barely qualifies as a form of political organisation
because groups are flexible, leadership is ephemeral, and there are no signs or
emblems of political affiliation. Some anthropologists argue that “real” politics did
not exist in undisturbed band societies. The Guayaki (Amazon basin), the Semang
(Malaya peninsula), Iglulik Eskimo, the Kung (Africa), the Cholanaikans (Kerala),
Andaman tribes are some examples of Band organisation (ibid).

4.2.2 Tribe
A tribe is a political group comprising several bands or lineage groups, each with
similar language and lifestyle and occupying a distinct territory. Kinship is the
primary basis of tribal membership. Tribal groups contain from a hundred to
several thousand people. They are usually associated with horticulture and
pastoralism. Tribal groups may be connected to each other through a clan structure
in which members claim descent from a common ancestor. Tribal political
organisation is more formal than band-level organisation. A tribal headman or
headwoman (most are males) is formally recognised as a leader. Key qualifications
for this position are being hard working and generous and possessing good personal
skills. A headman is a political leader on a part-time basis only, yet this role is
more demanding than that of a band leader. Depending on the mode of production,
a headman will be in charge of determining the times for moving herds, planting
and harvesting, and setting the time for seasonal feasts and celebrations. Internal
and external conflict resolution is also his responsibility. A headman relies mainly
on authority and persuasion rather than on power (Barbara D. Miller, 2002).
Pastoralist tribal formations are sometimes linked in a confederacy, with local
segments maintaining substantial autonomy. The local segments meet usually at an
50 annual festival. In case of an external threat, the confederacy gathers together.
Once the threat is removed, local units resume their autonomy. The equality and Political Power and
Distribution of Resources
autonomy of units, along with their ability to unite and then split, are referred to
as a segmentary model of political organisation. This form of tribal organisation is
found among pastoralists worldwide. The Tiv (Nigeria), the Nuer (Sudan), the
Oran, the Santal, the Bhil, the Gond are examples of Tribal political organisations
(ibid).

4.2.3 Big-man and Big-woman Systems

In between tribe and chiefdom is the big-man system or big-woman system.
Certain individuals develop political leadership following through a system of
redistribution based on personal ties, generosity and grand feasts. Research in
Melanesia, and Papua New Guinea established the existence of the big-man type
of politics, and most references to it are from this region. Personalistic, favour-
based political groupings are found in other regions too.
Unlike a tribal headman, a big-man or big-woman has a wider following across
several villages. A big-man tends to have greater wealth than his followers. Core
supporters of a big-man have heavy responsibilities in regulating internal affairs-
cultivation-and external affairs-intergroup feasts, exchange of goods, and war. In
some instances, a big-man is assisted by a group of respected men hailing from
big-man’s different constituencies.

4.2.4 Chiefdoms
Chiefdom is a form of political organisation with a central leader encompassing
several smaller political units. Chiefdoms have larger populations, often numbering
in thousands, and are more centralised and socially complex. Hereditary systems
of social ranking and economic stratification are found in many chiefdoms, with
social divisions existing between the chiefly lineage or lineages and non-chiefly
groups. Chiefs and their descendents are considered superior to commoners, and
intermarriage between two strata is forbidden. Chiefs are expected to be generous,
but they may have a more luxurious lifestyle than the rest of the people. The chief
ship as “office” must be filled at all times. When a chief dies or retires, he or
she must be replaced. This is not the case with a band leader or big-man or
big-woman. A chief regulates production and redistribution, solves internal conflicts,
and plans and leads raids and warring expeditions. Criteria for becoming a chief
are: ascribed criteria (birth in a chiefly lineage, or being the first son or daughter
of the chief), personal leadership skills, charisma, and accumulated wealth.
Chiefdoms have existed in most parts of the world.
Anthropologists are interested in how and why chiefdom systems evolved as an
intermediary units between tribes and states and what are its political implications.
Several political strategies support the expansion of power in chiefdoms: controlling
more internal and external wealth and giving feasts and gift exchanges that create
debt ties; improving local production systems; applying force internally; forging
stronger and wider external ties; and controlling ideological legitimacy. Depending
on local conditions, different strategies are employed. For example, internal control
of irrigation systems was the most important factor in the emergence of chiefdoms
in prehistoric southeastern Spain; whereas control of external trade was more
important in the prehistoric Aegean region (Gilman 1991).
An expanded version of the chiefdom occurs when several chiefdoms are joined
in a confederacy headed by chief of chiefs, “big chief”, or paramount chief. Many
51
Economic and Political prominent confederacies have existed- for example, in Hawaii in the late 1700s
Organisations
and, in North America, the Iroquois league of five nations that stretched across
New York State, the Cherokee of Tennessee, and the Algonquins who dominated
the Chesaeapeake region in present-day Virginia and Maryland. In Algonquin
confederacy, each village had a chief, and the regional council was composed of
local chiefs and headed by the paramount chief. Confederacies were supported
financially by contributions of grain from each local unit. Kept in a central storage
area where the paramount chief lived, the grain was used to feed warriors during
external warfare that maintained and expanded the confederacy’s borders. A council
building existed in the central location, where local chiefs came together to meet
with the paramount chief to deliberate on questions of internal and external policy.

4.2.5 States
State is a form of political organisation with a bureaucracy and diversified
governmental institutions with varying degrees of centralised control. The state is
now the form of political organisation in which all people live. Band organisations,
tribes, and chiefdoms exist, but they are incorporated within state structures.
Powers of the state: socio cultural anthropologists ask how states operate and
relate to their citizens. In this inquiry, they focus on the enhanced power that states
have over their domain compared to other forms of political organisation. (Barbara
D. Miller, 2002)
 States define citizenship and its rights and responsibilities. In complex
societies, since early times, not all residents were granted equal rights of
citizens.
 States maintain standing armies and police (as opposed to part-time forces).
 States keep track of the number, age, gender, location, and wealth of
their citizens through census system that are regularly updated. A census
allows the state to maintain formal taxation systems, military recruitment, and
policy planning, including population settlement, immigration quotas, and social
benefits such as old-age pensions.
 States have the power to extract resources from citizens through taxation.
All political organisations are supported by contributions of the members, but
variations occur in the rate of contributions expected, the form in which they
are paid, and the return that members get in terms of services. In bands,
people voluntarily give time or labour for “public projects” such as a group
hunt or a planned move. Public finance in states is based on formal taxation
that takes many forms. In-kind taxation is a system of mandatory, non-cash
contributions to the state. For example, the Inca state used a labour tax, to
finance public works such as roads and monuments and to provide agricultural
labour on state lands. Another form of in-kind taxation in early states required
that farmers pay a percentage of their crop yield. Cash taxes, such as the
income tax that takes a percentage of wages, emerged only in the past few
hundred years.
 States manipulate information. Control of information to protect the state
and its leaders can be done directly (through censorship, restricting access to
certain information by the public, and promotion of favourable images via
propaganda) and indirectly (through pressure on journalists and television
52 networks to present information in certain ways).
Symbols of State Power: Religious beliefs and symbols are often closely tied to Political Power and
Distribution of Resources
the power of state leadership: the ruler may be considered a deity or part deity,
or a high priest of the state religion, or closely linked with the high priest, who
serves as advisor. Architecture and urban planning remind the populace of the
power of the state. In pre- Hispanic Mexico, the central plaza of city- states, such
as Tenochtitlan was symbolically equivalent to the center of the cosmos and was
thus the locale of greatest significance. The most important temples and the residence
of the head of state were located around the plaza. Other houses and structures,
in decreasing order of status, were located on avenues in decreasing proximity to
the center. The grandness and individual character of the leader’s residence indicate
power, as do monuments-especially tombs to past leaders and heroes or heroines
(Barbara D. Miller, 2002).

4.3 SOCIAL CONTROL IN SMALL-SCALE

SOCIETIES
Anthropologists distinguish between small-scale societies and large scale societies
in terms of prevalent forms of conflict resolution, social order, and punishment of
offenses. Because bands are small, close-knit groups, disputes tend to be handled
at the interpersonal level through discussion or one-on-one fights.
Group members may act together to punish an offender through shaming and
ridicule. Emphasis is on maintaining social order and restoring social equilibrium,
not hurtfully punishing an offender. Ostracising an offending member (forcing the
person to leave the group) is a common means of formal punishment. Capital
punishment is rare but not nonexistent. For example, in some Australian Aboriginal
societies, a law restrict access to religious rituals and paraphernalia to men who
had gone through a ritual initiation. If an initiated man shared secrets with an
uninitiated man, the elders would delegate one of their groups to kill the offender.
In such instances, the elders act like a court.
In non-state societies, punishment is often legitimised through belief in supernatural
forces and their ability to affect people. Among highland horticulturalists of the
Indonesian island of Sumba, one of the greatest offenses is to fail to keep a
promise which lead to supernatural assault from the ancestors. The punishment
may come in the form of damage to crops, illness or death of a relative, destruction
of the offender’s house, or having clothing catch on fire. When such a disaster
occurs, the only recourse is to sponsor a ritual that will appease the ancestors.
Village fission (breaking up) and ostracism are mechanisms for dealing with
irresolvable conflict. The overall goal in dealing with conflict in small-scale societies
is to return the group to harmony. Data on conflict resolution from nonhuman
primate groups also demonstrate the importance of re-establishing peaceful
interactions between former opponents as a way of promoting small-group harmony.

4.4 SOCIAL CONTROL IN STATES

In densely populated societies with more social stratification and more wealth
increased stress occurs in relation to the distribution of surplus, inheritance, and
rights to land. In addition, not everyone else, and face- to-face accountability
exists mainly in localised groups. Three important factors of state system of social
control are the increased specialisation of roles involved in social control, the
formalised use of trials and courts, and the use of power-enforced forms of
53
Economic and Political punishment, such as prisons and the death penalty. Yet informal mechanism also
Organisations
exists.

4.4.1 Specialisation
The specialisation of tasks related to law and order-police, judges, lawyers-
increases with the emergence of state organisation. Full-time professionals, , such
as judges and lawyers, often come from powerful or elite social groups, a fact
that perpetuates elite bias in the justice process itself. Police carry out the duty
of surveillance, maintain social order, book cases against the culprits and implement
the judgments pronounced in the courts.

4.4.2 Trials and Courts

In societies where misdoing and punishment are defined by spirits and ancestors,
a person’s guilt is proved simply by the fact that misfortune has befallen him or
her. If a person’s crops were damaged by lightning, then that person must have
done something wrong. In other instances, the guilt may be determined through
trial by ordeal, a form of trial in which the accused person is put through some
kind of test that is often painful. For example, in certain cases, the guilty person
will be required to place a hand in boiling oil, or to have a part of the body
touched by red-hot knife. Being burned is a sign of guilt, whereas not being
burned means the suspect is innocent.
The court system, with lawyers, judge, and jury, is used in many contemporary
societies, although there is variation in how cases are presented and juries
constituted. The goal of contemporary court trials is to ensure both justice and
fairness. Analysis of actual courtroom dynamics and patterns of decision making
in the United States and elsewhere, however, reveals serious problems in achieving
these goals.

4.4.3 Prisons and Death Penalty

Administering punishment involves imposing something unpleasant on someone
who has committed an offence. Socio-cultural anthropologists have examined forms
of punishment cross-culturally, as well as the relationship between types of societies
and forms of punishment. In small-scale societies, punishment is socially rather
than judicially managed. The most extreme form of punishment is usually ostracism
and is rarely death. Another common form of punishment, in the case of theft or
murder, especially in the Middle East, is the requirement that the guilty party pay
compensation to members of the victim’s family.
The prison, as a place where people are forcibly detained as a form of punishment,
has a long history, but it probably did not predate the state. In Europe, long-term
detention of prisoners did not become common until the seventeenth century.

4.5 RESOLUTION OF CONFLICT

Apart from formulation of policies, their administration, and their enforcement,
political life also involves the resolution of conflict, which may be accomplished
peacefully by avoidance, community action, mediation or the negotiation of
compromises, apology, appeal to supernatural forces, or adjudication by a third
party. The procedures used usually vary with degree of social complexity; decisions
by third parties are more likely to exist in hierarchical societies. But peaceful
solutions are not always possible, and disputes may erupt into violent conflicts.
54 When violence occurs within a political unit in which disputes are usually settled
peacefully, we call such violence crime, particularly when committed by an Political Power and
Distribution of Resources
individual. When violence occurs between groups of people from separate political
units- groups between which there is no procedure for settling disputes- we usually
call such violence warfare. When violence occurs between subunits of a population
that had been politically unified, we call it civil war.

4.5.1 Peaceful Resolution of Conflict

Most modern industrialised states have formal institutions and offices, such as
police, district attorneys, courts, and penal systems, to deal with various types of
disputes and conflicts. All these institutions generally operate according to codified
laws- that are, a set of explicit, usually written, rules stipulating what is permissible
and what is not. Transgression of the law by individuals gives the state right to take
action against them. The state has monopoly on the legitimate use of force in the
society, for it alone has the right to coerce subjects into agreement with regulations,
customs, political edicts and procedures.
Many societies lack such specialised offices and institutions for dealing with conflict.
Yet, because all societies have peaceful, regularised ways of handling at least
certain disputes, some anthropologists speak of the universality of law. E.
Adamson Hoebel (1968), for example, stated the principle as follows:
Each people have its system of social control. And all but a few of the poorest
of them have as a part of the control system a complex of behaviour patterns and
institutional mechanisms that we may properly treat as law. For, “anthropologically
considered, law is merely one aspect of culture- the aspect which employs the
force organised society to regulate individual and group conduct and to prevent
redress or punish deviations from prescribed social norms.” (Hoebel, 2006: 4)
Law, then, whether informal as in simpler societies, provides a means of dealing
peacefully with whatever conflicts develop. That does not mean that conflicts are
always resolved peacefully. But that also does not mean that people cannot learn
to resolve their conflicts peacefully. The fact that there are societies with little or
no violent conflict means that it may be possible to learn from them; it may be
possible to discover how to avoid violent outcomes of conflicts.

4.5.2 Avoidance
Violence can often be avoided if the parties to a dispute voluntarily avoid each
other or are separated until emotions cool down. Anthropologists have frequently
remarked that foragers are particularly likely to make use of this technique. People
may move to other bands or move their dwellings to opposite ends of camp.
Shifting horticulturalists may also split up when conflicts get too intense. Avoidance
is obviously easier in societies, such as band societies, that are nomadic or semi
nomadic and in which people have temporary dwellings. And avoidance is more
feasible when people live independently and self sufficiently (for example, in cities
and suburbs). But even if conditions in such societies may make avoidance easier,
we still need to know why some societies use avoidance more than confrontation
as a way of resolving conflict (Ember et. al, 2007).

4.5.3 Community Action

Societies resort to various methods, to resolve disputes in an amicable way. One
such way involves community action in simpler societies that lack powerful
authoritarian leaders. Among the Inuit, disputes are frequently resolved through
community action. The Inuit believe that spirits, particularly if displeased, can 55
Economic and Political determine much of a person’s fate. Consequently, people carry out their daily
Organisations
tasks within a complex system of taboos. This system is so extensive that the Inuit,
at least in the past, may have had no need for formal set of laws.
Nevertheless, conflicts do arise and needs to be resolved. Accordingly, principles
act as guides to the community in settling trouble cases. An individual’s failure to
heed a taboo or to follow the suggestions of a shaman leads to expulsion from the
group, because the community cannot accept a risk to its livelihood. A person who
fails to share goods voluntarily will find them confiscated and distributed to the
community, and he or she may be executed in the process. A single case of
murder, as an act of vengeance (usually because of the abduction of a wife or as
part of a blood feud), does not concern the community, but repeated murders do
(Ember et. al. 2007: 432). The killing of an individual is the most extreme action
a community can take- we call it capital punishment. The community as a whole
or a political official or a court may decide to impose such punishment, but capital
punishment seems to exist nearly in all societies, from the simple to the most
complex. It is often assumed that capital punishment deters crime. If it did, we
would expect the abolition of capital punishment to be followed by an increase in
homicide rates. But that does not seem to happen. A cross-national study indicated
that the abolition of capital punishment tends to be followed by a decrease in
homicide rates.

4.5.4 Negotiation and Mediation

In many conflicts, the parties to a dispute may come to a settlement themselves
by negotiation. There aren’t necessarily any rules for how they will do so, but
any solution is “good” if it restores peace. Sometimes an outsider or third party
is used to help bring about a settlement between the disputants. We call it
mediation when the outside party tries to help bring about a settlement, but that
third party does not have the formal authority to force a settlement. Both negotiation
and mediation are likely when the society is relatively egalitarian and it is important
for people to get along.

4.5.5 Ritual Reconciliation-Apology

The desire to restore a harmonious relationship may also explain ceremonial
apologies. An apology is based on deference- the guilty party shows obeisance
and asks for forgiveness. Such ceremonies tend to occur in chiefdoms. Among the
Fijians of the South Pacific, there is a strong ethic of harmony and mutual assistance,
particularly within a village. When a person offends some one of higher status, the
offended person and other villagers begin to avoid, and gossip about, the offender.
If the offender is sensitive to village opinion, he or she will perform a ceremony
of apology called soro. One of the meanings of soro is “surrender”. In the ceremony
the offender keeps her or his head bowed and remains silent while intermediary
speaks, presents a token gift, and asks the offended person for forgiveness (Ember,
1993:241).

4.5.6 Oaths and Ordeals

Still another way of peacefully resolving disputes is through oaths and ordeals,
both of which involve appeals to supernatural power. An oath is the act of calling
upon a deity to bear witness to the truth of what one says. An ordeal is a means
used to determine guilt or innocence by submitting the accused to dangerous or
painful tests believed to be supernatural control (Ember, 1993:241).
56
4.5.7 Violent Resolutions of Conflict Political Power and
Distribution of Resources
People are likely to resort to violence when regular, effective alternative means of
resolving a conflict are not available. Some societies consider violence between
individuals to be appropriate under certain circumstances; which we generally do
not consider, and call it crime. When violence occurs between political entities
such as communities, districts, or nations, we call it warfare. The type of warfare,
of course, varies in scope and complexity from society to society. Sometimes a
distinction is made among feuding, raiding, and large-scale confrontations (Ember
et. al. 2007:435).

4.5.8 Individual Violence

Although at first it may seem paradoxical, violent behaviour itself is often used to
control behaviour. In some societies it is considered necessary for parents to beat
children who misbehave. They consider this punishment and not criminal behaviour
or child abuse. Violence between adults can be similarly viewed. If a person
trespasses on one’s property or hurts someone, some societies consider it
appropriate or justified to kill or maim the trespasser. Is this social control, or is
it just lack of control? Most societies have norms about when such “punishment”
is or is not appropriate, so the behaviour of anyone who contemplates doing
something wrong, as well as the behaviour of the person wronged, is likely to be
influenced by the “laws” of their society (Ember et. al. 2007: 436)

4.5.9 Feuding
Feuding is an example of how individual self-help may not lead to a peaceful
resolution of conflict. Feuding is a state of recurring hostilities between families
or groups of kin, usually motivated by a desire to avenge an offense- whether
insult, injury, deprivation, or death- against a member of the group. The most
common characteristic of the feud is that responsibility to avenge is carried by all
members of the kin group. The killing of any member of the offender’s group is
considered an appropriate revenge, because the kin group as a whole is regarded
as responsible. Nicholas Gubser told of a feud within a Nunamiut Inuit community,
caused by a husband’s killing of his wife’s lover that lasted for decades. Feuds are
by no means limited to small-scale societies; they occur as frequently in societies
with high levels of political organisation (Ember et. al 2007: 436).

4.5.10 Raiding
Raiding is a short-term use of force, planned and organised, to realise a limited
objective. This objective is usually the acquisition of goods, animals, or other
forms of wealth belonging to another, often neighboring community. Raiding is
prevalent in pastoral societies, in which, cattle, horses, camels, or other animals
are prised and an individual’s own herd can be augmented by theft. Raids are
often organised by temporary leaders or coordinators whose authority may not
last beyond planning and execution of the venture. Raiding may also be organised
for the purpose of capturing persons either to marry or to keep as concubines
or as slaves. Slavery has been practiced in about 33 percent of the world’s
known societies, and war has been one way of obtaining slaves either to keep or
to trade for other goods (ibid).

4.5.11 Large-scale Confrontations

Both feuding and raiding usually involve relatively small numbers of the persons 57
Economic and Political and almost always an element of surprise. Because they are generally attacked
Organisations
without warning, the victims are often unable to muster an immediate defense.
Large-scale confrontations, in contrast, involve a large number of persons and
planning by both sides of strategies of attack and defense. Large-scale warfare is
usually practiced among societies with intensive agriculture or industrialisation.
Only these societies possess a technology sufficiently advanced to support
specialised armies, military leaders, strategies, and so on (Ember, 1993: 494).

4.6 DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES

As Ember (1993, 2007) states when one thinks of economies, we think of things
and activities involving money. We think of the costs of goods and services, such
as food, rent, haircuts, and movie tickets. We may also think of factories, farms,
and other enterprises that produce the goods and services we need, or think we
need. All societies have customs specifying how people gain accesses to natural
resources; customary ways of transforming or converting those resources, through
labour, into necessities and other desired goods and services; and customs for
distributing and perhaps exchanging goods and services.

4.6.1 The Allocation of Resources

Herein, we would not go into much depth as this part has been discussed in length
in the earlier unit. Thus, a quick recapitulation will be done through an activity. If
help is required please refer to the earlier unit.
Activity

Enumerate with examples how the allocation of resources varies between the
a) food collectors, b) horticulturalists and c) pastoralists.

4.6.2 The Conversion of Resources

In all societies, resources have to be transformed or converted through labour into
food, tools and other goods. These activities constitute what economists call
production. In this section, after briefly reviewing different types of production, we
examine what motivates people to work, how societies divide up the work to be
done, and how they organise work. As we shall see, some aspects of the conversion
of natural resources are culturally universal, but there is also an enormous amount
of cultural variation (Ember et. al 2007: 307).

4.6.3 Types of Economic Production

Most societies that anthropologists study had domestic – family or kinship based
– mode of production. People laboured to get food and to produce shelter and
implements for themselves and their kin. Usually families had the right to exploit
productive resources and control the products of their labour. Even part-time
specialists, such as potters, could still support themselves without that craft if they
needed to. At the other extreme are industrial societies, where much of the work
is based on mechanised production, as in factories and mechanised agriculture.
Because machines and materials are costly, only some individuals (capitalists),
corporations, or governments can afford the expenses of production. Therefore,
most people in industrial societies work for others as wage earners. Although
wages can buy food, people out of work lose their ability to support themselves,
unless they are protected by welfare payments or unemployment insurance. Then
there is the tributary type of production system, found in non-industrial societies
58
in which most people still produce their own food but an elite or aristocracy Political Power and
Distribution of Resources
controls a portion of production (including the products of specialised crafts). The
feudal societies of medieval Western Europe were examples of tributary production,
as was czarist Russia under serfdom (Ember et. al, 2007:307).

4.7 SUMMARY
The main functions of political organisation in simple societies are maintaining
social order, promote resolutions for conflicts, to fulfill these functions it has to be
organised and should have hierarchical society to give head position to one, whom
the rest of the dwellers of that particular society will obey. However, the modern
political system has become a threat for the sustenance of the traditional political
system. Being dominant the modern political system is attracting the attention of
many people in the simple societies. But traditional political system has not become
extinct, though there is a possibility that they too might become extinct. When we
talk about traditional economic system of simple societies we observe the exchange
of goods and services not the money that is being transacted as in modern economic
system and in market. These exchanges in simple societies are not merely the
exchanges of goods and services but it is to maintain the human relations by the
exchanges especially to strengthen the kin relations and inter tribe relations. But
again modern market which has more monetary interest rather than maintaining
human relations has become a threat to traditional economic system.
References
Barbara D. Mille. 2002. Cultural Anthropology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Ember, Carol. R. 1993. Cultural Anthropology. Prentice Hall.
Ember, Carol. Melvin Ember & Peter N Pererine. 2007. Anthropology. (12th
edition). Dorling Kindersley (India Pvt. Ltd) New Delhi: India Binding House.
__________________ 2003. Anthropology. Patparganj. Delhi: Pearson Education
pte. Ltd.
Gilman, Antonio. 1974. ‘The Development of Social Stratification in Orange Age
Europe’. Current Anthropology. Vol 22:1–23.
Hoebel, E. Adamson. 1968. The Law of Primitive Man: A Study in Comparative
Legal Dynamics. Reprint 2006 (First Harvard University Paperback edition).
New York: Atheneum.
James, Peoples & Garrick Bailey. 1995. Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural
Anthropology. St. Paul New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco: West Publishing
Company.
Service, Elman R. 1962. Primitive Social Organisation: An Evolutionary
Perspective. New York: Random House.
__________________ 1975. Origins of the State and Civilisation: The Process
of Cultural Evolution. New York: Norton.
__________________ 1979. The Hunters. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall.

59
Economic and Political Tiffany, Water.W. 1979. ‘New Directions in Political Anthropology: The Use of
Organisations
Corporate Models for the Analysis of Political Organisations’. Political
Anthropology: State of The Art. S.Lee Seaton and Henri J.M. Claessen (ed.) –
Pp.63-75. Newyork: Houton.
Suggested Reading
Barbara D. Mille. 2002. Cultural Anthropology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Ember, Carol. Melvin Ember & Peter N Pererine. 2007. Anthropology. (12th
edition). Dorling Kindersley (India Pvt. Ltd) New Delhi: India Binding House.
Service, Elman R. 1962. Primitive Social Organisation: An Evolutionary
Perspective. New York: Random House.
Sample Questions
1) Briefly discuss the different types of political organisations and its main features
in human society?
2) Examine the various forms of punishment and conflict resolution mechanism
practiced in human society?
3) Write an essay on distribution of goods and services in simple society?

60
 Social Organisation
UNIT 1 SOCIAL ORGANISATION

Contents
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography The Nuer: A Description of the
Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People is an
Example
1.3 Description of the Ethnography
1.3.1 Intellectual context
1.3.2 Fieldwork
1.3.3 Analysis of data
1.3.4 Conclusion
1.4 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
1.5 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography Coming of Age in Somoa is an
Example
1.6 Description of the Ethnography
1.6.1 Intellectual context
1.6.2 Fieldwork
1.6.3 Analysis of data
1.6.4 Conclusion
1.7 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
1.8 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives 
In this Unit, we shall learn:
 the principle of social organisation;

 role of groups in defining social organisation; and

 the role of socialisation in the maintenance of social organisation.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Social organisation and kinship were among the first elements studied in the
formative years of anthropology. These studies have considerably influenced the
discipline as well as Western views on indigenous cultures.

The study of social organisation and the systems of thought and values reflect
and inform social practice in different cultures. Anthropologists examine social
patterns and practices across cultures, with a special focus on how people live in
different places and how they organise, govern, and create a set of meanings.
Research in social and cultural anthropology is distinguished by its emphasis on
participant observation, which involves placing oneself in the research context

5
Economic and Political for extended periods of time to gain a first-hand sense of how local knowledge is
Organisation
put to work and how the society functions as an organised whole. Participant
observation was used extensively by Frank Hamilton Cushing in his study of the
Zuni Indians in the later part of the nineteenth century, followed by the studies of
non-Western societies by people such as Brownislaw Malinowski, E.E. Evans-
Pritchard, Margaret Mead and several others.
Many ethnographic works provide an insight into the social organisation of the
communities. In this unit two such monographs are discussed which have
tremendously contributed to enriching the discipline of anthropology as a whole.

1.2 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY The Nuer: A Description of the
Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a
Nilotic People IS AN EXAMPLE
Evans-Pritchard’s goal of elaborating Nuer social structure places his theoretical
orientation within a larger body of anthropological work being conducted during
the early half of the twentieth century. His work expresses an interest in social
facts, an idea borrowed from Emile Durkheim. Evans-Pritchard is generally
identified as a follower of the structural-functional approach but he was far from
considering social anthropology as a branch of natural science, as did his
predecessor, Professor A. R. Radcliffe-Brown. For Evans-Pritchard, social
anthropology was a kind of historiography, the aim of which was to abstract the
relations between groups that persisted over times. These inter-group relations
were constant and consistent.

1.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

1.3.1 Intellectual Context
The Nuer was a product of the age when social anthropology was no more an
encyclopaedic study of the facts of the so called ‘primitive’ societies. Social
anthropology was understood as a theoretical science of society; the aim was to
arrive at a general understanding of the society as a whole.

1.3.2 Fieldwork
The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of
a Nilotic People, written by Sir Edward E. Evans-Pritchard published in 1948
may be described as an important case study in anthropology which is still read
in connection with how societies without a centralised authority survived and
maintained order. He was one of the first anthropologists working in Africa who
carried out a fieldwork of nine months with the Nuer. He published three
ethnographies on the Nuer- on their political institutions, kinship, and religion
which are now classics in the field and studied by many students of anthropology.
In addition, Evans-Pritchard carried out fieldwork with other African communities
and published articles on them, but his work on the Nuer is always read in
connection with the concept of social organisation, political institutions, religion,
and inter-tribal relations. Some instrumental practices (like woman-woman
marriage, ghost marriage) have become immortal because of Evans-Pritchard’s
6 work.
1.3.3 Analysis of Data Social Organisation

The Nuer contains a description of the tribe’s cattle complex, oecology, time
and space, political system, lineage system, age-set system. An in-depth study of
these provides an insight of the ways in which the Nuer order their lives in an
uncentralised system.

The Nuer are a confederation of tribes located in South Sudan and Western
Ethiopia. Collectively, they form one of the largest ethnic groups in East Africa.
The Nuer border such tribes as the Dinka, Anuak, Shilluk and other minor tribes
in both Ethiopia and Sudan. They call themselves Nath (plural) or Ran (singular).
They are classified as members of the Nilotic cultural/linguistic group, which
includes the Luo and Turkana of Kenya, the Karimijong of Uganda, and their
neighbours the Dinka. They are related, and are culturally and linguistically
similar, to the Dinka. Current population figures estimate that there are now
over a million Nuer, and they are the second largest ethnic group in southern
Sudan. In their physical features they are quite tall and exceptionally long limbed.
When Evans-Pritchard visited the Nuer he recorded that they wore little or no
clothing; the Nuer are frequently portrayed nude, with little on their bodies but a
few beads and the white ash of dung fires in which they bathe their bodies and
that accentuates their striking physiques.

Occupation
The Nuer are predominantly cattle pastoralists who also carry out in a limited
way the horticultural pursuits. They also practice hunting on some occasions.
Besides being of economic value, the cattle are used for settling disputes and
given as brideprice; they are also the abodes of spirits and their bodies are rubbed
with ash for the purpose of divination. So, the cattle are of symbolic and religious
value, besides being of nutritional interest.

Further, the cattle play an integral role as the cultural core of Nuer existence.
There is a connection between the language of cattle and the labels for human
beings. Nuers tend to define all social processes and relationships in terms of
cattle. Their social idiom is a bovine idiom. The attitude of Nuer towards and
their relations with their neighbours, are influenced by their love of cattle and
their desire to acquire them. They look down upon people with few or no cattle,
like the Anuak, while their wars against Dinka tribes have been directed to seizure
of cattle and control of pastures.

Living patterns
The Nuer living pattern changes according to the seasons of the year; their social
life is closely connected with the ecological cycle. Evans-Pritchard says that for
the Nuer, the relation to environment is called the oecological time and reflections
of their relations to one another in the social structure is termed the structural
time. The oecological time (which is a year) has two main seasons, tot and mai.
Tot; from about the middle of March to the Middle of September, roughly
corresponds to the rise in the curve of rainfall; mai commences at the decline of
the rains, from about the middle of September to the middle of March. As the
rivers flood, the people have to move farther back onto higher ground, where the
women cultivate millet and maize while the men herd the cattle nearby. In dry
season, the younger men take the cattle herds closer to receding rivers. Nuers
seldom have a surplus of food and at the beginning of the rains it is often
7
Economic and Political insufficient for their needs. In these conditions, there is much sharing of food in
Organisation
the same village, especially among members of adjacent homesteads and hamlets.
Paucity of raw materials, together with meagre food supply, cements social ties,
drawing the people closer. As a result of food scarcity, people become highly
interdependent and their economic activities- pastoral, hunting, fishing, and, to
a lesser degree, agricultural activities are of necessity joint undertakings. This is
especially evident in dry season, when the cattle of many families are tethered in
a common kraal (shed) and driven as a single herd to grazing grounds. Thus,
while in a narrow sense, the household is the economic unit, the larger local
communities are, directly or indirectly, co-operative groups. They form
corporations owning natural resources and sharing their collective use.

Dry-season movement produces more social interrelations between members of

different tribal sections than the rainy season distribution might lead us to expect.
However, these contacts are mainly individual, and if they concern groups, then
only smaller local communities are involved, and not the larger tribal sections.
This is probably one of the reasons for the lack of structural complexity and of
great variation of types of social relations among the Nuer. Outside small kinship
groups and village and camp communities, there are no co-operative economic
combinations and there are no organised ritual associations. Except for occasional
military ventures, raiding and vengeance activities, active corporate life is
restricted to small tribal segments.

The most obvious characteristic of the Nuer is its territorial unity and
exclusiveness. Each tribe is economically self-sufficient, having its own pastures,
water-supplies, and fishing reservations, which its members alone have a right
to exploit. It has a name which is the symbol of its distinction. The tribespersons
have a sense of belongingness: they are proud to be members of their tribe,
which they consider as superior to other tribes. Each tribe has within it a dominant
clan which furnishes a kinship framework on which the political aggregate is
built up. Each tribe also regulates its age-set organisation. The Nuer lineage is a
group of agnates, comprising all living persons descendant, through males only,
from the founder of that particular line. It also includes dead persons descendant
from the founder, but these dead persons are significant in terms of their
genealogical position with respect to the living. The wider agnatic kinship is
recognised the further back descent has to be traced, so that the depth of a lineage
is always in proportion to its width. Nuer clans are everywhere much dispersed,
so that in any village or camp one finds representatives of diverse clans. Small
lineages have moved freely over Nuerland and have settled here and there and
have aggregated themselves to agnatically unrelated elements in local
communities. Migration and the absorption of Dinka have resulted from the
dispersal and mixture of clans. The network of kinship ties which links members
of local communities is brought about by the operation of exogamous rules,
often stated in terms of cattle. The union of marriage is brought about by payment
of cattle and every phase of the ritual is marked by their transference or slaughter.
The legal status of the partners and of their children is defined by cattle-rights
and obligations.

Marriage and Family

Marriage takes place in stages. However, a marriage is not finalised until the
bride has born at least two children. When the third child is born, the marriage is
8
considered “tied”. At this point, the wife and the children become full members Social Organisation
of the husband’s clan. Women desire to have six children. A man may have
multiple wives, who do not necessarily live close to each other, but they will all
live in the area of the husband’s clan.

Age-set Groups
Nuer kinship is referenced by age-sets. Evans-Pritchard explains that “the adult
male population falls into stratified groups based on age, and we call these groups
‘age-sets’” (Evans-Pritchard 1940:6). Nuer boys pass into the grade of manhood
through a severe ordeal and a series of rites connected with it. The initiations
take place whenever there are a sufficient number of boys between fourteen to
sixteen years of age in a village or district. All the youths who have been initiated
in a successive number of years belong to one age-set, and there is a four-year
interval between the last batch of initiates of one set and the first batch of the
next set, and during this interval no boys may be initiated. The attitude of a man
towards other men of his community is largely determined by their respective
positions in the age-set system. Hence age relations, like kinship relations, are
structural determinants of behaviour. This age-set system is an exemplification
of the segmentary principle of the Nuer social structure. As said earlier, the
relations between groups in the Nuer social structure have a high degree of
consistency and constancy.

Religion
As was mentioned at the outset, the cattle play an important part in Nuer religion
and ritual. Cows are dedicated to the spirits of the owner’s lineages and any
personal spirits that may have possessed them at any time. The Nuer believe
that they can establish contact with the ancestral spirits by rubbing ashes along
the backs of oxen or cows dedicated to them, through the sacrifice of cattle. No
important Nuer ceremony of any kind is complete without such a sacrifice.

In the strict sense of the word, the Nuer have no law. There is no one with
legislative or juridical functions. Leopard-skin chiefs and prophets are arbiters
in questions in which cattle are the issue, or ritual agents in situations demanding
sacrifice of ox or ram. Another ritual specialist is the wut ghok, the ‘man of the
cattle’. These special individuals have no formal political authority, but are
honoured for moral and spiritual authority. The chiefs may even offer sanctuary
to murderers. They can then moderate negotiations for compensation, the only
alternative to violent clan feuds. The most influential men in a village are generally
the heads of joint families, especially when they are rich in cattle, of strong
character, and members of the aristocratic clan, but they have no clearly defined
status or function. Every Nuer, the product of a hard and equalitarian upbringing,
deeply democratic, and easily roused to violence, considers himself as good as
his neighbour; and families and joint families, whilst co-ordinating their activities
with those of their fellow villagers, regulate their affairs as they please. Even in
raids, there is very little organisation, and leadership is restricted to the sphere of
fighting and is neither institutionalised nor permanent.

For Evans-Pritchard time and space are not fundamental containers but rather
indicators that sketch out the dimensions of social structuring. Time does not
mould, but finds itself moulded in terms of richly social, deeply contingent events.
Thus by pointing to instances of temporality one always points in the end back
9
Economic and Political towards oneself. The seasons, the night, the neighbor’s camp, these things too
Organisation
are points of reference rather than fixed matters. For the Nuer there is never the
thing as such, but always the thing in terms of something else. “Seasonal and
lunar changes repeat themselves year after year, so that a Nuer standing at any
point of time has conceptual knowledge of what lies before him and can predict
and organise his life accordingly”. And like knowing what lies before one
temporally, the Nuer also apply these same instruments to knowing and orienting
themselves in the world around themselves spatially. Time and space become
embodied idioms for social organisation itself.

The same can be said of oecology, of political, legal, and economic systems.
Each of the systems is dependent on what is in its proximity. The Nuer define
themselves vis-à-vis a group “in every respect most kin to themselves, than any
other foreign people”. They torment their neighbours because they care about
them, and because, argues Evans-Pritchard, were the Dinka not there to raid, the
Nuer would most likely turn on itself.

Evans-Pritchard shows a great deal of personal distance from The Nuer and from
his beliefs and intentions. As a fieldworker, Evans-Pritchard is not involved in
the personal sphere of Nuer life, only the public sphere. Evans-Pritchard’s lack
of personal involvement in daily Nuer life is notable. Further, his analysis of
Nuer character stands in stark contrast to the characterisations made by Sharon
Hutchinson. Evans-Pritchard explains, “I found Nuer pride an increasing source
of amazement” (Evans-Pritchard 1940:182). He characterises the Nuer as an
overwhelmingly proud people, who do not sell their labour (Evans-Pritchard
1940:88). According to the text, they are raised in an environment where hardship
and hunger are frequent visitors, and they express contempt for both these things.
Nuer are products of an egalitarian society which is democratic as well as violent.
Evans-Pritchard discusses Nuer society and values at length, commenting that
“values are embodied in words through which they influence behaviour” (Evans-
Pritchard 1940:135).

1.3.4 Conclusion
Evans-Pritchard used intensive fieldwork to understand the social life of the
Nuer. His trilogy on the Nuer- respectively titled The Nuer (1940), Marriage
and Kinship among the Nuer (1951) and Nuer Religion (1956) – is considered as
classic in anthropology, although there are many others who have written on the
Nuer. The work shows how different parts of the society are considered together.
How social structure works in relationship with ecological system is another
aspect in this work.

1.4 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
The Nuer is remarkably different from the lengthy monographs that were written
on ‘primitive’ people at that time. There was no scientific theory that could be
taken as a guide for the analysis and explanation of facts. This work recognises
the value of the cattle in the Nuer life. The Nuer concepts of time are based on
the ceaseless relations with the environment. Dealing mainly with the political
system, one of the main ambitions of this book is the concept of social structure.
In opposition to A.R. Radcliffe-Brown’s concept, Evans-Pritchard defines social
10
structure as the ensemble of ‘relations between groups which have a high degree Social Organisation
of consistency and constancy’. Individuals are replaceable but the groups continue;
generation after generation of people pass through them. People are born and
they move out at death; however the structure endures. Interestingly, families
are not considered as ‘structural groups’, for they disappear at the death of their
members. This work, thus, provided a new perspective to the understanding of
social structure.

1.5 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY COMING OF AGE IN SOMOA
IS AN EXAMPLE
This work is a contribution to the understanding of adolescence in a comparative
framework.

1.6 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

1.6.1 Intellectual Context
Mead’s work was a landmark contribution to the understanding of youth in the
contexts of a tribal society and its comparison with these in America. Here, she
is principally concerned with how adolescence is looked at. Before her,
adolescence was regarded as a biological change; adolescence comes with changes
in biological system. In fact, biologists use the concept of ‘adolescence spurt’ to
indicate this phase. By contrast, Mead was able to show that adolescence, though
marked by biological changes, is culturally adopted, thus, the ‘shame’ which is
associated with it in America is conspicuously absent among the Samoans. At
that time there were not many female anthropologists. In fact, Franz boas,
affectionately known as ‘Papa Franz’, inspired women to take up anthropology
as a career and devote themselves to the understanding of these issues of gender,
children, personality that had remained ignored. Mead’s contribution to this work
was also to the concept of ‘cultural relativism’.

1.6.2 Fieldwork
“Coming of Age in Samoa” is the second monograph being discussed in this
unit. It was written by the American anthropologist, Margaret Mead, who applied
the insights of anthropology to the understanding of modern American and
Western culture. The use of cross-cultural comparison to highlight issues within
Western society was highly influential and contributed greatly to the heightened
awareness of anthropology and ethnographic study in the USA. It established
Mead as a substantial figure in American anthropology.

In 1928, Mead published this anthropological work based on fieldwork she had
conducted on female adolescents in Samoa. Mead’s work had taken shape against
the backdrop of broader anxieties about American youth generally and female
adolescents specifically who were openly challenging social and sexual mores.
Many contemporaries believed that the “storm and stress” of adolescence was
biologically determined following a three-volume study of largely male
adolescents by an American psychologist, G. Stanley Hall in 1904. Under the
direction of her mentor, the anthropologist, Franz Boaz, Margaret Mead sought
11
Economic and Political to study whether adolescence was inevitably a period of mental and emotional
Organisation
distress for the growing girl. It is a key text in the nature vs nurture debate as
well as issues relating to family, adolescence, gender, social norms and attitudes.
The book has however sparked years of ongoing and intense debate and
controversy on questions pertaining to society, culture and science.

In her book Coming of Age in Samoa Mead elaborated the goal of her research
as follows- “I have tried to answer the question which sent me to Samoa: Are the
disturbances which vex our adolescents due to the nature of adolescence itself or
to the civilisation? Under different conditions does adolescence present a different
picture?”

To answer this question, she conducted her study among a small group of Samoans
— a village of 600 people on the island of Ta‘û — in which she got to know,
lived with, observed, and interviewed (through an interpreter) 68 young women
between the ages of 9 and 20. She lived with these people for nine months,
submersing herself in their culture, learning some of their language and gaining
their trust. She then asked the girls of several age groups questions pertaining to
their everyday lives and based her research on the answers they gave.

1.6.3 Analysis of Data

Her central interest in this study concerns whether the disturbances that vex
adolescents in America are due to adolescence itself or a symptom of civilisation,
and whether under different conditions will adolescence present a different picture.
Mead was basically concerned with the way different cultural patterns modify
human character. Mead argues that sexual transition peculiarities - the point at
which a child becomes an adolescent and possibly sexually active - are due to
social and cultural factors more than to biological processes. Throughout her
research Mead was interested in comparing the experiences of Samoan and
Western adolescents, including their differing experiences of education.

While living among the natives, Mead was able to view the culture uninterrupted,
in its natural habitat. She saw that the young provided food for the old and that
everyone in the village took turns cooking food. The much older have more
solitary occupations while the young work in groups to accomplish their tasks.
In the family relative age is important and usually remembered by the mother,
for the older of the household holds authority over those younger than them.
Babies are kept close to the mother until the baby can eat solid food at which
point the care is given to a younger female member of the household, usually
around six or seven years of age. Girl’s education is less comprehensive than her
male counterpart, because younger girls are expected to care for the babies of the
household while boys are free to learn the skills necessary for their trade. Most
of the cooking in the village is done by males while females do much of the
heavier work, beginning when the girl is physically mature enough to handle the
loads.

The most important task a girl has to learn is weaving, which is taught by older
females. A woman’s worth is measured by how well she weaves and how much
work she can do. Once a younger female is in the household then all childcare
responsibilities are taken off the older girl. The girl will never again be forced to
care for a child, with the exception of her own when it is first born, but once her
child reaches a certain age she will place the care on another, younger girl. The
12
older girl is then free to do whatever she wants, even participating in the lenient Social Organisation
sexual escapades common among the young people.

Mead’s findings suggested that the community ignores both boys and girls until
they are about 15 or 16. Before then, children have no social standing within the
community. Mead also found that marriage is regarded as a social and economic
arrangement where wealth, rank, and job skills of the husband and wife are taken
into consideration.

Mead discusses the formal sex relations in Samoa. From early childhood the
girls and boys do not play together and are looked at each other differently. In the
Samoan society occasionally a younger woman’s first lover is an older male.
Also the opposite may happen that an older female develops a relationship with
a younger male. Some typical accepted love affairs can be between two unmarried
people of around the same age. The act of waiting for sex before marriage but is
not always the course of action by the young woman. If she is not a virgin before
marriage the future husband is told before so not to get humiliated in front of the
others.

Once married the wife obeys the husband and serves him. A young woman wants
to defer marriage as long as possible to maintain freedom characteristic of this
time period of her life. Higher status is not achieved with marriage, but just as
there is always someone below her in age to handle childcare, there is always
someone above her as well, to give her tasks to complete. A girl can move from
house to house within the village, within her family either by marriage or blood,
until she finds one suitable to her needs. Incest is strictly tabooed and forbidden
followed by a social stigma placed on the participants of the sexual relations
between family members. There is a strict code of conduct between family
members of the opposite sex once the children reach a certain age to prevent
incest. The most esteemed human virtue among the people in these villages is
human kindness.

Girls in Samoa go through the same physical stages as girls in modern societies
the world over. Also it is the bodily changes in both types of societies that start
the process of growth where girls become women. But one difference between
the two societies is that there was no measurable emotional or intellectual distress
among Samoan girls upon reaching the adolescent stage, which is a major
characteristic of adolescence in modern societies. One application of the
information obtained in Samoa to modern societies is that in Samoa girls
physically able to carry large loads are separated from her peers because of long
hours of work while the undersize girl is able to remain a child for a longer
period of time. The reason for the lack of emotional and intellectual distress in
Samoan adolescence is believed to be the casualness of growing up and the
cultural emphasis on sluggishness of life and lack of punishment for that slowness.
In Samoa, according to Mead, there is no pressure on the ‘slow’ pupil; no feelings
of envy, rivalry, impotence and no frustration are developed as all have their
own pace to learn: there are no ‘losers’ or ‘winners’, simply students with
different capacities and expectations. The education received by Samoan teens
was based on the basic knowledge they needed to survive in and feel part of the
community.

13
Economic and Political Also in this society no one person cares too much for another, seen through the
Organisation
constant moving from family to family. As a result the adolescent is not tortured
by distressing situations that are so common in modern societies in general and
America more specifically.

This society is in complete contrast to America where modern society affords

the adolescent many choices they have to make before achieving adulthood, putting
intellectual stress on growing up and creating confusion. There is a lack of pressure
to make important choices in Samoa which allows the child to enter adolescence
and then adulthood virtually carefree. In Samoa, children were exposed to scenes
of birth and death and were taught that they were a natural and inevitable structure
of existence and shared with even the youngest children who were able to witness
these events. This envelops the children in a protective atmosphere and allows
them to feel a part of the world of adults. Work is not a way of acquiring leisure,
but is for everyone and necessary for certain basic tasks to be completed. So it is
the complexity of modern societies and a variety of choices that made and still
make adolescence emotionally and intellectually stressful.

Dancing is one of the only activities that both male and females are allowed to
participate in at all ages. There are informal dances where the children learn how
to dance and it is very individual activity that is done in a public environment.
Many of the lyrics include members of the tribes. The first ones to dance are
usually the youngest children and then as the night progresses the older dancers
begin their sessions of dancing. It is said that many children learn how to clap to
the dances before they learn to walk. As the dancers get older the skill level is
increased and the steps become quicker. In the village if you cannot dance you
may be made fun of and are more ignored as a child.

1.6.4 Conclusion
Mead’s focus remains on the analysis of the Samoan household, education of
child, average girls’ experiences, sex relation, role of dance, and their attitudes
towards personality.

She concluded that the passage from childhood to adulthood (adolescence) in

Samoa was a smooth transition and not marked by the emotional or psychological
distress, anxiety, or confusion seen in the United States. This, according to Mead,
was due to the Samoan girl’s belonging to a stable, monocultural society,
surrounded by role models, and where nothing concerning the basic human facts
of copulation, birth, bodily functions, or death, was hidden. The Samoan girl
was not pressured to choose from among a variety of conflicting values, as was
the American girl. Franz Boas, in the preface to Coming of Age in Samoa, asserted
that what is attributable to human nature was nothing more than a reaction to the
restrictions imposed by our own culture. This supports the theory that cultural
patterns rule over innate nature, at least in Western society.

There are, however, some weaknesses in Mead’s work. The value of her
comparison of common situations in Western and Samoan cultures is limited as
the methods used to analyse the two societies did not follow the same patterns:
while comparison is made between Samoan girls and boys, both sexes are put
into the same bag in the Western context, as if gender was not important in
Western society. Also, differences in familiar habits and living conditions are
completely ignored.
14
As a landmark study regarding sexual mores, the book was also highly Social Organisation
controversial and frequently came under attack on ideological and academic
grounds. It was argued that Mead’s findings were merely a projection of her own
sexual beliefs and reflected her desire to eliminate restrictions on her own
sexuality.

Derek Freeman, an anthropologist from New Zealand, was inspired by Mead’s

work, and spent four years there following up on her findings. He published his
refutation of her work, Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking
of an Anthropological Myth in 1983, five years after Mead had died. The book is
both a general statement about the whole controversy over biological determinism
versus cultural determinism, and a specific statement about Mead’s research
procedures in Samoa and her published results. In conclusion, Freeman presented
ideas about how to adapt anthropology to be more scientific in nature.

It should be acknowledged that Freeman’s account has been challenged as being

ideologically driven to support his own theoretical viewpoint (sociobiology),
and that considerable controversy remains over the veracity, or otherwise, of
both Mead’s and Freeman’s account.

In the years that followed, anthropologists vigorously debated these issues but
generally continued to criticise Freeman (Appell 1984, Brady 1991, Feinberg
1988, Leacock 1988, Levy 1984, Marshall 1993, Nardi 1984, Patience and Smith
1986, Paxman 1988, Scheper-Hughes 1984, Shankman 1996, and Young and
Juan 1985).

Coming of Age in Samoa sets a theoretical base for Mead. In her later work, she
gives special notice to biological factors, continues to create a huge amount of
field notes and archives for other researchers’ use in the future, and insists on her
principle of applying anthropology to the use of the populace for the benefit of
the world.

1.7 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
Meads work was a pioneer in the field of understanding adolescence. Her work
presented a dimension that was yet to be explored by the anthropologists. Coming
of Age in Somoa, paved the way for an understanding of ‘adolescence spurt’ in
relation to cultural adaptation in a society.

1.8 SUMMARY
Both the ethnographies have aroused much interest and acclaim. The purpose,
methodological orientation and interest of the two anthropologists differ, yet
have richly contributed to anthropology. Mead uses the subject of anthropology
to solve social problems and change American child education, marriage problem
and child-rearing in the revelation of behaviour patterns in other societies. She
thus attempts to popularise anthropology for practical use. This particular aspect
is different from other ethnographies such as Nuer.

Mead was one of the first to suggest that masculinity and femininity reflect cultural
conditioning, and that gender differences are not entirely biologically determined. 15
Economic and Political Her views on gender roles were quite radical for the time she lived in, but they
Organisation
led towards breaking of many taboos that existed in mid twentieth-century
American society.

Evans-Pritchard’s primary goal was to document Nuer political institutions so

that they could be more effectively brought under British rule. This focus is
evident in the format of The Nuer. Nuer political institutions can only be
understood in a larger framework encompassing both ecological and kinship
systems, and this interconnectedness is apparent in the structure of the
ethnography.

Evans-Pritchard was strongly influenced by Radcliffe-Brown, which resulted in

the ‘structural-functionalist’ ethnography of the Nuer, as compared to
Malinowski’s ‘sprawling literary’ Argonauts. Evans-Pritchard is explicit about
his reliance on a pre-determined theoretical framework which guided his
assumptions, findings, and conclusions - “facts can only be selected and arranged
in the light of theory” (Evans-Pritchard 1940, p261), comparing his abstract
description of Nuer social organisation with the haphazard, weighty volumes of
the traditional, lengthy monographs.

In comparing his work among the Nuer and among the Azande, Evans-Pritchard
noted that he was able to write a much more detailed account about the Azande,
among whom he was viewed very separately, as a superior foreigner, than about
the Nuer, by whom he was considered “as one of them” and who he felt he knew
much more intimately. This points to Evans-Pritchard’s understanding of the
ethnographic endeavour; that the aim was to produce an objective account of
social structure, and not so much to come up with an intuitive interpretation of
what it is like to be ‘the other’ (Burton 1992).

References

Burton, John. W. 1992. An Introduction to Evans-Pritchard. Switzerland:

Fribourg.

Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1940. The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood

and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Feinberg, Richard. 1988. “Margaret Mead and Samoa: Coming of Age in Fact
and Fiction” in American Anthropologist 90: 656–663.

Freeman, D. 1983. Margaret Mead and Samoa: the making and unmaking of an
anthropological myth. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.

Holmes, Lowell. D. 1987. Quest for the Real Samoa: the Mead/Freeman
Controversy and Beyond. South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey.

Holtzman, D. Jon 2000. Nuer Journeys, Nuer Lives: Sudanese Refugees in

Minnesota. 2nd ed. 2007. Pearson Education, Inc., Boston, MA: Prentice Hall.

Mead, Margaret. 1928. Coming of Age in Samoa. New York: Harper Collins.

Orans, Martin. 1996. “Not Even Wrong: Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman, and
the Samoans”. American Anthropologist. Volume 98, Issue 4, page 889.
16
Shankman, Paul. 2009. The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Social Organisation
Anthropological Controversy. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.

Sharon Hutchinson, 1996. Nuer Dilemmas. University of California Press:

Berkley, CA.

Suggested Reading
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1940. The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood
and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Mead, Margaret. 1928. Coming of Age in Samoa. New York: Harper Collins.

Sample Questions
1) Describe the significant contributions of Margaret Mead and the impact that
she had on her field of study.
2) Critically analyse the controversy surrounding the methodology and work
of Margaret Mead.
3) What, according to you are the underlying difference in orientation and
methodology of the two monographs?

17
 ANTHROGURU

ANTHROGURU

ANTHROPOLOGY

5. Religion: Anthropological approaches to the study of

religion (evolutionary, psychological and functional);
monotheism and polytheism; sacred and profane; myths and
rituals; forms of religion in tribal and peasant societies
(animism, animatism, fetishism, naturism and totemism);
religion, magic and science distinguished; magicoreligious
functionaries (priest, shaman, medicine man, sorcerer and
witch).

CONTACT:
anthroguru@gmail.com
telegram: anthroguru
UNIT 1 CONCEPTS AND APPROACHES TO
THE STUDY OF RELIGION
(Evolutionary, Psychological,
Functional and Marxist)
Contents
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Concepts of Religion
1.2.1 Supernatural Beings
1.2.2 Animism
1.2.3 Animatism
1.2.4 Naturism
1.2.5 Totemism
1.2.6 Taboo
1.2.7 Sacred and Profane
1.2.8 Ritual
1.2.9 Myth
1.2.10 Cult

1.3 Religious Symbolism

1.4 Religious Knowledge and Practices
1.4.1 Ancestor Worship
1.4.2 Magic and Magician
1.4.3 Witchcraft and Sorcery
1.4.4 Evil Eye

1.5 Anthropological Approach to Religion

1.5.1 Evolutionary Perspective
1.5.2 Psychological Approach
1.5.3 Functionalist Approach
1.5.4 Structuralist Approach
1.5.5 Marxist Approach
1.5.6 Symbolic Approach

1.6 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

This reading should enable you to understand:
 various concepts in the discourse of religion;
 development of anthropological perspective of religion;
 various approaches to study religion; and
5
 contribution of anthropology to the understanding of religion.
Religion
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The subject matter of religion is dealt with in anthropology differently from the
other disciplines, such as philosophy, theology, comparative religion, religious studies
and so on. It tries to explain not what religion is but why is religion important in
the lives of the people. It basically takes people’s perspective and seeks to find
out how it is important to the people. There is no society that is known so far
without any religious idea. As early as nineteenth century, anthropologists made
attempts to search for earlier forms of religion and religious thoughts and the
courses of change therein. Some intellectuals thought that religion will have no
place where science and technology flourish, but the reality is to the contrary.
Even today in the age of computers, robots and inter-planetary travel religion
plays important roles in the lives of people. Anthropologists are trying to know the
relevance of religion in human societies whether they are technologically advanced
or primitive hunter and gatherers. This obviously raises the question of the
significance of religion in human societies. This unit basically attempts to orient
students to the anthropological perspective of religion.
Anthropological approach of studying human societies as integrated wholes,
considers religion as a part of culture. Each culture is unique in its own way and
each culture can be studied and described. The recent thinking is that the world
can be viewed in multiple ways and, therefore, the representation of culture cannot
be monological, authoritative and bounded. Thus, the anthropological perspective
of religion is the way its practitioners see the world, interpret and see themselves
different from others.
One may begin to have an understanding of the domain of religion with the question
what constitutes religion? And how do we define religion? Anthropologists defined
religion in different ways. But none of these well known definitions adequately
cover all aspects of religion practiced by all human societies. There has been
criticism on each of these definitions for their failure of accounting for one aspect
or the other.
In this unit, the students will be introduced to basic concepts found in anthropological
discourse on religion, and various approaches to study religion such as evolutionary,
psychological, functional, Marxist and symbolic. First, each of the basic concept
is discussed, followed by discussion on anthropological approaches to study religion.
Box No. 1 Definition of Religion

For Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917) religion is the belief in spiritual beings (1871).

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) defines religion as “a unified system of beliefs and

practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden
- beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called Church,
all those who adhere to them” (1961:62).

Clifford Geertz defines religion as (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2)
establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men
[and women] by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and
(4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods
and motivations seem uniquely realistic (1973:90).

1.2 CONCEPTS OF RELIGION

The important concepts that appear in the study of religion include supernatural
6 beings – of polytheistic and monotheistic beliefs, forms of religion – animism,
animatism, totemism, ritual, myth, religious symbolism, ancestor worship, magic, Concepts and Approaches to
the Study of Religion
witchcraft and sorcery. Each of these concepts is briefly explained below: (Evolutionary,
Psychological, Functional
1.2.1 Supernatural Beings and Marxist)

There is dichotomy of world into: natural and supernatural. The natural world is
explained in terms of cause and effect relations, whereas the supernatural world
cannot be explained in causal relations alone. Gods, goddesses, god-lings, dead
ancestors, spirits who may be benevolent or malevolent; ghosts, demons, and
other forms, which are usually malevolent, and are powerful than human beings in
their movements and actions that constitute the world of the supernatural beings.
The supernatural beings may be visible at particular point of time, not for all but
for a few, or remain invisible. They are not subject to natural laws and principles,
whereas the natural beings necessarily follow the natural or physical laws and
principles. Theism refers to the beliefs and ideas that focus on supernatural beings
within the religious practices. When the society holds belief in multiple supernatural
beings it is called as polytheistic religion. Hinduism is the best example of having
a number of gods and goddesses in its pantheon. Monotheistic religions are those
having belief in one supreme supernatural being that may be called God or Yahweh
or Allah as in case of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
In several religious practices, the interaction between humans and spiritual beings
are through spirit possession, vision and dreams. The spiritual beings possess
some humans who become media through which other humans and spirit enter into
dialogue. Sometimes, the spirits speak to the human agent who conveys the message
to people. In some cases, the humans get visions or the spirits appear in dreams
to interact with them. Also individuals get into trance for interacting with the spirits.
Thus, links are established between humans and supernatural world.

1.2.2 Animism
The term is coined by E. B. Tylor (1871) to describe the belief in soul or life force
and personality existing in animate and inanimate objects as well as human beings.
Several of the tribal religions hold such beliefs. His theory is that human beings are
rational beings, and attempt to interpret mysterious phenomena like sleeping, dreams
and death with the idea of soul.

1.2.3 Animatism
R. R. Marett (1866-1943) considered that humans believed in impersonal forces
in nature and certain objects. This sort of belief had created in humans religious
feelings of awe, fear, wonder, respect, admiration, and other psychical effects. He
believed that primitive man could not distinguish between the natural and supernatural
and also between living and dead. This condition that prevailed before the
development of the idea of soul is called animatism, which Marrett named after
mana which means power in Polynesia.

1.2.4 Naturism
Max Muller contended that since the gods in various societies were originally from
natural phenomenon, such as sun, thunder, trees, animals, mountains, forests, lakes,
rivers, oceans and so on, the human perception of nature must have had very
powerful agencies for origin of religion. Nature was the greatest surprise, a terror,
a marvel, a miracle which has also been permanent, constant and regular occurrences,
7
Religion and these could not be explained with the known facts. They are believed to have
great influence on the affairs of human beings. The religious thoughts must have
originated from the conceptualisation of nature itself and worship of nature.

1.2.5 Totemism
It is a system of belief in which certain objects, plants or animals have kinship
relationship with social groups. Such animate and inanimate objects stand as
emblems giving identity to the groups and form representations of the groups.
They create religious feelings among the members and form the objects of worship,
reverence and sacredness. According to Durkheim, totemism is the earliest form
of religion and it is quite prominently found among the Australian tribes, and such
phenomena are also noted among the American tribes as well.

1.2.6 Taboo
Taboo a Polynesian concept (tabu/tapu) but widely used in anthropological
literature. It refers to something, use of which is collectively and strictly forbidden
in religious context. The violation of a taboo has different consequences of temporary
defilement, crime to be punished and attracts the sanctions of supernatural beings
and so on. Taboo is associated with mana and Totems are considered taboos.

1.2.7 Sacred and Profane

According to Durkheim, these are central concepts of religion. The sacred refers
to the things or spaces which are set apart for religious purposes, and against
these the profane refers to those considered secular in nature. However, in several
religions there are no equivalent terms and often they overlap also.

1.2.8 Ritual
Ritual, like religion, is difficult to define due to diverse forms and complexity of
the phenomenon. However, one may understand it as a set of formalised actions
performed with symbolic value in a socially relevant context or worshiping a deity
or cult. It is also a customary observance involving stereotyped behaviour. Rituals
vary in form and in content within a particular religion and across religions. They
involve participation of one or more individuals, physical movements or actions,
verbal and non-verbal or symbolic mode of communication based on certain
shared knowledge. Often ritual actions are infused with certain moods and emotional
states and the participants may inwardly assent or dissent from the ritual process.
Box No. 2

Victor Turner defines ritual as “prescribed formal behaviour for occasions not given over
to technical routine, having reference to beliefs in mystical (or non-empirical) beings or
powers regarded as the first and final causes of all effects” (1982:79).

Gluckman and Turner differentiate ritual from ceremony, though both of them are
forms of religious behaviour. Ritual involves social status and transition of one’s
status and, therefore, it is ‘transformative’, while the ceremony is associated with
social status and ‘confirmatory’. But such fine distinction often gets blurred and
difficult to maintain the difference. Rituals are classified as religious, magical,
calendrical, sacred, secular, private, public, sacrificial and totemic and so on.
Anthropologists most often use in their discourses on religion the ‘rites de passage’
of Arnold van Gennep, who analytically isolated a set of rituals called rites of
passage. The rites are organised recognising the change of status of individual in
8
one’s life time, and each of the rites employs three phases: separation; margin (or Concepts and Approaches to
the Study of Religion
limen); and incorporation. Turner elaborates the transitional phase liminality in his (Evolutionary,
study of Ndembu in Zambia. Psychological, Functional
and Marxist)
1.2.9 Myth
Believed to be truthful accounts of the past, the narrative that gives religious
sanctity and sacred character to the account, and is often associated with ritual is
called myth. Well, all myths may not actually depend on the past and necessarily
do not deal with sacred, yet they refer to or hinge upon such putative factors
providing social credibility and acceptability of the account. Well-known myths
are creation myths. Myth is different from legend as the characters in the myth are
usually not humans. They may be supernatural beings or animals or other animate
and inanimate objects and sometimes they are ambiguous characters. Myths
generally offer explanations for the customs and practices. On the other hand,
legends are about culture heroes, historical figures located in historical events,
which are believed to have taken place, that very easily transit into the contemporary
life. Folk tales are not considered sacred but regarded as stories or fiction meant
basically for entertainment. These tales may also include supernatural elements, yet
are essentially secular in nature. The characters in these tales may be human and/
non-humans. The tales exist independent of time and space. There is a strong
relationship between myth and ritual, and there was a debate as to which came
first. It is so because some argued that ritual is the enactment of myth whereas
others had argued that myth arises out of rites. The contemporary studies on
myths find no strict correspondence between the two.
Franz Boas tried to understand the social organisation, religious ideas and practices
of people from their myths. Malinowski argued that myth is a powerful social force
for the native which is relevant to their pragmatic interests. It expresses and
codifies beliefs and works towards efficacy of ritual and provides a practical
guide. However, for Levi-Strauss, myth is a logical model, it is a cultural artefact.
The human mind structures reality and imposes form and content on it. According
to him, myth is an area where human mind enjoys freedom and unrestrained
creative thinking expressed in it. Taking into consideration several limiting factors,
humans think certain conceivable possibilities about the critical problems that they
face. Therefore, myth provides the conceptual frame for social order, but it need
not correspond with the ethnographic facts of social organisation. Levi-Strauss
provided a method for structural analysis of myth. The latter studies of myth point
out the fact that myth interprets the reality but does not necessarily represent the
social order.
Reflection and Action 1

You can find rituals and myths in your own cultural lore. Try to find their relationship,
if there is any.

1.2.10 Cult
The concept of cult is derived from French culte meaning worship or a particular
form of worship. It has been used in both neutral and negative sense. In the
neutral sense of the term it means ‘care’, ‘cultivation’ and ‘tended’, it is a deity
or idol or image of a saint who is venerated and it is concerned with devotion.
However, in the negative sense it refers to the practice of a deviant religious group
or new religious dogma arising out of syncretism, cultural mix of ideas and practices
of different religions. The Cargo cults of Melanesia and Papua New Guinea weave 9
Religion Christian doctrine with native beliefs, in which it is believed that the spirits of dead
would bring the manufactured European goods in ships and airplanes. Similarly,
Caribbean vodum or ‘voodoo’, Cuban santeria and Afro-Brazilian candomble`
deities are referred to as cults.

1.3 RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM

In a general sense of the term, symbol may be an object, picture, written word,
sound, idea, and colour that represent something else in association, resemblance
or convention. The religious symbolism refers to the idea of how symbols are
employed in religious context. Cross or Swastika or Crescent Moon are religious
symbols found in Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam, respectively. Symbols are
communicative, convey meanings shared by the community. They are associated
with human interests, purposes, ends and means. They are explicitly formulated.
The symbols are dynamic as they evoke moods and emotions and create complex
philosophical contexts in mind. Sacred art, pictures, drawings and designs used in
ritual and religious context convey religious meanings. Turner identifies three
properties of these religious or ritual symbols: condensation, unification of disparate
significata, and polarised meanings. Condensation means representing many ideas,
actions and meanings into a single symbol. For example, the Shiva Ling is
representation of Lord Shiva, divine destruction, male potency, creation and so
on. The unification of disparate significata means unifying diverse elements as in
case of Ndembu ritual the milk tree representing women’s breasts, motherhood,
and principle of matriliny, learning and unity of society. Polarization refers to two
distinguishing poles of meanings as matriliny and patriliny in case of Ndembu
puberty ritual.

1.4 RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES

Religious knowledge in most of the cases is institutionalised. It is developed and
contained in the form of doctrines and practices which anthropologists categorize
as little traditions and great traditions. The little traditions deal with the mundane
issues, whereas the great traditions deal with the philosophical and other worldly
issues. Different institutions are developed in these traditions; in the former case
there is shamanism (a system of belief cantering on the shaman, a religious personage
having curative and psychic powers), spirit possession, oracle or prophecy and in
the latter case, there are institutions of formal learning of religious matters, priesthood
of various orders, monasteries, and so on. In little traditions the knowledge is
passed on orally and by subjective experience, whereas in great tradition the
literature and sacred texts contain the spiritual knowledge. Thus, there is division
between those who have specialised knowledge of supernatural things and those
who are ordinary members of the community.

1.4.1 Ancestor Worship

Worship of deities through rituals is though common practice, the ancestor worship
is more often associated with the little tradition. The great tradition generally
includes the worship of single or multiple deities. However, in Asia, Africa and
other parts of the world, there is the common practice of venerating ancestors; it
is believed that the ancestors continue to hold power over their progeny and affect
the society. This may be understood under the premise that human soul continues
to survive after the death. It is not the same as that of worshiping the dead; it is
10 the respect given to the deified dead person or the transformed spirit of the dead.
The funerary rites are performed for this purpose. In many of the religious practices, Concepts and Approaches to
the Study of Religion
only a few become ancestors and receive ritual attention. Where descent is through (Evolutionary,
males, the ancestors would be male only. In matriliny, as in case of Nayar in India Psychological, Functional
or Ashanti in Africa, the ancestorhood is bestowed upon the mother’s brother who and Marxist)
holds jurisdiction over lineage as lineage head. In some cases, ancestor shrines are
built where regular offerings are made and sacrifices offered. Functionalists like
Malinowski explain this phenomenon as emotional reassurance against the loss.
Meyer Fortes offers explanation in structuralist framework and says that ancestor
worship belongs to the domain of kinship and descent structure supported by the
jural and political order. The ancestor worship is an extension of authority over
successive generations; it is the supernatural idiom of supportive relationship
manifested in religious ideology.

1.4.2 Magic and Magician

Often religious practices include or is supplemented by magic. Magic refers to
certain activity or method by which the supernatural is believed to interfere in the
affairs of humans and bring about particular outcome. Magic and religion are
closely related to each other, though both can be distinguished. There are similarities
between the two as both are related to supernatural, rich in symbolism and involve
in rituals, and yet there are differences. While religion is supplicative, as one seeks
intervention of supernatural and requests for favours, magic is manipulative, one
uses set of formulas which force supernatural to intervene. Durkheim says while
we do not find a single religion without a church (place of worship), there is no
church for magic. Magic is frequently used for public good. According to Frazer,
(1890) magic works on the Law of Sympathy which refers to the association or
agreements of things and it has two parts: Law of Similarity and Law of Contagion.
The Law of Similarity states that an effect resembles its cause. The Law of
Contagion states that things that are once in contact will continue to be in contact.
The Law of Similarity gives rise to homeopathic or imitative magic – like produces
like - and the Law of Contagion gives rise to contagious magic. In imitative magic,
the magician uses an image or figurine to represent a person or animal on which
magical spells are cast or pricks pins to harm the victim. Sometimes, one imitates
totemic species and symbolically acts out copulation for increasing the population
of the species which is practiced among the Australian tribes. In Contagious
magic, a body part of an animal or anything that belongs to a person under the
magical spell affects the animal or the person. In some societies, the claw of tiger
when worn as garland makes a man skilled hunter or an amulet having the image
of god keeps away the bad spirits or demons.
Frazer believed that magic is closer to science, the primitive man’s thinking was
pre-logic. Malinowski observed that the Trobrianders possess sound empirical
and rational knowledge about their environment, they use technology developed
by them to grow gardens and crops and use skills to sail in the sea and involve
in kula exchange. But despite all this knowledge the Trobrianders believe that
there are agencies that influence the natural order. In order to control these forces
and agencies, they use magic. According to him, the function of magic is to
ritualise man’s optimism over fear or ill-luck.

1.4.3 Witchcraft and Sorcery

Magic is mostly used for the public good, witchcraft and sorcery are used for
harming the individuals, and seen as anti-social. Black magic is equated with
witchcraft and sorcery, and these have negative sanction of the society and individuals 11
Religion on whom it is practised. The witch is distinguished from the sorcerer by the fact
that the source of supernatural in case of a witch remains in the body of the witch
that is often inherited also. The sorcerer acquires the art and does not necessarily
pass on to the next generation. The witch generally wills in death and destruction,
whereas the sorcerer performs magical rites to achieve evil ends. Witchcraft is
seen as an evil force bringing misfortune to members of a community. These
religious phenomena are found in many parts of the world, including the scientifically
and technologically developed countries. Christianity recognises the existence of
evil spirits which function under the lordship of Satan or Devil who is hostile to
God, and the witches and sorcerer maintain close liaison with Satan. Evans-
Pritchard (1937) provides a classical example of witchcraft among the Azande in
Africa. According to him, witchcraft provides explanation for the unexplainable
events; it is cultural behaviour dealing with misfortunes; and it helps defining morality.
Reflection and Action 2

Try to find the differences among ritual, magic, witchcraft and sorcery. Do they overlap?

1.4.4 Evil Eye

The belief in evil eye states that some individuals with an evil eye cause illness or
some misfortune by simply looking at others. This explanation is mostly offered
when children become sick in several societies. It is not only by looking but also
praise or any complementary comments. The victims of evil eye are mostly children.
In some cases when prosperous individual or household suddenly encounters
misfortunes, people attribute it to evil eye. Dundes (1981:266-267) identifies some
structural principles that operate in the concept of evil eye. Life depends on non-
renewable resources like semen, milk, blood, saliva, etc. which are liquid, and
drying them up cause illness, which is due to evil eye. There is limited amount of
good, such as health, wealth, etc., and any gain of one individual can only come
at the expense of the other. So, if a person of evil eye acquires more of limited
good, the other will lose. In the equilibrium model of life the haves and have-nots
co-exist in a balanced manner. But the have-nots when become envious, the haves
lose their health or wealth. Further, eyes symbolise breasts or testicles and an evil
eye threatens the supply of such precious liquids like milk or semen.

1.5 ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACH TO

RELIGION
After introducing various concepts found in religious discourses, we draw your
attention to the anthropological theories about religion. These include evolutionary,
psychological, functional, Marxist and symbolic perspectives.
John Lubbock (1834–1913), an English anthropologist, made an early attempt to
combine archaeological evidence of prehistoric people, on the one hand, and
anthropological evidence of primitive people, on the other, to trace the origin and
evolution of religion (Encyclopædia Britannica Online). In this scheme, in the
beginning there was absence of religious ideas and development of fetishism,
followed by nature worship, and totemism (a system of belief involving the
relationship of specific animals to clans), shamanism, anthropomorphism,
monotheism (belief in one god), and finally ethical monotheism. This has
foreshadowed, other forms of evolutionism, which were to become popular later.
In the late nineteenth century with the influential works of Max Muller, W. Robertson
12 Smith, Edward B. Tylor, Marrett, and Sir James G. Frazer, anthropological study
on religion grew at a fast pace. These scholars were first to suggest that tribal Concepts and Approaches to
the Study of Religion
religions might be amenable to study, following the rules of scientific method, and (Evolutionary,
to posit specific methodological procedures for the comparative analysis of religious Psychological, Functional
beliefs and practices. All of them sought to understand religious belief and practices and Marxist)
at most fundamental or basic level.
The anthropology of religion owes a great debt to Emile Durkheim who put
forward the concept of sacred, profane orders, and the so-called supernatural and
natural categories, which have proved to be more beneficial in better understanding
the concept of religion. A strong impetus to subsequent application of Durkheimian
theory is found among the British structural-functionalists, such as Radcliffe-Brown,
E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Meyer Fortes, and Melford Spiro, etc., who also made
significant contributions towards understanding religion. They primarily focussed
on the religion of tribal groups. However, many of the contemporary exponents of
anthropology of religion like Clifford Geertz, Melford Spiro, Victor Turner, Sherry
Ortner, Mary Douglas and Stanley Tambiah have devoted bulk of their attention
to local variants of major world religions – Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and
Christianity and the impact of the world religions in developing countries like Java,
Indonesia, Morocco, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Nepal, and Burma, instead of the
religions of isolated tribal groups. Contemporary ethnographers concentrate on
examining religious diversity in complex societies rather than providing further
documentation for uniformity in tribal religions. Herein, you are provided with a
brief account of each of the dominant theoretical perspectives of anthropology on
religion.

1.5.1 Evolutionary Perspective

Like so much else in anthropology, the study of the religious notions of primitive
people arose within the context of evolutionary theory. Besides their evolutionary
assumption about religion, the followers of evolutionary theory show overwhelming
Eurocentric biases. But it is true that they made valuable contributions to the study
of religion. Most of the nineteenth century anthropologists derive assumptions
about religion from the Judeo-Christian heritage and from their own religious
experiences within that tradition. E.B. Tylor, expounds in his book, Primitive
Culture (1871), that animism is the earliest and most basic religious form. Out of
this evolved fetishism, belief in demons, polytheism, and, finally, monotheism is
derived from the exaltation of a great god, such as the sky god, in a polytheistic
context. He defines religion in such a way that all forms of it could be included,
namely, as ‘the belief in Spiritual Beings’. He firmly states that religion is a cultural
universal, for no known cultures are without such beliefs. Belief in spirits began as
an uncritical but nonetheless rational effort to explain such puzzling empirical
phenomenon as death, dreams and possessions. Herbert Spencer advocated
ancestor worship, a relatively similar system to Tylor’s animism.
The 19th century anthropologists were deeply influenced by the presumptions of
their own society so called ‘Western’. R.R. Marrett (1909), on the other hand
regarded animatism as beginning of religious ideas. As discussed earlier, his derivation
is from ideas as mana (power), mulungu (supreme creator), orenda (magic
power), concepts found in the Pacific, Africa, and America, respectively, referring
to a supernatural power (a kind of supernatural ‘electricity’) that does not
necessarily have the personal connotation of animistic entities and that becomes
especially present in certain men, spirits, or natural objects. Marrett criticizes Tylor
for an overly intellectual approach, as though primitive men used personal forces
as explanatory hypotheses to account for dreams, natural events, and other 13
Religion phenomena. For Marrett, primitive religion is ‘not so much thought out as danced
out,’ and its primary emotional attitude is not so much fear as awe.
For Sir James Frazer human thought is best understood as a progression from
magic to religion to science. By publishing his two volume book titled The Golden
Bough (1890), he attempts to construct a universal theory of magic, religion and
science. According to Frazer, magic is the primordial form of human thought. He
further postulates early man was dominated by magic, which viewed nature as ‘a
series of events occurring in an invariable order without the intervention of personal
agency’. These magicians, according to Frazer, believed in nature and developed
imaginary laws, which are of course, not real. However, in course of time the more
intelligent members of the society, in the state of disillusionment, conceived of
spiritual beings with powers superior to man, who could be induced by propitiation
to alter the course of nature to his advantage. According to Frazer, this was the
stage of religion. Later on this was seen to be an illusion and men entered the
final, the scientific stage of development. Magic, according to Frazer, is based on
the principle of contagion or on ‘sympathy’ or the notion of imitation, said to be
the earliest form. In more advanced societies, Frazer contends, magic eventually
is replaced by religion, and both are finally replaced by science.
For Durkheim, evolutionary advancement consists in the emergence of specific,
analytic, profane ideas about the ‘cause’ or ‘category’ or ‘relationship’ from
diffuse, global, sacred images. These ‘collective representations,’ as he calls them,
of the social order and its moral force included such sacra as ‘mana’, ‘totem’ and
‘god’ (Sills, 1968). The above postulates on religion come from intellectual
theorisation made from the existing reports, travelogues, and Christian missionary
works. These anthropologists never had firsthand experience of non-western cultures
nor did they theorise on the basis of systematic study of culture of the people in
totality and, therefore, they were called armchair anthropologists.
Anthropologists like Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead and Alfred
Kroeber discredit the speculative evolutionary perspective and seek explanations
for similarities of rituals, myths and symbols found in different cultures through
culture contact. For them cultural dispersion, instead of independent evolution of
religious thoughts and actions, is the reason for such similarities. They emphasise
need for understanding culture as an integrated whole and interpreting the cultural
elements in that pattern, including the religious activities, in a meaningful way.
But, there are others like Emile Durkheim who thinks that emotions of the individuals
and collective consciousness in social environment shape the individuals’ religious
feeling. While, on other hand, Max Weber believes that the beliefs and emotions
have evolved into rational religion and higher thinking in religion. Others such as
Meyer Fortes and Clifford Geertz also recognise the psychological component in
religious behaviour. However, after the evolutionary perspective, psychological
approach to religion based on Sigmund Freud’s approaches of psychoanalysis and
neurotic symptoms has become a dominant approach to understand religion in
anthropology.

1.5.2 Psychological Approach

Few years before World War I, there was the rise of systematic psychologism of
psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. His thesis is that religious rituals and beliefs are
homologous with neurotic symptoms (Eriksen, 1950). According to him, a deep
subconscious psychological conflict within social groups is responsible for the
14
development of religion. He explains that the psychological conflict between the Concepts and Approaches to
the Study of Religion
father and son, the hatred of son towards father, his desire for killing him and the (Evolutionary,
guilt feeling are the reasons for the creation of totem based on the Oedipus myth. Psychological, Functional
The worship or respect shown to the totemic animal is the reflection of subconscious and Marxist)
conflict between the son and father and the latter’s kinsmen. The psychological
defence mechanisms involve projections to avoid conflict and reduce anxiety. This
is like “I hate X because you hate X”, which can be analysed at cultural level.
Further, the childhood experiences carried out through out adult life in the forms
of images and in this regard dependency of children on parents is significant. The
dependency on parents by the children in the latter part of life is projected on the
spiritual beings.
But Carl Jung takes a different approach taking the projections to cultural level of
a group’s collective consciousness and Oedipus is just one example, and others
include the Trickster, the Hero, Orphan, the Creator, the Sage or Fool, etc.
Following this line of thinking, Kardiner, who is considered as a neo-Freudian,
sought to demonstrate that religious institutions of tribal people are projections of
a “basic personality structures,” formed not by the action of an unconsciously
remembered historical trauma but by the more observable traumas produced by
child-training practices.
Many others like Eriksen (1950) have also been influenced by Freud’s concept.
Eriksen, drawing upon developments in ego personality to be a joint product of
psychobiological maturation, cultural context, and historical experience, interpreted
the religious notions of the Yurok and the Sioux in terms of certain basic modes
of relating to the world. The basic Freudian premise is that religious practices can
be usefully interpreted as expressions of unconscious psychological forces, and
this has become, amid much polemic, an established tradition of enquiry. Ruth
Benedict (1934) in her work has provided a background for all later culture-
personality studies using the same method. She explains cultural patterns of some
American Indians in terms of configurations from certain personality types.
The psychological approach has been superseded by functionalist approach but
recently the significance of psychology once again came to light in a different route
as symbolic anthropology. The context is that there has been a considerable
discussion on ‘primitive thought’ which is different from that of the ‘modern rational
thought’. The former is associated with lack of written language, technology, small
in number and lack of uniformity, etc., and its religion is expressed in ritualistic
activity and magic. The latter is associated with the scriptures, standard religious
activities, rationalisation of behaviour and philosophical approach to life. However,
there are commonalities and continuities in these two forms of thoughts and actions.
In this respect, the approach of Clifford Geertz to religion is significant, as modern
or primitive religion can be understood in an integrated system of thought through
symbolism.

1.5.3 Functionalist Approach

Various forms of functionalism in anthropology—which focus on social patterns
and institutions with reference to their functions in the larger cultural context—
have proved illuminating for wider understanding of religion. This has helped to
discover interrelations between differing aspects of religion as it connects various
institutions. Functionalism emphasises on the interrelations between the various
elements of a social system, and, therefore, pays less attention to evolutionary
origins and the notion of “survivals” – the continuation of primitive elements in a 15
Religion culture. Society is seen as a self-regulating system in which religion, economic
organisation, and kinship form parts of an organic whole. The realm of the sacred
is defined by the attitude people have towards it – rituals are sacred if they are
performed with reverence and awe. Numerous functional aspects of religion include
providing explanation or comfort; sanctions on social, economic and political norms
and institutions; and aiding ecological adaptation and unifying the social group.
Anthropologists like Malinowski, Evans-Pritchard, Radcliffe-Brown, etc., who
approached religion from functionalist perspective provide explanation that satisfies
human needs and solidarity of the group. Malinowski, for instance, in his work on
the Trobriand Islanders emphasises on the close relationship between myth and
ritual. He puts forward the idea of psychological functionalism, religious acts fulfilling
the psychological need and satisfaction. A mortuary ritual, for instance, is intended
to release the soul and prevent it from returning to haunt the living. Like Frazer,
he distinguishes magic from religion which aims at something beyond itself. Its
object is not performance of the rite. In magic the end is the efficacious magic
itself. Evans-Pritchard observes that while emotions, desires, and impulses
undoubtedly play a part in religion, the performance of a religious or magical act
need not automatically produce the psychological effects, as Malinowski supposes.
He argues in Azande religion that witchcraft has to be understood in social context.
In this sense, he agrees with Durkheim but disagrees with the notion that religion
is illusion.
Radcliffe-Brown (1922) provides an account of Andamanese religious beliefs and
ceremonies. He asserts that the Andaman Islanders’ main supernatural beings are
spirits of the dead, associated with the sky, forest, and sea, and nature spirits,
which are thought of as personifications of natural phenomena. Applying Durkheimian
analysis he presents an organic picture of society; religion integrates society and
rituals bring in solidarity of the group. Many anthropologists followed this stream
of approach which however slowly has died out with the criticisms from the newer
theorists. In India M.N. Srinivas’ (1952) study of society and religion among the
Coorgs is an outstanding contribution to the study of religion in functionalist
perspective. He very innovatively integrates social structure with religion which he
finds it operating at different levels – local, regional, peninsular and all India.
Drawing the difference between Indological and sociological approach, he adopts
the latter for a meaningful treatment of religion in relation with the social structure
of the Coorg. He demonstrates that various rituals organised at family, patrilineal
joint family (okka), village and nad level bring in solidarity and unity among
different social segments.

1.5.4 Structuralist Approach

Rejecting functionalist, sociological and psychological approaches as being too
light in interpreting mythology, Levi-Strauss’ (1958) new “structuralism” posited a
universal logical pattern to the human mind and in this perspective religion is of a
totally different phenomenon in nature. He has been unswerving in his search for
the universal structures of human thought and social life. He points out that although
anthropologists have tried studying mythology it has not been successful as myths
are still widely interpreted in conflicting ways: as collective dreams, as the outcome
of a kind of esthetical play, or as the basis of ritual. Mythological figures are
considered as personified abstractions, divinised heroes, or fallen gods. He further
laments that study of mythology has been reduced to either an idle play or a crude
kind of philosophical speculation. His formalistic structuralism tends to reinforce
16
analogies between “primitive” and sophisticated thinking and also provides a new
method of analysing myths and stories. Taking cue from structural linguistics, in Concepts and Approaches to
the Study of Religion
particular the work of Ferdinand Saussure, Levi-Strauss has sought to reveal a (Evolutionary,
grammar of the mind, a kind of universal psychology with a genetic base, which Psychological, Functional
gives rise to social structures. He explains that myth is language: to be known, and and Marxist)
to be told; it is a part of human speech. He further elaborates saying that in order
to provide its specificity we must be able to show that it is both the same thing
as language, and also something different from it. He interestingly analyses myth
with Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole, one being the structural
side of language, and the other the statistical aspect, langue belonging to a reversible
time, parole being non-reversible. Just as there are limits to linguistic variation, so
there are certain basic innate patterns of culture based on a series of binary
oppositions. Thus, all societies distinguish between the raw and the cooked, the
raw standing for nature (and women) and the cooked for culture (and men).
Myths reveal common story lines that can be used to understand the limited
number of ways in which human beings interpret the world. The structural analysis
of myth, which is a pioneering work of Levi-Strauss in anthropology, has influenced
many scholars in the 21st century. Levi-Strauss contends that primitive religious
systems are like all symbolic systems, fundamentally communication systems.
In Indian context Dumont (1959) takes the structuralist perspective of religion
manifested in the worship of village deities. He finds the opposition between
‘purity’ and ‘impurity’ and interdependency of both the values in the religious
thoughts. The ‘purity’ is strongly associated with vegetarian food offered to the
sanskritic gods and ‘impurity’ associated with non-saskritic gods and other spiritual
beings that receive the offering of non-vegetarian foods. The purity is superior to
impurity, and these values have transcended to form the basis of caste system.

1.5.5 Marxist Approach

Karl Marx has been an influential theorist who was very critical of religion, and
his approach depicts religion and religious belief as fictions that support the status
quo and that maintained class differences. Religion reflects false consciousness of
people that diverts their attention from the miseries of their lives. It is the outcome
of human distress that may have been the consequences of human’s struggle with
the nature in the past, but now it is a way to get along with capitalist culture. He
said, “Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the
protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the
heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the
opium of the people.” (1844 http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/
df-jahrbucher/law-abs.htm accessed on 2.5.2011).
Maurice Godelier finds Marx’s view of religion as reflection of the real world in
the human mind; the nature is personified unconsciously as objective realities, and
it is both transcendent and independent of human mind. In dealing with the nature,
he says, there is internal structure of relations in which humans alienate themselves.
Godelier (1975) explains this position while analysing the Mbuti Pygmy’s relation
with the forest as hunters. The forest provides animal as well as plant food, but
the Mbuti imagine the forest as kinsman and offer prayer of thanks, as forest is
considered as omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient divinity as it yields food
that sustain them. When a Mbuti dies, his or her breath leaves and mixes with the
wind, which is the breath of the forest. Various rituals that they organise and their
belief patterns show social and organic unity with the nature. Thus, he argues that
the religion of the Mbuti represents both a real and a symbolic action upon the
real and imaginary conditions. The real causes are transformed into the effects of 17
Religion imaginary, and the transcendent causes personified into imaginary omnipotent being
- god. In this nexus of forest, food and society, there is alienation of human
agency. Further, with other examples, Godelier argues that the shamans in the
simple societies mediate between the nature and society in the imaginary conditions
set, and thus shamans acquire power over the equals. With some other examples
he explains that the shamans or priests or the chiefs, who are also priests, exercise
control over the nature and dominate over the people in their collective enterprise
of political and economic dealings. Thus, the class differentiation and exploitative
social relations are inherent in the small societies though such relations are
unconsciously accepted as natural. The religion or ritual is basically used for
maintaining this kind of social order.
Maurice Bloch (1986) views society and culture as natural and these are governed
by general laws of the nature or earthly characters but not divine. Espousing
Robertson-Smith’s ideas on sacrifice, which is essentially social in nature, he
begins his argument that the functionalist perspective of ritual to bring solidarity of
a social group is only one aspect of ritual. The ritual which is very complex is more
stable historically than the beliefs which continue over a period of time. Therefore,
the historical construction of ritual unravels the social determination of ritual. The
functionalists who followed Robertson-Smith reduced every aspect of religion or
ritual to the purpose of providing solidarity to the group implying that ritual is the
outcome of an intentional attempt of the group for solidarity. But for others, such
as Durkheim, ritual is the device by which categories of understanding organising
our perception of nature and of society is created. Thus, there is ontological
problem of ritual, whether the ritual creates solidarity of the group or the group
create the ritual for solidarity, and this has not been resolved so far. For some
others such as Evans-Pritchard, religion offers explanation of the world and
accommodates the things beyond the human perception; it is an intellectualist’s
exercise. Still there is a need to explain why rituals are powerful and why
participation is so important? The Marxist writers offered the explanation of ideology
created phenomenologically and historically by the dominant group. Bloch argues
that ritual must be placed in social context. Symbolism with emotional content and
sociological aspects are to be brought together. The link between the history of
social formation and the ritual has to be established that can help understanding
the social determination of ritual. Further, ritual has propositional force expressed
in the special ritual communication through symbolism as well as speeches and
narratives, and it is necessary to understand the contents of the ritual in order to
grasp what ritual means to the participants and the onlookers.

1.5.6 Symbolic Approach

Evans-Pritchard (1956) first recognised the symbolic aspect of religion, and this
has inspired several anthropologists to approach religion through symbols, the
meanings given by the participants to the elements of religion and rituals, and
interpretations that anthropologists can offer. Victor Turner (1967), Mary Douglas
(1970) and Clifford Geertz (1973) are the important anthropologists that have
contributed for our understanding of religion from symbolic perspective.
Victor Turner’s work on the Ndembu rituals provides a highly detailed and enormous
work on Ndembu religious life which consists of rituals falling under these two
categories – Life cycle crisis ritual and ritual of affliction. His work shows that the
Ndembu society is greatly marked by different ceremonies replete with symbolic
meanings in every act and performance. Along with that his powerful analytic
18 concepts of ‘structure’ and ‘anti-structure’ in analysing the Ndembu society brought
about new dimension in looking at rituals and its symbolic relevance in ritual Concepts and Approaches to
the Study of Religion
context. (Evolutionary,
Psychological, Functional
According to Mary Douglas, there is an enormous literature on religion in the and Marxist)
modern world, but little guidance on how to relate its understandings to the other
branches of social thought. Douglas emphasises that the idea of the dangerous and
powerful sacred is formed by living together and trying to coerce one another to
conform to a moral idea. The sacred can be engraved in the hearts and mind of
the worshippers in more than one way. It represents the society, as experienced;
it is divine order, and what distorts it is unholy and polluting. Human body is the
most appropriate symbol of the society; functioning of bodily parts represents the
social order and disorder. For her, symbols fit well with the empirical experience
of group and individual into a consistent whole. She also worked extensively in
understanding about symbols. She says that symbol has meaning from its relation
to other symbols in a pattern, the pattern gives the meaning. Therefore, no one
item in the pattern can carry meaning by itself isolated from the rest. She further
puts forward that a basic question for understanding natural symbolic systems will
be to know what social conditions are the prototype for the one or the other set
of attitudes to the human body and its fitness or unfitness for figuring godhead.
What are the limits within which the disdain of organic processes can be used as
an idiom for social distance? Douglas also has tried to show that dimensions of
social life that govern the fundamental attitude to spirit and matter. According to
her, symbolic acts accurately convey information about the intentions and commitment
of the actor. She declares that anthropologists are in the habit of using ritual to
mean action and beliefs in the symbolic order without reference to the commitment
or non-commitment of the actors. Symbolic approach is one of the most popular
approaches used by anthropologists to study about human religious behaviours.
Dissatisfied with earlier approaches, Geertz proposes religion as the part of the
cultural system. For him, a symbol means any object, act, event, quality or relation
that serves as a vehicle for a conception. His conception of religion rests on the
notion that people act basically according to the systems of meanings that they
have and the job of anthropologist is to interpret these meanings and provide for
their description. The system of meanings engages continuous dialogue between
the meanings acting upon people and people’s actions upon meaning – the cultural
system shapes and gets shaped by the people. He says, “For an anthropologist,
the importance of religion lies in its capacity to serve, for an individual or for a
group, as a source of general, yet distinctive, conceptions of the world, the self,
and the relations between them, on the one hand—its model of aspect—and of
rooted, no less distinctive “mental” dispositions—its model for aspect—on the
other. From these cultural functions flow, in turn, its social and psychological ones”
(1973:123).
The functional and symbolic approaches have dominated the anthropological study
of religion in the late twentieth century as researchers have become increasingly
concerned with the concept of meaning. Biological, neurological and cognitive
approaches, which have not been dealt here, are gradually gaining popularity and
may dominate the future studies in anthropology of religion.

1.6 SUMMARY
The anthropology of religion has been concerned with the significance of religion
and its role in the lives of people in belief and practice, whether they are
technologically less or more advanced. Given its complexity in forms, variations 19
Religion and practices no precise definition could be given, and as such the anthropologists
have developed new concepts and used some known terms with specific meanings
in the discourse of comprehending religion. Some of the important ones considered
in this unit are: supernatural beings, animism, animatism, naturism, totemism, ritual,
myth, symbols, ancestor worship, magic, witchcraft, sorcery and evil eye. These
are interrelated and often fine distinction has been made between some concepts.
In order to explain this universal phenomenon, the anthropologists offered various
theoretical perspectives, and some of them considered include evolutionary,
psychological, functional, structural, Marxist and symbolism. While all these
frameworks attempt to explain religion in their own terms and tried to grasp the
reality, no single framework explains everything.
References
Bloch, Maurice. 1992. Prey into Hunter: the Politics of a Religious Experience.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Benedict, Ruth. 1934. Patterns of Culture. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Douglas, Mary. 1970. Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology with a
New Introduction. 1st ed., London and New York: Routledge.
Durkheim, Emile. 1912. Elementary Forms of Religious Life. London: Hollen
Street. Reprint 1961.
Dundes, Alan. 1981. ‘Wet and dry, the evil eye’. In Alland Dundes (ed.) The Evil
Eye: A Case Book. New York and London: Garland. Pp 257-312.
Dumont, Louis. 1959. ‘A structural definition of a folk deity of Tamilnad: Aiyanar
the Lord’. Contributions to Indian Sociology 3: 75-87.
Encyclopædia, Britannica. “The Origin of Civilization and the Primitive Condition
of Man.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Accessed on 2nd May. 2011
Eriksen, Erik H. 1950. Childhood and Society. 2nd ed. 1964. rev. & enl. New
York: Norton.
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1937. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande.
Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press.
_______________ 1956. Nuer Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Frazer, James. 1890. The Golden Bough. London: Macmillan.
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Godelier, M. 1975. ‘Towards a Marxist Anthropology of Religion’. Dialectical
Anthropology. Vol-1 no. 1: 81-5.
Levi-Strauss, Claude. 1958/1963. Structural Anthropology. New York: Basic
Books. Reprint 1963.
_______________ 1963. Totemism. New York: Basic Books.
Marett, R.R. 1909. The Threshold of Religion. London: Meuthen and Co.
Marx, Karl. 1844. ‘Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of
Right’, Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbiicher, February.
20
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/df-jahrbucher/law-abs.htm. Concepts and Approaches to
the Study of Religion
accessed on 2.5.2011. (Evolutionary,
Psychological, Functional
Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. 1922. The Andaman Islanders: A Study in Social and Marxist)
Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sills, David L. 1968. ‘Religion: Anthropological Study’ (ed.): International
Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (16 volume edition). New-York: Macmillan
& Co., vol. 13 (Psyc-Samp), pp. 398-406
Srinivas, M.N. 1952. Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India.
New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Turner, Victor. 1967. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. New
York: Cornell University Press.
Turner, Victor. 1982. ‘From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play’.
New York: PAJ Publications.
Tylor, E.B. 1871. Primitive Culture. 2 Vols. London: John Murray.
Suggested Reading
Durkheim, Emile. 1912/1961. Elementary Forms of Religious Life. London:
Hollen Street
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Turner, Victor. 1982. ‘From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play’.
New York: PAJ Publications.
Sample Questions
1) How do you conceptualise religion with the help of various concepts presented
in this chapter?
2) Based on the meanings associated with each of the religious concepts what
is the relevance of religion in human societies?
3) Are humans rational or irrational with reference to religion? Make your point
from the anthropological theories of religion.
4) Discuss how Marxist approach is closely related to functionalist theory of
religion.
5) In what ways the symbolic approach is an extension of psychological approach
to religion?

21
 UNIT 2 RITUALS AND SYMBOLISM
Contents
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Symbols and Social Life
2.2.1 Ritual
2.2.2 Key Symbols

2.3 Functional Study of Rituals

2.4 Rituals of Liminality
2.5 Rituals as Protest and Change
2.6 Rituals as Communication
2.7 The Nature of Rituals
2.8 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

After reading this unit, you would be able to understand the:
 typology of rituals;
 relevance and functions of rituals; and
 continuity and dynamism of rituals.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this unit, we shall discuss the significance of rituals as the performative aspect
of religion. We shall define rituals, discuss their functional aspects and see how
they operate as vehicles of symbolic communication. To be able to describe rituals
in a symbolic frame, we will also understand what symbols mean, how they
operate within human social life. The student will thus gather understanding of the
utilitarian as well as abstract nature of rituals.

2.2 SYMBOLS AND SOCIAL LIFE

Human life consists of a series of symbolic communications that enables us to
weave a meaningful world around us. If we reflect, there is almost nothing in our
lives that is not symbolically constructed – our language, our relationships, our
material culture and the environment. Everything is made meaningful by us and not
by any intrinsic property that it may have, but by the meaning bestowed on it by
the cultural system.
According to Clifford Geertz (1973), sacred symbols instil deep emotional moods
in people that in turn may lead to strong motivations for action. Even in the present
22 day world when humans have made great advances in the field of science, the
most extreme forms of action and even wars are undertaken for the sake of Rituals and Symbolism
religion.
Geertz (1973) has given his theory of thresholds to explain this deeply motivating
power of religious symbols. Humans look towards religion to overcome three
critical thresholds of every human’s life experience, the threshold of reason or the
limits of analytical ability, where on so many occasions we are left only with the
question, “Why?”. It may be when a loved one dies an untimely death or some
event not foreseen takes place. The second is the threshold of suffering; religion
does not give us relief from suffering but only a support to enable us to bear it.
Thus, every religion in its own way tries to explain the reason for suffering thereby
giving the sufferer a psychological strength to bear it, it may be one’s karma or
it may be a promise to inherit the kingdom of heaven. The third threshold is that
of evil or the lack of explanation of not only why evil exists but that it also gives
good dividend. The explanation of why the evil and corrupt prosper in this world
can only be given by religion and nothing else. It is only when we are told about
the separation of Satan from God or about bad karma leading ultimately to a bad
return even if it is in another world that most people feel committed to leading a
moral life.
The power of rituals, therefore, lies in the strong impression they make on the
minds of people. They evoke awe, commitment and a sense of accomplishment.
Rituals are enactments that without apparently accomplishing any instrumental end,
nevertheless, have been analysed as having multiple functions and serving several
ends. Let us first see how we can define ritual.

2.2.1 Ritual
A ritual is first of all a performance and to be socially meaningful, it must have a
public content. In other words, as Spiro (1966) points out, the private rituals of
the compulsive neurotic do not qualify to be studied by anthropologists, they are
the subject matter of psychologists. Thus, even if a person is performing a ritual
individually, he/she follows a pattern that is publicly recognised and followed, like
a Hindu woman blowing the conch shell and lighting a lamp under the tulsi (basil)
tree in the evening. Every culture prescribes a format for performance of rituals
that must be followed by everyone whether or not the ritual is actually performed
publicly. In other words, there is both public recognition and approval within any
culture for any ritual that is performed. Yet, rituals are rarely seen to have an
instrumental function. As Gilbert Lewis puts, the rituals are a “category of
standardized behaviour in which the relationship between the means and the end
is not ‘intrinsic’, i.e. is either irrational or non-rational” (Lewis 1980:13).
Edmund Leach has defined rituals as culturally defined behaviour that can be
regarded as a form of social communication, such a view of ritual as a cognitive
category has been taken up by other scholars such as Rappaport (1999). Mircea
Eliade (1987) and Rudolph Otto (1958) who have emphasised the sacred dimension
of rituals, in that rituals express an encounter with the supernatural and, therefore,
have a numinous character that sets them apart from the ordinary actions of the
world. Eliade (1987) has emphasised upon the bodily aspect of ritual, in that the
bodily movements and the ritual status given to it recreate the cosmological
conceptions and give meaning to them. Thus, rituals often recreate the archetypical
conceptualisations by which people give meaning to the world and rituals recreate
the cognitive dimensions like in Totemic rituals. The primordial relationship with
23
Religion the totemic ancestor is recreated and gives meaning to the existing relationships,
such as clans and ecological relations.
Eliade divides rituals into two types, the confirmatory, that is those that recreate
existing world views, and transformatory, that is those that bridge gaps and serve
to renew the world order when it is threatened by internal or external conflicts.
We shall take up these aspects in the later part of the unit.
Rituals also must have a structure, in that they follow a given script and adhere
to some very stringent rules and regulations. They also follow a time frame and
are usually repetitive or occur at specific designated points in a life cycle or natural
processes, like a birth or an eclipse. The structure also includes a designated
space and time, spatial organisation, personnel, their ritual status and a material
infrastructure. Most of these have no apparent rational content and, if any explanation
exists, it is always mythical, like the myths associated with rituals, such as pilgrimage
to Mecca or Sabarimalai or the myths associated with Totemic or annual rituals
like Dussehera. The verbal dimensions of rituals likewise have no specific meaning
and, especially as Bloch points out, are not comprehended by the lay public, and
because of their mystical and authoritative rendering serves to establish the power
of the ritual specialists. However, to many analysts the rituals have symbolic
significance in that they convey both condensed and elaborated meanings, either
encapsulating dense meanings like in the Christian mass or elaborating social scripts
in a manner in which the entire social normative structure is presented as a social
drama as in the Ramayana or similar story enactments. Here, it is highly relevant
to take a look at what Sherry Ortner has defined as Key Symbols.

2.2.2 Key Symbols

According to Ortner (1973), a key symbol is that which plays a central role in any
culture. From the point of view of the anthropologist, a key symbol can be
identified if it is prominently and publicly displayed in many places, if it frequently
occurs in conversation, or is referred to in public discourses, events and occasions,
and, if it plays a central role in language, in the form of metaphors and tropes. The
Key symbols can be of two types: the Summarizing Symbol and the Elaborating
Symbol.
Summarizing symbols are those in which a wide range of meaning is condensed
and which evokes a range of emotions when encountered. The summarizing symbols
are both multidimensional and multi-vocal, like the Christian cross, the Nazi
swastika, the Hindu swastika (with its opposed meaning to the Nazi symbol), the
Japanese chrysanthemum and the various national flags. The elaborating symbols
are those that expand and clarify symbolic meanings to the audience; they are
again of two types: key scenarios and root metaphors.
The former refer to enactments, or narratives that simplify and chalk out lines of
action or values that are contained in the key symbols that in turn are interconnected
to the world view and values contained in the culture. Let us take, for example,
the enactment of the Ramayana, where through a narrative all possible values
contained in Hindu society are worked out clearly. For instance, the story of king
Dasarath inadvertently killing Sravan Kumar indicates the inevitability of the karma
cycle, as you sow so shall you reap, at the same time the same story upholds the
virtue of filial devotion. The life of Rama designated as the most perfect man
(purushottama), indicates the values and virtues of a son, a mother, a wife, a
brother, a servant, a friend and so on through the various episodes and sub-plots.
24
Root metaphor is a metaphor or central symbol that may be used in various Rituals and Symbolism
situations and various occasions serving as both metaphor and simile to indicate
the multidimensional aspects of any culture. A good example of a root metaphor
is the Bible for the Christians, where we find that biblical references are found in
every aspect of western culture, like considering the number thirteen as inauspicious
or keeping Sunday as a holiday. The cattle among the Nuer can be taken as
another example of a root metaphor. The daily routine of the cattle set the time
for the Nuer daily activity, the colour of the cattle set the metaphors for Nuer
aesthetics and relationship with cattle set the norms for Nuer emotions.
Thus, these symbols both manifest themselves in rituals and also make the enactment
of the rituals meaningful to the participants. The functions of rituals have been
understood by various scholars in various ways.

2.3 FUNCTIONAL STUDY OF RITUALS

Foremost among the functional interpretation of rituals is the work of Emile
Durkheim, whose work Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) set the
stage for functional analysis from the earlier emphasis on evolution. Durkheim
showed how the totemic rituals establish within the participants a sense of oneness
with the sacred totemic ancestor, thereby creating a consciousness of the sacred
as within and not outside of the self. It is because of this that the people belonging
to a clan claiming descent from a common totem feel a sense of solidarity with
each other and also a sense of commitment to the norms governing the totem,
thereby establishing a stable society that has internal coherence and a sense of
morality that upholds the very sentiments out of which the society is forged,
namely the system of clans. Thus, Durkheim was led to comment that God is
nothing but society writ large. He also showed how the totemic rituals led to a
harmonious relationship between humans and nature where humans were committed
to preserving some parts of nature that was important to them. Every time the
totemic rituals were performed all the values became reemphasised and reaffirmed,
thus the repetitive nature of rituals was to recreate the collective sentiments of the
people, a process necessary for the survival of society.
Durkheim also gave a name to certain kind of rituals that are universal and which
perform a very significant function, namely the rituals associated with death, that
he calls Piacular rituals. In every human society, death rituals are very important
and among the most elaborate of all life cycle rituals. The reason given by Durkheim
is that piacular rituals enable human beings to overcome any sense of guilt that
they may have with respect to the dead person and also to overcome grief. By
the time a mourner has exhausted himself or herself by performing all the elaborate
rituals, he/she feels that they have not only done as much as they could for the
dead person but also undergo catharsis to come to a sense of closure and overcome
grief to carry on with day to day living. Thus piacular rituals perform a social
function of returning the mourner to normalcy and rehabilitate him or her as a
functioning member of society.
Reflection and Action

Critically assess piacular rituals. Do you agree with Durkheim’s view?

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown followed Durkheim to give a structural-functional analysis

of collective rituals that uphold the social structure by reinforcing sentiments and
also by the emphasis given to socially important aspects like food, relationships
and events that reintegrate these within the social fabric so that society remains 25
Religion harmonious. Radcilffe–Brown used the term social solidarity to denote this stage
of harmony. He introduced the terms ritual value and ritual status to describe the
symbolic significance of collective rituals.
He showed the significance of taboos or prescriptions and prohibitions in creating
a ritual status and thereby giving a ritual value to an object that could be anything,
including a person. This ritual value is nothing but a social value necessary for
maintaining necessary sentiments essential for social reproduction and solidarity.
Thus, the rituals and taboos surrounding a puberty ritual have many functions.
They emphasise the sense of responsibility that a child who is becoming an adult
must feel in order to fulfil his or her role in society. Thus contained within the
puberty rituals are many messages that initiates future roles and responsibilities,
like fertility, being a good husband or wife, etc. Also he showed that for the
Andaman Islanders, for example, the enhanced ritual value of some food created
through taboos is to show the value of conserving such rare and precious foods
in the environment; in other words, to have a respectful attitude towards them. The
value of rituals such as couvade, where the husband of a pregnant woman simulates
the symptoms of pregnancy and pretends to go into labour pain, instils the
importance of fatherhood in the man, who may not otherwise feel it, as he is not
physically pregnant like his wife. Such is also the function of various taboos
imposed on various kin of the unborn child, who through the practices of avoidance
and many constraints put on their actions begin to realise the importance of the
social relationships that they have with the coming child. In other words, Radcliffe-
Brown put forward the hypothesis that rituals by their restrictions on action create
anxiety that is just right to make a person realise the importance of a relationship.
While in this analysis importance is given to the function of rituals for social
structure, in the analysis of B. Malinowski rituals have been seen in the perspective
of their function for individuals.
In a sense Malinowski’s analysis is opposite to that of Radcliffe-Brown as it
explains rituals as relieving rather than creating anxiety. All human beings have
certain amount of rational knowledge about tasks that they are required to do, but
in spite of even the most extensive knowledge and skill, a certain degree of
uncertainty prevails for all the tasks that we undertake. The role of rituals is to
take care of this grey area of uncertainty that no amount of skill or knowledge can
cover, take for example the failure of space missions, such as the Challenger, in
spite of the best material and intellectual resources to back it up. Therefore, one
is not surprised when one hears of space scientists offering rituals at Tirupati or
otherwise invoking supernatural help for their missions. The more dangerous the
result of failure, the greater is the anxiety. For example, in his study of the
Trobrianders, a seafaring community of the pacific islands, Malinowski showed
that when they are fishing in back waters, or otherwise safe zones, the fishermen
perform little rituals, but they always perform elaborate rituals when they are
venturing out in the deep sea or on any long distance voyage where the risk factor
is high. The performance of rituals can be rationalised by the positive mind set or
confidence it builds up in the individual, who feels satisfied at having done all that
he or she could do, to take care of all the aspects, including those that are beyond
human control and which only the supernatural can take care of.
In his famous work, The Coral Gardens and their Magic, (1935) Malinowski
has also shown how the rituals performed by the magician help to regulate agricultural
work and imposes a rational time schedule that actually helps in the scientific
management of productive activities. Once activities are projected as sacred duty
26
there is greater compliance and less chances of people defaulting.
 Rituals and Symbolism
2.4 RITUALS OF LIMINALITY
The concept of liminality in rituals was introduced by Van Gennep (1909) and
elaborated by Victor Turner and Edmund Leach. A liminal period is ‘a betwixt and
between’ period where normal life and time stands still or is reversed. According
to Van Gennep, who analysed the role of lifecycle rituals for individuals and for
society, these rituals such as those of birth, puberty, marriage and death, mark
stages of transition in an individual’s life, where a person makes a transition from
one status to another. Beginning from birth where one enters society as an individual
and has pre-existing relationships like with one’s parents, aunts and cousins, etc.
The birth of a child also changes the status of many others too, from being
husband and wife a couple become parents, and some may become grandparents,
aunts and uncles, etc. In the same way, social statuses change with marriage and
even with death. Puberty rituals make an adult member out of a child. According
to Van Gennep, every such ritual has three stages, a stage of separation, a liminal
stage and a final stage of incorporation. Thus, in the first stage an individual is
removed from normal life, often giving up on normal daily activities, is surrounded
by taboos and often enters a ritual status of sacredness. For example, just before
getting married a person may take leave from work, a girl is not allowed to go
out of the house, and they are treated like special people. In India, girls and boys
may be given oil baths, confined to the house, surrounded by relatives and
restrictions placed on activities, dress and food. This is then the liminal period
when a person is kept away from society. Sometimes they may be physically
hidden away, almost a person is kept away from normal day to day activities.
Thus, they are in society but not a part of it, this is the bewixt and between
situations when one is suspended as it were in social space and time. After the
transition is made, say, for example, one gets married one gets back to ordinary
life and comes out of the liminal period. This is the ritual of incorporation, like, for
example, a new bride may be asked to cook a dish in her in-law’s house, thereby
incorporating her into the daily routine of everyday life.
Almost all life cycle rituals, rituals that mark life stage transitions, are marked by
these three stages. Edmund Leach has used the concept of liminality to describe
what he calls the marking of structural time, or intervals where important social
events mark the oscillations of time, from one period to another. For example,
harvest rituals mark the interval between one agricultural cycle and another. Thus,
time begins with one sowing and ends with the reaping of the crop, then going
back to a new season of sowing. This sowing-reaping-sowing cycle is marked at
each phase by a ritual. Leach calls this oscillating time as against the concepts of
lineal time and even cyclical time.
Since this kind of liminality is compared to the swinging of a pendulum, there is
a sense of reversal, where ordinary life is reversed or stopped, a typical example
being a carnival celebrated during harvest festivals and such annual cycles as the
coming of spring. For example, during the festival of Holi in India, we find that all
social norms are reversed, people perform revelry where normal social distances
are abandoned. The young people take over and the old look on indulgently. In
the festival of Gajan as described by Okos Astor, the strict observances of caste
norms of purity and pollution are abandoned. Such rituals have also been analysed
as having a cathartic effect, where hostilities and inequalities are abandoned and
the injustices suffered in every day life are acted out in reverse. For example, in
one kind of Holi celebrations in India, the women take brooms and beat men, who
are not supposed to protest. This is a reversal of usual role play where women 27
Religion may be subjected to abuse by men in a patriarchal set up. Thus, at least on one
day in a year the role reversal allows women to vent their pent up resentment.
Reflection and Action

Discuss liminality taking cues from the works of Van Gennep and Leach.

2.5 RITUALS AS PROTEST AND CHANGE

In situations of change and oppression, people may resort to some kinds of rituals
to register their protest and also to address the injustice they feel they are subjected
to. Jean Comaroff’s (1985) work in colonised South Africa among the Tshidi is
a classical example of the interpretation of the use of rituals to express both
contradictions and transformation. Thus, as Comaroff puts it, while in the 19 th
century the Tshidi expressed their universe, their collective values and predispositions
through the symbolic management of their bodies in ritual, by the twentieth century
under the impact of colonial rule and the influx of capitalism collective rituals
themselves became arenas of contestation of the ‘real’ and the ‘valued’ and was
an effort to transform the world. Thus, the church in Africa combined biblical
symbolism with African nationalism. The “Zionism” that was constituted, was in
opposition to Protestant orthodoxy and the rationalist dualism inherent in it that
had constituted the ‘scientific’ world view of the West. It was replaced in Africa
with the use of the Church to reconstruct a holistic community by which to resist
the imposition both of a colonial and a capitalist market dominated social order.
These Zionist organisations were composed mostly of illiterate congregation as
well as leaders who were viewed more as healers than priests. Rather than follow
the bureaucratic organisation of the Christian Church, the Africans followed a
more personalised relationship in tune with their own social organisation. The
rituals were marked by special dresses where the men wore gleaming white skirts
following the Tshidi colour code, where white represents active power (Zion) and
black represents normative control. Thus, the Zionist rituals emphasised the
regenerative and active exercise of power, therefore, representing resistance, rather
than the usual normative function, of the church.
As a result, while the people in the third world often accepted Christianity from
the colonisers, they used it in opposition to orthodox Christianity in a way that
their rituals were a protest and symbolic communication of opposition to the
imposition of the market and global industrial culture.
Hence, the rituals enable the performers to act upon an external source of power
to construct themselves as moulded but not in a determinate way. Therefore,
rituals can manipulate and present a difference that serves to give strength to a self
constructed and dissenting identity.

2.6 RITUALS AS COMMUNICATION

The cognitive dimension of ritual as communication was made explicit in the works
of many scholars, of which Roy Rappaport is one of the foremost. He identifies
both form and structure in ritual and is of the opinion that the ritual form is a
distinctive and unique mode of expression that cannot be conflated with any other
medium. Although, in essence, a ritual is, according to him, an invariant sequence
of formalised acts and utterances, the substance of which distinguishes a specific
ritual from a generalised form. Thus, the form is what distinguishes ritual as a
general category, while the substance of this form is the substantial instances, say
28 the initiation ritual of a particular tribe or the rain making ritual of a community.
Consequently, while the ritual contents can be infinite, the ritual form is a generalised Rituals and Symbolism
universal that defines the ritual. The ritual form is “frame” (Goffman: 1967) or meta
message. Also, while no single feature of ritual, such as invariant sequence,
formalisation, stylisation, etc., are unique to it, the combination is unique and is
found only in ritual. Another important feature of ritual is that the performers follow
more or less a given blueprint and innovations, if any, are on an existing pattern.
Completely new rituals are very rare.
The performative aspect of ritual emerges as the most important, as the meaning
communicated through performance cannot be conveyed by any other means. Yet
theatre is also a performance but what sets ritual apart from theatre is that those
who are present at a ritual are all participants, even if they appear as spectators;
but in a theatre (especially the conventional ones) the separation of performer and
audience is radical. Moreover, a ritual is not really efficacious, only assumed to be
so. For example, a rain making ritual does not actually produce rain. Yet, rituals
are often taken by the performers to be means of producing a result, of altering
the world, of making an impact upon the universe.
The power of ritual as communication lies in its uniqueness in conveying meanings
that are powerful, being clothed in the aura of the supernatural or the sacred. It
is the very formality and non-instrumental nature of ritual that contributes to its
power of communication. But this communication can only be received by the
community of believers, or for whom the message is meaningful. It does not have
a universal scope, and meaning conveyed is not encoded by the performers but
by the participants. Thus, tourists who form an audience for a performance of
ritual are not receivers of any message for they are not a part of the system of
meanings shared by the participants, both as performers and as audience.
Let us take, for example, the performance of Ramlila in Ram Nagar, as described
by Schechner (1987). The cosmological dimensions of space, the use of that
space by the local ruler and by the audience that belongs to that culture and
system of meanings is very different than if one were to enter that space as an
outside tourist. The audience participates as performers of story as it unfolds, they
are the subjects of the king Rama, they are the part of the army of Rama, and they
are the members of the king’s court and so on, as they move within the symbolic
space of the performance.
Lewis (1980) has also described rituals as vehicles of expression, where all three
parties to the communication, the emitter, the message and the recipient are involved
in a system of symbols, where the meaning conveyed may be both public and
private, and not self evident, thus, to him, rituals express more than what seems
apparent or represent something other than what is manifest. It is their very
ambiguity that invests rituals with deeper significance and meaning, that cannot
even be conveyed by linguistic usage, as much of it is in the emotional content,
what Geertz has distinguished as ‘perception’ and ‘disposition’.

2.7 THE NATURE OF RITUALS

While ritual is usually seen as action and dichotomized from thought, it is at the
same time, especially as a tool of cognition or communication, seen as integrating
thought and action. Thus, the ritual in its communicative or functional dimension
is often seen as communicating or transmitting some values, norms or principles.
It may also, as Schechner has shown for the Ram Lila, transmit values, such as
nationalism, or the power of the king, spatial integrity and social hierarchies. 29
Religion Victor Turner (1969) has shown how rituals may provide a creative space for the
creation of an anti-establishment or anti-structural space that communicates a
criticism of the established social norms and values. Thus, ritual may act either
way both to functionally establish values and to create a situation by which the
tensions of oppression are released. According to Clifford Geertz, ritual is also a
point of entry for the observer, for, while the participants perform, those observing
them think. Here, the role of the theorist also becomes clear for it is the scholar
who creates a meaning system that is his/her own construction, not necessarily that
of the performer. For example, the analysis of ancestor worship rituals of the
Tsembaga, have been analysed by Roy Rappaport as a negative feedback system
where the rituals act as a thermostat to regulate the human environment relationships.
Such is, of course, the way the performers look upon their rituals. Thus, the
communicative dimension of the rituals is different for the community of participation
and for the outside observer.
Bell (1992: 31) makes a three level classification of rituals, 1) ritual as a separation
of activity and thought, 2) ritual as a fusion of thought and activity, and 3) one
“where the dichotomy between a thinking theorist and an acting actor is
simultaneously affirmed and resolved”. However, critical thinking would see this as
an imposed hierarchy where the analyst is privileged over the actor. For example,
Levi-Strauss’s analysis of ritual is his own and not the actor’s view.
A more subjective point of view, like that of Marcus and Fischer, suggests that
rituals can be read like a text, as they are public performances. Through ritual the
ordinary acts become special and communicate the significance of the situation.
The knowledge of converting something to a ritual is a socially acquired knowledge
that is present in all of us. Thus, an ordinary tea party can become a birthday party
when someone brings in a cake and candles and every one sings “Happy Birthday”.
It is a shared system symbols, a socially acquired knowledge when put in practice
makes it a ritual.

2.8 SUMMARY
Rituals may appear to be meaningless in a rational framework yet on analysis as
presented in this unit, we find them not only to be full of symbolic meaning but also
linked to practice. Rituals may help to maintain existing structures of society or
they may challenge them. They may appear in many forms and sometimes be a
script for reading the deep seated values of society. They merit in all instances of
a study of any society, deep and focussed attention on both their symbolic and
performative dimensions.
References
Bell, Catherine. 1992. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Comaroff, Jean. 1985. Body of Power: Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and
History of a South African People. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Durkheim, Emile. 1912. Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Tr. From French
by Joseph Ward Swan, 1965, New York: The Free Press.
Eliade, Mircea. 1987. ‘Ritual’ in The Encyclopaedia of Religion (ed.) Mircea
Eliade, New York: Mac Millan Pub. Co. Vol.12. pp 405-422.

30
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: New York: Basic Books, Rituals and Symbolism
A Member of the Perseus Books Group.
Goffman, Irving. 1967: Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behaviour.
New York: Anchor Books.
Leach, Edmund. 1968. ‘Ritual’ In The International Encyclopaedia of the Social
Sciences. Vol. 13. Ed. David L Sills; New York; Macmillan; p.526.
Lewis, Gilbert. 1980. Day of Shining Red: An Essay on Understanding Ritual.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Malinowski, Broninslaw. 1935. Coral Gardens and Their Magic: A Study of
the Methods of tilling the Soil and Agricultural Rites in The Trobriand Islands.
London: Routledge.
Malinowski, Broninslaw. 1948. Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays.
Reprint 1992. Illinois: Waveland Press.
Marcus, George and Michael Fischer. 1986. Anthropology as Cultural Critique.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ortner, Sherry. 1973. ‘On Key Symbols’. In American Anthropologist. Vol 75,
No.5 pp 1338-1346.
Otto, Rudolph. 1958. The Idea of the Holy: An inquiry into the Non-Rational
Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Radcliffe-Brown A.R. 1922. The Andaman Islanders. Illinois: The Free Press.
Rappaport, Roy. 1999. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity.
Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology: Cambridge University Press.
Schechner, Richard. 1983. Performative Circumstances from the Avant Garde
to Ramlia. Calcutta: Sea Gull Books.
Schechner, Richard. 1987. ‘The Future of Ritual’. in Journal of Ritual Studies.
Vol.1, no.1.
Spiro, Melford. E. 1966. ‘Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation’. In
Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion. ed Michael Banton,
Taylor and Francis. Reprint 2004. London: Routledge.
Tambiah, Stanley. 1979. ‘A Performative Approach to Ritual’. Proceedings of the
British Academy. Vol.65: 113-69.
Turner, Victor. 1969. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago:
Aldine.
Van Gennep, Arnold. 1909. Les Rites de Passage Tr. The Rites of Passage in
1960 reprint 2004. London: Routledge.
Suggested Reading
Lewis, Gilbert. 1980. Day of Shining Red: An Essay on Understanding Ritual.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rappapo rt , Ro y. 1999. Ritual and Religion in the Making of
Humanity.Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology: Cambridge University Press.
Van Gennep, Arnold. 1909. Les Rites de Passage Tr. The Rites of Passage 1960
reprint 2004. London: Routledge.
31
Religion Sample Questions
1) Give a broad definition of rituals as described by various scholars.
2) Describe the role of rituals in maintaining social order.
3) What are taboos? How do they help maintain social relationships?
4) What is liminal phase in a ritual? What is its significance?
5) What do you understand by dynamism of rituals? Explain with examples.

32
UNIT 3 RELIGIOUS SPECIALISTS
Contents
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Categories of Specialists
3.3 Shaman
3.3.1 Siberian Shamanism
3.3.2 Tapirape Shamanism
3.3.3 Korean Shamanism
3.3.4 Neo-shamanism

3.4 Informal Specialists

3.4.1 Medium
3.4.2 Witch and Sorcerer
3.4.3 Prophet
3.4.4 Diviner

3.5 Formal Specialists

3.5.1 Priest
3.5.2 Clergy
3.5.3 Saint or Seer
3.5.4 Monk
3.5.5 Missionary

3.6 Modes of Religious Specialisations

3.7 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions
Learning Objectives

Once you have studied this unit, you will achieve familiarity with:
 various religious specialists;
 functional differences among specialists;
 relationship among the specialists; and
 specialisation in relation to the scale of the society.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Religious knowledge is neither possessed uniformly nor equally shared among all
the members of a society. It cannot be the monopoly of one individual. Similarly,
no one can claim total expertise in the ways the religious performances or rituals
are ought to be organised. Some individuals are more knowledgeable than the
others, and similarly some have acquired special knowledge or special training to
carry out religious performances or impart religious knowledge to others. Not all
rituals require the presence of religious experts, but in some their presence is 33
Religion indispensable. Those who are trained or have acquired special knowledge are
qualified to perform certain religious activities. They may also have certain distinctive
personality traits that make them capable of performing such works. Such persons
have ritual authority, esoteric knowledge or spiritual gifts and are considered
competent to find religious solutions. They are authorized to interpret religious
codes, holy laws and ecclesiastical rules and even social norms. These religious
specialists or leaders may be one of these different types – shaman, medium,
witch, sorcerer, prophet, priest, clergy, saint, monk, missionary, etc. They are
given certain status in the society. In reality, some individuals may at times perform
the functions of more than one of these specialists and change roles depending on
the circumstances and need. These are religious intermediaries that mediate between
the super-humans and humans. Religious intermediaries may be part-time or full-
time specialists. This unit is devoted to examine the characteristics and
interrelationships among these religious specialists.

3.2 CATEGORIES OF SPECIALISTS

Shamanism is most common, and is duly recognised among localised religions but
it has not attained reputed status in the world religions which are more organised
and it is often relegated to the folk religion. In the modern industrial societies or
those developing where the organised world religion dominates, religious
specialisation takes place. There are two broad categories of specialists, formal
and informal: the specialist who has been conferred by religious authority, which,
in turn, has various ranks, are formal specialists which include priests, clergy, saint
or seer, monk and missionary. The specialists of informal category are client
oriented, such as faith healers, prophets, mediums, etc. Herein, first we will take
up shaman’s followed by informal and formal specialists.

3.3 SHAMAN
The term shaman seems to have been derived from the Tungus language of Central
Siberia, but some claim its origin to be Sanskrit. Whatever be its roots, the
concept covers many disparate things rather than a clear unified concept. There
are some who restrict the term to the northern-Arctic phenomenon, but others use
it broadly to cover any ecstatic behaviour. It has, however, been accepted in
anthropology as the term for a unique sort of spiritual-medical-political specialist.
These specialists are found among the Siberians, Greenlanders, North American
tribes, Chinese and other Asian societies. From around 1970s new shamanistic
movements have sprung in USA and Europe among the urbanised people with the
motifs of western culture drawing upon the indigenous “other” and ancient wisdom
which may be called neo-shamanism. Different shamanistic practices are discussed
below:

3.3.1 Siberian Shamanism

In the Arctic shamanism, the shaman is a master or mistress of spirits. She or he
uses hand-held drums, performs dance and uses elaborate costumes and engages
in rituals which are dramatic aided by the use of various theatrical techniques of
shaman. The ritual is meant to contact and establish a relationship with a
supernatural entity, and the success of a shaman lies not in memorisation of prayer
or performance of ritual but in the ability to successfully establish contact and
exercise control over the supernatural. Each shaman keeps in control a few spirits
34 who give powers or particular qualities to the shaman. The world is divided into
three realms: the upper realm is one of good spirits; the middle realm is the home Religious Specialists
of the people of the earth; the lower realm is one of darkness and evil spirits. In
the altered state of consciousness, the shaman journeys to one of the other realms
with the help of spirits. The main function of the shaman is healing; the disease is
believed to have been caused due to loss of soul that has been snatched away by
a spirit. The shaman deals with the disease causing spirit or retrieves the lost soul
with the help of his familiar or favoured spirits. The ritual is also conducted for
successful hunt; the shaman contacts the spirits of an animal species and makes
a deal with them; the animal spirits supply food to the humans by enriching hunting,
and the humans supply the spirits with human flesh and blood which is the cause
of sickness and death. Shamans are frequently chosen by the spirits to become
shaman (Stein and Stein 2008:124-126).

3.3.2 Tapirape Shamanism

The unseen world of the Tapirape Indians of Central Brazil consists of spirits
known by generic term ancunga that consist ghosts – iunwera, the disembodied
souls of the dead and malevolent beings of many classes and descriptions. The
former live in abandoned villages but they visit the inhabited villages in rainy
season, and the ghosts also die and become changed into animals. The other class
of spirits live deep in forests and these kill those who visit their habitations. The
shaman of Tapirape derives power by dreaming and he travels to the world of the
spirits; the soul, iunga, frees itself from the body in sleep and move freely in time
and space. The power of shaman depends upon the number of demonic familiars
and their strength; he also seeks support of the spirits from the attacks of the
spirits of other shamans. Treating sickness is the most common duty of the shaman.
The curing is most frequently done by extraction of a malignant object by sucking
which is aided by ‘eating the tobacco smoke’ and vomiting of the stomach. Another
important duty of the shaman is protecting the members from the ghosts, and some
shamans control and increase the bands of pigs by travelling to the ‘home of wild
pigs’ and by copulating with the female pigs. The wild pigs are believed to be pets
of the spirits and the shaman brings the pigs of the familiar spirit to the vicinity of
the habitation. Shamans often are destructive by sending familiar spirits against
another shaman or any member of the society out of jealousy or for revenge
(Wagley 1971).

3.3.3 Korean Shamanism

The Korean society believes in the spirits that possess individuals and trouble
them causing illnesses to the living. Even though the Koreans are converted to
Buddhism that has no place for pre-Buddhist beliefs, the traditional beliefs have
not been totally replaced by Buddhist beliefs. The shamanism here is known as
Muism or Sinism (religion of gods) and encompasses a variety of Korean indigenous
religious beliefs and practices, and the shaman is called mudang, usually a woman
who acts as intercessor between god(s) and people. The shaman is chosen by
spirits, and experienced shaman performs initiation ritual for transforming the novice
into a full-fledged shaman, who organises services independently. These are public
performances organised for clients for curing illnesses by exorcising lost spirits that
cling to people, or propitiate local or village gods. Such services are also held to
guide the spirit of a deceased person to reach heaven. For some shaman women
it is a good source of income and the practice gives certain degree of influence
over the community also.
35
Religion 3.3.4 Neo-shamanism
Urbanites of United States of America and Europe started showing interest in
shamanism since 1970s. Its popularity is drawn largely from Native American
traditions. The drug culture of 1960, interest in non-Western religions,
environmentalism, the New Age, self-help, self realisation movement, etc., have
contributed to this development. Anthropologists Carlos Castaneda and Michael
Harner who studied Yaqui of Arizona (USA) and Jivaro of Amazon have promoted
neo-shamanism by publishing relevant material and organising workshops in USA,
Europe and Latin America and also training interested people. The aim is to
achieve altered states of self consciousness using drugs or drums and have the
experience of meeting spirits and power animals. Here bits and pieces of different
cultures are put together by each practitioner for such an experience.
Shamans or similar religious specialists are also found in major religions of the
world such as Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Christianity. In India and many
south Asian countries, where Hinduism and Islam are commonly professed, there
is belief in Pir/holy man or Baba or Ma/Matha who acts as a mediator between
God/spirits and man. Both Hindus and Muslims revere the Pir whereas Baba and
Ma/Matha is well respected by Hindus. In the Philippians and in some American
Philippine communities, there are individuals who perform “spirit surgery.”
Evangelical Christian “faith healers” can be fitted into the definition of shaman also.
It depends on what they believe in the source of their “power.” They are shamans
if they personally have power to compel their God to cure people. They are
intermediaries having independent authority, and use altered state of consciousness
to directly contact the supernatural world for healing or solving problems of another
individual. They are not associated with any formalised religious institutions. They
may or may not engage themselves in or organise any ritual.
Finally, it may be concluded that a shaman is a kind of intermediary who has
independent authority, and is not part of an organised religion and is in direct
contact with the spirit world, usually through a trance state. One who has charisma
and ability to deal with the supernatural powers becomes shaman. There is a
special relationship between a shaman and the society. A successful shaman can
amass a significant degree of social authority. A shaman is essentially a religious
entrepreneur who acts for human clients. She or he intervenes on behalf of a
human client to influence supernatural beings to perform some acts such as curing
an illness or discovering the cause of an unexpected suffering. One acquires
Shamanic power individually, mostly in physical and/or mental solitude and isolation
from other humans.
Questions in shamanistic experience can be difficult to answer – such as, are there
really animal guardian spirits with which human beings can make contact? Is
psychic healing a reality, and, if so, what is the relationship between the capacities
of the human mind and external forces? Bowie (2000) agrees that this type of
question is not easy to assess empirically, but acknowledges that anthropologist
can study what people say and think about their beliefs and practices, and the role
that these beliefs and practices play in structuring, people’s lives. Shamans belonging
to different communities would use different means to achieve their ends. Certain
factors are, however, found in common. They are as follows: a) usually the office
is hereditary but occasionally a person’s personality can also make him the chosen
one to the office, (b) The shaman may possess a unusual mental state or even a
physical shortcoming so that he may be considered neurotic or epileptic, (c) The
36 above abnormal qualities make him the chosen one (d) One takes up apprenticeship
under an older shaman to learn and develop the skills, (e) the shaman may go into Religious Specialists
a trance or enter into an excited condition to make her/his predictions, or to cure
the illness or get rid of a spirit, and (f) hallucinogens, such as drugs or weeds or
smoke, are used to go into trance.
One becomes shaman in various ways. In case of Siberian or Korean shamanism
the spirit(s) choose the shaman; among the Tapirape one has to dream. Among the
Zulu of South Africa the spirit troubles the person chosen to be a shaman with
sickness and an experienced shaman finds it through divination and confirms the
selection as shaman by the spirit. Among the Zinacanteco Indians one gets a call
when one looks into the realms of gods and ancestors in dreams and visions.
Often shaman combines, in some cases, the functions of priest, prophet and
magician, all in one. Shaman also performs rituals of sacrifice and appeases the
gods or spirits once they have been forced to submit to the shaman’s needs.
Because of the power possessed, the shaman acquires a charismatic personality
and leadership similar to a prophet. In order to enhance the image of supernatural
powers, one wears unusual jewelry and clothing, sport long and matted hair, paint
the body with colour or ash and carry either musical instruments or bones etc. The
typical methods for inducing a trance or altered consciousness involve: fasting, the
use of narcotic drugs, tobacco, dancing, singing or drumming to a hypnotic rhythm,
etc.

3.4 INFORMAL SPECIALISTS

3.4.1 Medium
Close to shaman is medium. A medium is a human channel of either sex through
which god or ancestor or spirit communicates with the living members of the
society. The supernatural being possesses the human agency, the medium, that
goes into trance or enters an altered consciousness of ecstasy, and the spirit
publicly speaks to the living, and that whatever is spoken is attributed to the spirit
but not to the human agency. It is believed that the spirit suppresses the human
spirit and uses the body of the human agent to communicate directly with the
living, and listens with the ears of the human agent whatever spoken by the living.
The medium does not recount the revelation and does not even remember what
has been uttered after the dispossession of the spirit. The speech of the spirit
would be different from the agent with shrill or squeaking voice and delivered with
convulsions, rhythmic or frenzy body movements and so on. The message given
by the spirit is called oracle, which also means a device used in divination. Even
a medium is often called as an oracle.
Mediums existed among the Greeks and Romans of ancient times and they are
present in several contemporary societies as well. The temple of Apollo at Delphi
was an ancient place of mediums in Greece which dates back to 1400 BC. The
famous Oedipus myth mentions the oracle at Delphi about killing his father and
marrying the mother Jocasta. The oracle was delivered through a medium called
Pythia. In Brazil, the Candomblé and Umbanda religious forms are based on the
orisha deities of Yoruba religion of Nigeria that have mediums. These forms are
developed within the last fifty years, which have been heavily influenced by
Catholicism. The phenomenon is now called as Spiritism. The Brazilians visit these
medium to find out solutions to their problems, mostly related to their romance
(St. Clair 1971), healing, overcoming financial difficulties, etc.
The Western society has been witnessing new mediumship in the latter half of the
37
20th century. This is called channel and the channeler goes into a trance, or leaves
Religion the body or get possessed by a specific spirit, who then talks with the living
through the channeler. The spirit answers the questions of those present. A widely
known channeler is Jane Roberts who gets the spirit of Seth, Esther Hicks, Margaret
McElroy of Maitreya, Grandbois of Kris (Klimo 1987 referred by Van Rheenen
1996).
Reflection and Action

Shamanisms are of various kinds. Sometimes they overlap. Distinguish between the
shaman and medium.

3.4.2 Witch and Sorcerer

As pointed out by Evans-Pritchard, a Witch is different from a Sorcerer in Africa.
But it may not be the case everywhere. Witches have antisocial characters or
behaviour; may practice cannibalism or incest in order to enhance their powers.
They show deep sense of greed, jealousy and hatred. A witch is always a woman
in Nupe, whereas in Gwari, a neighbour with similar culture, a witch can be man
or woman. The witch’s power is internal and inherited whereas the sorcerer uses
external power to harm others. Both are believed to be causing untimely death.
The sorcerer is a magician, an evil figure; in many religions healers use black
magic, but a sorcerer is internally evil that works for illegal and antisocial ends.
Some ailments are attributed to sorcery, such as kuru in Fore of New Guinea.
Usually the sorcerer employs contagious magic with hair, nail, clothes, etc., of the
victim. The sorcerer learns the art and uses different techniques and rituals for
causing an effect of the power on others. Another sorcerer is engaged to undo the
sorcery or a witch may be allowed to do the same. The practices of witch differ
from society to society and even within the same society. In Cameroon, witchcraft
is known as ekong or kupe or famla and is practiced across ethnic lines. Even
rural France is no exception to the belief in witches. The occurrence of a series
of misfortunes to an individual or family is attributed to the works of a witch
(Bowie 2000). In Kipsigis of Kenya there are various kinds of sorcerers and
witches, and the most powerful one who could perform sorcery against the whole
tribe is called orgoiyat and the less powerful one is bonnindet. There is another
specialist called chepsogeiyot that determines who is the bonnindet in a particular
case. The acts of a witch are attributed when no explanation is readily available.
Even in modern times, as in case of Sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS is termed as
consequences of witchcraft. In Christian theology the witches and sorcerers are
the agents of the Devil or Satan.
Reflection and Action

Distinguish between witch and sorcerer; they are not the same. These specialists may
be found in every traditional society. Find out if there are such specialists in your own
society.

3.4.3 Prophet
In his book on religion, Weber has devoted a whole chapter to the understanding
of what a prophet is. He defines the prophet as an individual who is capable of
proclaiming a religious doctrine or a divine commandment because of his charismatic
qualities. The major difference between the priest and prophet is that the prophet
regards his mission as a “personal call” and derives his authority from personal
revelation and charisma or an exceptional quality. The core of the prophet’s mission
is to carry forward the commandment or doctrine he has received as revelation.
38 Often the prophet may use magic to establish his authority. The prophet is usually
successful and respected till his ability to convince and prove his uniqueness of Religious Specialists
purpose is intact. One may say a prophet is a person who receives divine revelation
concerning a restructuring of a religion and usually society as well. Prophets are
usually outside the priesthood and are seen by priest as irritating, disruptive trouble
makers. The prophet could be of either sex and as a charismatic innovator may
reject traditional rituals and improvise or advocate those right in her or his sight.
The rise of prophets is seen during the adverse times, cultural stress and anxiety.
The prophet speaks at the spiritual as well as this worldly level in correcting the
society, and, thus, becomes an agent of social change. Evans-Pritchard says in the
priest man speaks to God and in the prophet God speaks to man.
Among the African tribes there are prophets among the Nuer, as noted by Evans-
Pritchard, that are believed to have been chosen by God to predict future, cure
the sickness and ensure fertility of women. Among the Bantu, Zulu, the Zionists
of Ethiopia the impact of Protestant Christianity and colour discrimination in the
Church brought out the prophets who assumed leadership in the society to establish
separate churches. Similar situation is observed among the Housa of Nigeria with
the impact of Islam. Orunmila is prophet of Yoruba religion who has tremendous
role in organising religion that has been spread to Brazil and other South American
societies. Christian prophets established new churches in Yoruba having got
separated from the church of the Whites.
When Jews or Christians think of prophets, people like Moses, Noah, Isaiah,
Jeremaih, Eziekiel, and Daniel usually come to mind. However, the most striking
example of a biblical prophet was Jesus which is a debated reality as the Jews and
Muslims consider him to be a prophet while the Christians take him to be God.
If a prophet is successful in convincing enough people that he or she is right, a new
religion is usually established. The case in point is Joseph Smith’s divine relation
and subsequent prophetic teaching in the 1830’s and early 1840’s led to the
creation of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) in USA. To put
it simply, the prophet may be seen as an individual who is an instrument for
carrying forward the will of God and he/she is obeyed because of the ethical
nature of his mission. He/she may also be a person who individually sets an
example of attaining salvation, as did Buddha. This latter form of exemplary
prophetism has been found particularly in India.
In Islam it is believed that God sent several prophets at different times and places
to communicate his message, and they are human beings who are not God
incarnates. The Quran mentions a total of 1 lakh 24 thousand prophets (124000),
and of them the last is Prophet Muhammad. There are no prophets in Hinduism
the way the concept finds its place in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. There are
scriptural texts that contain prophetic message such as Vedas and Bhagavad Geeta
about kaliyug, the dooms day and seers who prophesied the future of the world
events as in case of Sri Potuluri Veerabramham of 18th Century who lived and is
much venerated in Andhra Pradesh. One of the modern day prophets in India can
be Sathya Sai Baba whose predictions are believed to have come true, and they
had advocated for social harmony and spiritual equality. However, these seers
have claimed themselves as Gods.

3.4.4 Diviner
One who engages in techniques that inform about the unknown causes or future
is known as diviner. The divination is magical and involves in rituals. It is based
on the belief that the world consists of things and events that are interconnected 39
Religion and as such the magic is to manipulate things and observe the connections. The
diviner often interprets the dreams and omens, contacts the spirits and ancestors
through trance. Sometimes the viscera of animals or birds are examined to find out
the cause of illness. In many ways the diviner gets to know the unknown causes
or future events that affect the individuals and community. The diviner could be an
ordinary member of the society or has a position of shaman or medium or prophet
or priest or healer.

3.5 FORMAL SPECIALISTS

3.5.1 Priest
A religious leader who is authorised to be part of an organised religion is considered
to be a priest or priestess. Different religions have different terms for these individuals.
They may be known as Rabbis, Ministers, Mullahs, Lamas, Imams, or something
else. These individuals are the keepers of the sacred law and tradition. They are
found mostly in large-scale societies. Priests are initiated and ceremonially inducted
members of an established religious organisation as a full-time specialist. Priests
are sometimes distinguished from people by the way they dress, etc. The training
of a priest can be rigorous and long, which includes not only fasting, prayer, and
physical labour but also learning the dogma and the rituals of his religion. Priests
are authorised to perform religious rituals designed to influence the supernatural
world and to guide the believers in their religious practices. They personally do not
have supernatural power of their own by the rituals but the rituals that they perform
are believed to be effective. In societies where there is a hierarchy of spirits and
gods and the chief gods, they must not be approached directly but through the
priest.
The community deals with deity or deities through the priest who acts as a
representative of the community. The latter performs various rituals on behalf of
the community, which include periodical or rituals of calendar usually related to
agricultural cycles and seasons, disasters, epidemic diseases and well being of the
community. Priests also perform the rites of passage associated with birth, puberty,
wedding and death. They are also to legitimize authority of the community through
rituals, as in case of coronation and they are usually taken as protectors of ethics
and morals of the community and set high standard for the entire community. By
virtue of this and their association with the sacred place which may be a shrine
or sacred space where deities or spirits dwell, they remain symbols of sacred.
Sometimes priests may have received divine unction (anointing of the sick) through
dreams, visions or trance. The priests usually enjoy highest status in the society
because of the above which are special to them. Usually the priests undergo
rigorous training, memorising texts, obtain religious knowledge, skills of performing
rituals and so on. Such training may have been institutionalised or informal, as the
case may be. While in some cultures both men and women can be priests but in
some, such as Islam or Hinduism, women cannot be priests. As in Catholic
Christianity and Buddhism the priests remain unmarried but in several other religions
priests are married.
Anthropologists have observed that societies with full-time religious specialists
(priests) are likely to be dependent on food production rather than food collecting.
They are also likely to have economic exchange involving the use of money, class
stratification, and high levels of political integration. These are all features indicative
of cultural complexity. Female religious specialists are likely to be found in those
40
societies where women are acknowledged to contribute in a major way to the Religious Specialists
economy and where gods and goddesses are both recognised. In Western Europe
and North America, for instance, where women are now wage earners, in almost
every profession they occupy leadership position in the work force and they have
an increasing presence in the leadership of many Judeo-Christian religious groups
(Lehman, 2002).
In Aztec society, the priesthood was very complex and the priests were arranged
in a hierarchical order. In Nahuatl language, the word priest, tlamacazqui means
“giver of things” to gods for their favour. They were engaged in human sacrifice,
especially to Sun, providing the sacred food. Most of the rituals involve in animal
or human sacrifices. It was believed that the humans who were sacrificed would
become deities. The priests enjoyed great respect in the society. The Zuni, the
Pueblos of America, are very ceremonious people. There are different types of
priests in Zuni society – Sun priest, Bow priests, Rain priests, etc. The Sun Priest
is considered to be the most respected holy man. Women are also included into
the category of priests. The rituals and ceremonies are held in kevas and plazas.
In Okinawa society of Ryukyu Islands women lead the religious matters and the
women specialists or priestesses are called kaminchu. They communicate with
and make offerings to the ancestors, local gods and more powerful deities. Their
primary duty is to officiate at community wide festivals and rituals which take
place in a sacred space, usually in a grove or ong, at a cave or by the sea, and
men are not allowed to enter these sacred spaces. Their duty includes the protection
and fuelling of the communal fire, which was used to establish new households.
They would also perform divination to determine the best days for sacred
ceremonies, for social functions, such as marriage or funeral, and for agricultural
pursuits.
Priesthood is not open for every one as in case of Hinduism where it is restricted
to Brahmin castes. The priest in traditional India may assist in the performance of
a ritual-at home, or in a temple. In Hinduism, he is born into a priestly caste, by
virtue of which he gains these functions. The Vedas say that the social group of
Brahmana is the priestly class, and the Rig Veda describes the priestly activities
of some of the families of the Vedic tribes. Priests are most often found in
hierarchical societies and generally hold a higher status in their societies than those
they preside over. A Hindu priest performs the pujas (rituals) such as Sri
Satyanarayana Katha, Rudrabhisekam, Chandi Patham, Navgrah, Vastu pooja,
Bhoomi pooja, Grih Pravesh, Mool and Grah shanty, Sundar Kand Path, Kaal
Sarpa Yog Shanti, Garbhadan, Punsavana (foetus protection), Simanta (satisfying
the wishes of pregnant mother), Jaat Karma (child birth), Naam Karma (naming
child), Nishkramana (taking child outdoor), Anna Prashana (Giving the child solid
food), Mundan or Choula (hair cutting), Karnavedh (ear piercing), Yagyopaveet
(sacred thread), Vidyarambha (Study of Vedas and Scriptures), Samaavartana
(completion of education), Vivaah (marriage), Sarvasanskaar (preparing for
renouncing), Sanyas (renouncing), Antyesti, Ayush homam, Sudarshan homam,
Maha Mrityunja homam, Navgrah homam, Ganpati homam, Maha Lakshmi homam,
Santan Gopal homam, Grih Shanti homam, etc. Priests hold power due to their
association with their respective religious institutions. The traditional Judaism also
restricts it to Levites.
Similarly, in the widespread practiced rituals of Catholicism, the role of priest is
to officiate or organise baptism (the first sacrament of Christian initiation), penance
(confession and reconciliation), confirmation (the second sacrament of Christian
41
Religion initiation), Eucharist (the third sacrament of Christian initiation), marriage, unction
(anointing of the sick) and sacrament, etc. Buddhist priests are to perform certain
roles required of their calling.

3.5.2 Clergy
Though the term clergy is closely associated with Christianity, the social scientists
have also been using the term to include full time religious functionaries in major
world religions. Clergy is a broader category that includes priest or priestess and
the priesthood is attached to the status conferred by the religious authority within
the religious institutional framework. But the priesthood is not same in Christianity
or Islam. In these cases clergy do not mediate between God and people. However,
in Judaism there are roles of priest and rabbi, and, in fact, the latter means a
teacher and they were divided into Sadducees and Pharisees. In Christianity the
clergy is divided into several ranks as bishop, pastor, deacon, etc. Islam does not
accept priesthood but there are specialists who are known as ‘men of God’ like
ulema, which mean who knows or who has knowledge of Quran and God,
learned and are proficient in sharia law. This category include imams, and in the
Shiite branch there is the category of ayatollah.
In Christianity, the pastor is one of clergy ordained functionary of the Christian
church. Though it was restricted to men, it has been extended to women also, and
the church in the West is now struggling to accommodate the clergy with same sex
orientation. The pastors do not mediate between a person/group and God as in
case of priests. Their main responsibility is to provide spiritual leadership and help
the congregation developing deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They go
beyond the spiritual realm to help in social life of the church members for the
spiritual and social dimension are dependent on each other and well being of the
members of the church are his concerns too. In Orthodox Judaism women are
forbidden to become a rabbi. Traditionally, in Islam women have not been the
imam or teacher, but gradually the change is taking place as in Morocco.

3.5.3 Saints or Seer

Saints are a specific group of individuals who maintain pious, ascetic or austere
and devote life found in all religions, but more significant part of Catholicism. They
are individuals who led devout Christian life who had done amazing things with
their lives and performed miracle during their life time and believed to have caused
miracles after death. They are recognised by the Church as Saints and the sainthood
is instituted by Pope. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Protest organisation, recognises
the Latter-day Saints who are no more, and contemporary saints as well.
In Hinduism the equivalent concepts are rishi or sage or seer, who has acquired
rightful vision accomplished actions. They see things through spiritual eye, perceives
the hidden truth and bear truth. They are model of religion and role models for
others to lead spiritual life. Besides the rishis of Vedic times, there are well known
seers and saints such as Kabir, Tulsi, Surdas, Tuka Ram, Srikrishna Chaitanya,
Eknath, Narsi Mehta, Tyagaraja, Dhyaneshwar, Tiruvalluvar, Namdev, Mirabai,
Dayanand, Guru Nanak, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Vivekananda, Swami
Ram, Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi, Ramana Maharishi, Sri Satya Sai Baba, and Sri
Aurobindo. Sufism of Islam and Sikhism honours saints and seers. In Islam too
saint worship is practised. Pir reverence is found widely practised all over the
Islamic world.
42
3.5.4 Monk Religious Specialists

The term “monk” has Greek origin meaning single or solitary. It is used to describe
a religious specialist who conditions the mind and body in favour of the spirit. This
conditioning often includes seclusion from those who do not follow the same
beliefs, abstinence, silence, and prayer. Monk symbolises asceticism and austere
life. The concept is ancient and can be found in many religions and philosophies.
It seems Monks were originally present solely in Christianity, but through a looser
definition created by modern westerners, the term has been applied to more
religions (for example bhikkhu in Buddhism, hermit in Hinduism). The term is also
often used interchangeably with the term “ascetic,” which describes a greater
focus on a life of abstinence, especially from sex, alcohol, and material wealth. In
Ancient Greece, “monk” referred to both men and women. Though in modern
English, the term “nun” is used to describe a female monk. The monks living
together under one roof and under the rule of a single person is known as monastery
and the way of life is called monasticism. Separate monasteries are maintained for
males and females. In Christianity, the monastery of females is called convent. The
Christian monasteries are spread throughout the world. There is a wide variety of
monasticism across various Roman Catholic Churches where monastery is the
common feature, which is absent among the Protestant Christianity.
Before becoming a monk in a monastery, nearly every monk must take some sort
of vow, the most famous being the Roman Catholic vow of “poverty, chastity, and
obedience.” It is also common to have a hierarchy within a monastery through
which a monk can rise over time with the growth of spiritual excellence. Monks
are often confused with friars. Although they are very similar, the main difference
between the two is that the friar is associated with community development and
aid to the poor.
Though the term monk is applied in Buddhism also, the situation of asceticism is
different. There is a trial period before one is ordained as monk. There are male
and female monks in Buddhism that live separately. In Thervada Buddhism the
monks live the life of mendicancy and collect alms. In Chinese Buddhism, the
monks are linked with the Chinese martial art, Kung fu. In Thailand and Myanmar
the young boys live for some time in monastery and may not return to the monastery
but remain as celibate and monks. The contemporary example of monk can be the
Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is the head monk of Tibetan Buddhism and traditionally
he has been responsible for the governing of Tibet. The Dalai Lama belongs to the
Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, which is the largest and most influential
tradition in Tibet. The institution of the Dalai Lama is a relatively recent one. There
have been only 14 Dalai Lamas in the history of Buddhism, and the first and
second Dalai Lamas were given the title posthumously. According to Buddhist
belief, the current Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of a past lama who decided to
be reborn again to continue his important work. The Dalai Lama essentially chooses
to be reborn again instead of passing onward. A person who decides to be
continually reborn is known as tulku. Buddhists believe that the first tulku in this
reincarnation was Gedun Drub, who lived from 1391-1474, and the second was
Gendun Gyatso. However, the name Dalai Lama meaning Ocean of Wisdom was
not conferred until the third reincarnation in the form of Sonam Gyatso in 1578.
The current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso.
There are monks in Jainism also in both the traditions of Shvetambar and Digambar.
They are of different orders such as acharya, upadhyaya, muni, ailak, etc. Both
male and female monks renounce all relations and possessions, practice strict and 43
Religion complete non-violence, and follow strict vegetarianism avoiding root vegetables.
They travel from city to city crossing forest and desert bare foot.
In Hinduism Madhvaacharya, the dwaita philosopher that propagated the love of
Lord Krishna established eight mathas, monasteries. Each matha is headed by
a swamiji who may be called as monk. It is known popularly through Hare
Krishna movement and International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON),
monks outside India. The Ramkrishna mission has monastic organisation shaped
by Swamy Vivekananda, chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the founder
of the mission. Like the Christian monasteries, the Ramakrishna mission is concerned
not only with the Hindu religion and philosophy but also engaged in Educational
works, Healthcare, Cultural activities, rural upliftment, Tribal welfare, Youth
movement, etc.
Reflection and Action

Differentiate between saint/seer and monk. They appear to be the same but functionally
different.

3.5.5 Missionary
Though the term missionary is closely associated with Christianity, the function of
missionary has been found in all major world religions. Whoever has been engaged
with the spread of a particular faith across the national or cultural boundary can
be termed as missionary. Thus, there are Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic missionaries.
They are advocates of God or divine being and teach how one should come into
personal relationship with the divine being(s). The missionary is different from
prophet whose focus is the same society, but are involved in change. While the
former is concerned with the change of the foreign society, the latter is engaged
in the change of the same society. A missionary will have to necessarily know and
understand the beliefs, practices, cosmology and religious dogma of others before
she/he teaches one’s own faith to others. In case of the Christian missionaries they
learned the language of others in order to translate Bible or gospel of Jesus Christ
and also propagate the Christian faith. Their learning of other’s language and
interest in the religion led to production of ‘pagan’ religious beliefs which had
facilitated anthropologists in theorising religion. The missionary after planting church
could become or known as a pastor or one of the ranks of the clergy.

3.6 MODES OF RELIGIOUS SPECIALISATION

The above mentioned religious specialists are not found in all societies but some
are present everywhere. Victor Turner (1989) notes certain socio-cultural correlates
existing with these specialists and are also found related to the scale and complexity
of the society. He draws distinction among priest – prophet, priest – shaman, and
shaman – medium. The priest is mainly concerned with the conservation and
maintenance of beliefs and practices and mediates between the transhumans and
people. Her or his powers rest with the religious knowledge. The prophet is
charismatic and maintains personal relation with the transhumans and as a result
acquires personal power and is able to bring change in the religious practices, and
may even well stand outside the cultural system to propose new doctrines, ethics,
etc. Shaman is a sub-type of priest, flexible and mobile. She or he acquires power
for the ability of controlling the spirits and provides profound role in curing rites.
The shaman is not radical and does not bring change in the social or cultural
system. There is a thin margin between shaman and medium; the former exercises
44 control over the spirits, the later gets possessed by the spirits and becomes vessel
or oracle of the spirit and delivers oracles. Turner notes that sometimes the two Religious Specialists
functions of priest and shaman are found in the same individual and similarly
mediums, shamans and prophets also form a single subtype of religious functionary.
While the priest communicates with the transhuman entities through ritual along
with cultural objects and activities, the medium, shaman, and prophet communicate
in a person-to-person manner. Between the priest and the deity intervenes the
institution. As the priest presides over a rite, the shaman or medium conducts a
séance.
According to Turner, as the scale and complexity of society increases, the division
of labour develops and, accordingly, the degree of specialisation changes in the
religious domain. In simple societies all adult men and women have some religious
function, and particularly women tend towards more religious function with their
capacity to enter the state of altered consciousness. The knowledge of herbs gives
some special knowledge and such of them are known as medicine men. Therefore,
the specialists lead normal life as other men and women in the habitation. In this
type of society we find shamans and mediums.
In a complex society where there is advanced division of labour, religion no longer
pervades all social domains; it is rather limited to its own domain. There is
considerable specialisation in the religious activities. There exists impersonal social
relations, bureaucratization, rationality in decision making, etc. In this society there
is ranking of religious specialists and organised established religious institutional
system. Priests, clergy and other religious orders are found. It also supports the
missionary activities with the support of the state or individuals. Different religious
cults, sects, religious movement, etc., are found in these societies.
There are intermediaries between the small scale and complex societies which
exhibit religion with certain degree of bureaucratisation, specialised roles and
functions. These are found in Africa, Asia, Central and South America. In these
cases, religious dichotomy has been found where national and tribal gods are
worshipped in larger towns whereas in villages minor deities, demons and ancestral
shades are worshipped. The national level gods are being mediated by the priests
and official religious servants in the temples or shrines. The mediums and priests
coexist but the latter control the former.
In many small scale societies, religion and politics are inseparable. In centralised
political systems chiefs and kings also take up the role of the priests engaged in
rain making, sowing and harvest rites. The duties of priests are also bound up with
the office of the kinship with specialised ritual functions. Among the Bemba of
Zambia, priests of shrines undertake the burial rituals of the king. These priests
called the Bakabilo constitute a council that exerts check on the powers of the
king (Turner 1989:7). In stateless societies, certain ritual positions have functions
of maintaining order and resolution of conflicts as in case of Nuer’s “leopard-skin
chief” or “priest of the earth” (Evans- Pritchard 1956).

3.7 SUMMARY
Religious specialists are important personnel that hold authority in religious domain.
They are also charismatic, uphold the faith attending to various needs of the faithful
and keep the flock together by their leadership. Since studying religion is relatively
new in anthropology, various concepts developed in course are often overlapping
and strict distinction cannot be maintained. This is true particularly in case of
religious specialists. The difficulty gets compounded when the same person engages 45
Religion in more than one special activity. Religion is so interconnected with several aspects
of life and institutions that it gets influenced externally and influences various aspects
of life. Therefore, the anthropologists could identify certain socio-cultural correlates
with religion, and certain religious forms and institutions are found in certain levels
of social forms and societies. The world religions are more associated with the
state societies than the tribal societies.
References
Bowie, Fiona. 2000. Anthropology of Religion. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers
Ltd.
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1956. Nuer Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Klimo, Jon. 1987. ‘The Psychology of Channeling.’ New Age Journal. (Dec.)
32-40, 62-67.
Lehman, E, C, Jr. 2002. Women’s path into the ministry. Durham, NC: Pulpit
and Pew.
St. Clair. 1971. Drum and Candle. New York: Bell Publishing Company.
Stein, R.L and Philip L. Stein. 2008. The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and
Witchcraft. New York: Pearson Education Inc.
Van Rheenen, Gailyn. 1996. Communicating Christ in Animistic Contexts.
Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library
Wagley, Charles. 1971. ‘Tapirape Shamanism’. In Morton H. Fried (ed.) Readings
in Anthropology. New York: Crowell Company. Pp 618-635.
Turner, Victor. 1989. ‘Religious Specialists’. In Lehmann, Arthur C. and James E.
Myers (eds.). Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion. 2nd ed. California: Mayfield
Publishing Co.
Suggested Reading
Bowie, Fiona. 2000. Anthropology of Religion. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers
Ltd.
Lambeck, Michaelin. (2002). A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion. Malden:
Blackwell Publishing.
Stein, R.L. and Philip L. Stein. 2008. The Anthropology of Religion, Magic and
Witchcraft. Ney York: Pearson Education Inc.
Turner, Victor. 1989. ‘Religion Specialists’. In Lehmann, Arthur C. and James E.
Myers (eds.). Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion. 2nd ed. California: Mayfield
Publishing Co.
Sample Questions
1) What are the general characteristics of a shaman?
2) Trace connections among shaman, medium and priest.
3) How would you conceptually differentiate medium, oracle and prophet?
4) How priest, clergy and monk are interrelated?
5) Discuss the relationships between the scale of society and the religious
specialisation.

46
 Sacred Knowledge
UNIT 1 SACRED KNOWLEDGE

Contents
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography Religion and Society among
the Coorgs of South India is an Example
1.3 Description of the Ethnography
1.3.1 Intellectual Context
1.3.2 Fieldwork
1.3.3 Analysis of Data
1.3.4 Conclusion
1.4 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
1.5 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography Death in Banaras is an Example
1.6 Description of the Ethnography
1.6.1 Intellectual Context
1.6.2 Fieldwork
1.6.3 Analysis of Data
1.6.4 Conclusion
1.7 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
1.8 Summary
References
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives

After reading this unit, you will learn about:
 the various forms of religious practices in India;
 the relation between society and religion;
 the rites of passage;
 the priestly categories; and
 how ‘sacred’ is constructed in India.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
To understand the concept of sacred knowledge we will focus on the ethnographic
works (a) Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India by M.N. Srinivas
and (b) Death in Banaras by Jonathan P. Parry for the unit.

Coorg is a tiny, mountainous province in south India, bounded on the north and
the east by Mysore state and on the west and south Canara and Malabar districts
of Madras presidency. The isolation and the inaccessibility of Coorg, with its
steep mountains, dense forests and heavy rainfall contributes to the maintenance
and elaboration of the distinctive mode of life and culture of Coorgs. Under
British rule the existing roads were improved and new ones were built. Nowadays
buses run regularly on all the main roads connecting different parts of Coorg
5
Religion and Rituals with each other and Coorg with their neighbours. Yet even now no railway line
passes through Coorg and this restricts the amount of contact it has with the rest
of India.

Most people in Coorg live in villages, either themselves cultivating or supervising

the cultivation of land. All the important languages spoken in Coorg are Dravidian
with the exception of Hindusthani and English. Coorgs make use of the Kannada
script on those occasions when they wish to reduce Kodagi into writing. Educated
Coorgs are usually trilingual, knowing Kodagi, Kannada and English. Kodagi is
used at home, Kannada in talking to most non-Coorgs excepting Malayalis and
English in official matters and occasionally in conversation with strangers. English
is popular with Coorgs and women (especially under thirty) have some
acquaintance with it.

1.2 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY Religion and Society among the
Coorgs of South India IS AN EXAMPLE
Srinivas’ work of 1952 is one of the best contributions to an understanding of
how the structural-functional approach maybe used for understanding the ritual
and social life of people. Incidentally, the data for this work was collected in the
late 1930s and the early 1940s and on this Srinivas had already written a doctoral
thesis. At Oxford, under the masterly supervision of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, the
founder of the structural-functional approach, Srinivas reanalysed the Coorg data
and prepared a piece of work which endeavoured to answer the questions: what
does ritual do? What is the contribution of ritual to society? It was in this work
that there occurred the concept of Sanskritisation; earlier the concept of
Brahmanisation was replaced. Although in later writings, Srinivas elaborated
upon the concept of Sankritisation, it was in this work the concept was given
along with an elaboration upon the case of the upper mobility of Coorgs.

1.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

1.3.1 Intellectual Context
When Srinivas came to the scene, Indological studies and the studies of texts to
understand India had precedence upon field based study. The detailed accounts
of communities lacked theoretical sophistication. Srinivas’ work was not only
fieldwork based but was also an application of a theoretical approach for analysing
data. The first work he did was submitted for a doctorate under the supervision
of Prof. G. S. Ghurye, which was a fine combination of Indological and
sociological approaches. Then, under the supervision of Prof. A.R. Radcliffe-
Brown, Srinivas reanalysed his data using the functional approach, and the result
was this book.

1.3.2 Fieldwork
First hand fieldwork was carried out with the Coorgs using standard
anthropological techniques and methods. Srinivas spent a long time with the
Croogs to know their culture from inside. He combined the empirical data with
the historical.
6
1.3.3 Analysis of Data Sacred Knowledge

Social Structure
The existence of the sub-divisions among Coorgs does not prevent them from
regarding themselves and from being regarded by others, as a single group. Coorgs
consider themselves to be Kshatriyas who constitute the caste of rulers and soldiers
in traditional hierarchy and rank next only to Brahmins, who are priests and
scholars. Coorg formed a compact unit in relation to other castes. They possessed
wealth and power, they like dancing and competitive games involving the exercise
of skill and strength, hunting and soldiering. In the Vedic and classical caste
system these virtues are attributed to Kshatriyas, the caste of warriors and kings
who are next to Brahmin in hierarchy. The resemblances between the Coorgs
and the Vedic Kshatriya are striking indeed in the matter of values and it is
understandable that Coorg should regard themselves as Kshatriya. The classical
Kshatriya, as one of the three ‘twice born’ castes were entitled to perform certain
rituals at which sacred verses (mantras) from the Vedas were recited by the priests.
But the Coorgs do not perform any of these rituals and Vedic mantras are not
recited when a Coorg is given a name, or marries or dies.
Coorgs, like other caste Hindus, object very strongly to eating of beef, and the
strength of their objection was early recognised by the British who banned all
slaughter of cattle for the table in Coorg in 1835. But the Coorg dietary includes
pork and liquor and this is occasionally singled out for comment by other castes.
The co-relation between status and dietary practices is particularly strong in the
interior of south India and the Coorg claim to be considered as Kshatriyas comes
up against this fact. Coorgs rightly point out that the Rajputs of north India eat
pork and this has not prevented them from being generally regarded as Kshatriyas.
However, Rajputs eat only wild pig and not the domesticated one. There are
mainly forty castes and tribes in Coorg. But Coorgs come into intimate contact
with a few of them.
The nuclear unit of the Coorg society is the okka (or the patrilineal joint family)
and only the male members of an okka have any rights in the ancestral estate.
Women born in okka leave it on marriage while the women who come into it by
marriage have extremely limited rights in the ancestral estate. No woman may
be head of an okka. A Coorg proverb says ‘a woman may not be the head of an
okka and a bitch may not be given a share of the game it helps to kill in a hunt’.
Only sons can continue the okka. But when there are no sons, a daughter or a
widow of a dead son is married in either the okka parije or makka parije any
which has the effect of granting the children of either form of union membership
of their mother’s natal okka. If it is not possible to perpetuate the okka in either
of these ways a boy from another okka is adopted. There is sexual division of
labour, men generally doing the work outside the house while women do the
work inside. The tasks done by men are in a vague way regarded as superior to
those done by women. The men cultivate or supervise the cultivation of land by
low castes labourers. However, agriculture is not and has never been their sole
occupation. The army has always attracted Coorgs and nowadays educated Coorgs
are to be found in every profession. Coorg women’s activities are on the whole
confined to the house. They cook food for the twenty or thirty members of the
okka. They look after children and servants, the storing of food, the raising of
pigs and fowls and so on. The younger women have to bring water from the
domestic pond or well and carry manure in reed baskets to the fields. 7
Religion and Rituals Women are expected to observe a stricter code of conduct than men. Different
ideals are held up for men and women. Strength, skill in fighting and hunting
and courage are admired in a man. A proverb states ‘men should die on the
battlefield and women should die in child-bed’. The killer of a tiger or panther
and mother of ten children were both accorded the honour of a mangala ceremony.

But nowadays under the influence of the western ideas the Coorg women are
once again coming to the fore. Education is more widely spread among Coorg
women than among the women of other castes, including Brahmins. They are
nurses, teachers, and doctors and do not hesitate to live outside Coorg. The
economic position of Coorgs and the fact that they marry comparatively late are
some of the factors responsible for the greater spread of education among Coorg
women.

Membership of the okka is extremely important and lack of membership in some

okka or other tantamounts to social extinction. Elders consequently try hard to
see that the children of extramarital alliances get berthed somewhere. It is right
and proper that the father of the children should secure them membership of his
okka, but if for some reason or the other he cannot be persuaded to do so the
children are made members of their mother’s okka. A nad is a bigger unit than a
village and it is usually more homogenous culturally than a larger area which
includes it and few other nads. A nad might differ from other nads in the matter
of the date of observance of important festivals such as the harvest festival, and
the festival of arms. The articles used in the harvest festival ritual might also
vary in different nads and this is due to the fact that in each area the plants
locally prolific are chosen to express a wish for growth.

THE RITUAL IDIOM OF COORGS

The Ritual Complex of Mangala
Formerly mangala was performed to mark the attainment of social adulthood by
a boy when his ears were ritually bored by the goldsmith. This mangala, the first
to be performed for a boy, was called kemmi kutti mangala or the mangala at
which the ears are bored. The wearing of the ear rings was symbolical of the
attainment of the social adulthood. One who was physiologically an adult but
who had not undergone the ear boring mangala did not count as adult for ritual
and social purposes. The counterpart of ear boring mangala for a girl was the
mangala performed when she attained puberty. This was called pole kanda
mangala or mangala performed on the sighting of defilement. The menstrual
flow was regarded as defiling and formerly a woman observed seclusion for
three days during her periods. Mangala was also performed when a woman
became pregnant for the first time. A woman who had given birth to ten children
all of whom were alive was entitled to a form of mangala known as paitandek
alapa.

A man who killed a panther or tiger had the right to nari mangala or tiger mangala
being performed in his honour. Marriage increased a man’s status and a bachelor
was regarded as socially and ritually inferior to a married man. Mangala was
performed to a bachelor’s corpse before burying or cremating it presumably in
order to raise the status of the soul of the dead bachelor. A man who had lost two
wives in succession was ritually married to a plaintain tree before marrying his
third wife. The marriage to the plaintain tree was called balek mangala or plaintain
8
mangala and the tree was cut down soon after the mangala. Formerly when a Sacred Knowledge
man built a new house he performed mane mangala or house mangala. Mangala
was performed for the head of the house on this occasion. Another form of mangala
which has entirely disappeared now is ettu mangala or ox mangal. The ideal and
usual marriage in Coorg is for a virgin to marry a bachelor and this is called
kanni mangal or virgin mangala.

The astrologer selects an auspicious day for the performance of mangal and an
even more auspicious part of the day for the performance of murta which is the
most important part of the mangala. Four Coorgs beat the small Coorg drum
called dudi and some traditional songs are sung at various points during mangala.
These songs give an account of the ritual that is being performed. The singers
also sing the road song while the subject of mangala is taken from from one part
of the house to another and the road song gives a traditionally exaggerated account
for everything that is found en route.

Mangala indicated the movement of the subject from one position in the social
structure to another, marking a change in his social personality. Murta ritual is
the most important part of mangala and consequently it is performed during the
most auspicious part of the auspicious day and the subject undergoes a series of
preparatory and purificatory rites before sitting down for the murta. The subject
of mangala (if male) is ritually shaved by the barber after which he is given a
bath by three women relatives whose husbands are alive.

The ancestral estate the most valuable part of which is the rice field is regarded
as sacred. A Coorg is not allowed to walk in it wearing his sandals just as he is
not allowed to enter the inner parts of the ancestral house or a temple with his
sandals on. He is not allowed to whistle or hold an umbrella over his head while
walking in the ancestral estate: both these acts are not consistent with the ritual
respect which the estate has to be accorded. The entire rice field is cut up into a
number of small rectangular plots ridged up on all the four sides. Each plot is
referred to by a distinct name and one of these plots is regarded as the main plot
and it has the same name as the entire rice field. The traditional association
between an okka and its ancestral estate is symbolised in the custom of burying
the umbilical cord of the eldest son of the head of the okka in the main plot of the
ancestral estate. The eldest is the one who is going to become the head of the
okka he will have to look after the ancestral rice field. The main plot stands for
the entire rice field and it is entirely proper that the umbilical cord of the future
head of the okka should be buried in the main plot. Thus a Coorg continues to
take an interest in the affairs of his okka even after his death, which means that
he continues to care for the rice field on which the prosperity and happiness of
the okka and thus indirectly of the total society depends.

The Kaveri festival includes a rite called bottu and this is intended to protect the
growing crop in the woods on the estate and the domestic well. One of the most
important calendar festivals of the Coorgs is the putri when the paddy sheaves
are ritually cut.

The Concepts of Pole and Madi

The Kodagi term for ritual purity is madi and this term is found in all other
Dravidian languages except Malyalam and pole which means ritual impurity is
found in all Dravidian languages except Telugu. Pole is used in Kodagi in two
9
Religion and Rituals senses: one, in which it means ritual impurity generally and another in which it
means certain specific forms of ritual impurity. In the latter cases it is usual to
add the necessary prefixes, for instance kurudu pole (blind pollution) or tinga
pole (monthly pollution) refers to the impurity of a woman in her periods and
petta pole or purudu pole refers to birth pollution.

A man is in a condition of ritual impurity in relation to a member of a higher

caste while he is in a condition of ritual purity towards a member of a lower
caste. The concept of ritual purity and impurity systemise and maintains the
structural distance between different castes. Caste hierarchy, on the other hand,
makes these concepts relative, except with reference to castes at either extreme.
Nail and hair parings are impure and they have to be thrown far away from the
house. Poverty will result if they are scattered in the house. Birth and death both
result in ritual impurity for the entire household for several days. This ritual
impurity will not disappear even if the impure person has a dozen baths a day.
But once the prescribed period is over the individual attains his normal ritual
status after a bath.

If the crows perch on a roof and caws, the death of someone under that roof is
presaged. A man who sees two crows mating will die soon after unless he sends
a false message announcing his death to his kinsmen. The harvest festival and
the ‘festival of arms’, are both significant in this connection. The Kaniya astrologer
decides what periods of time are auspicious for worshipping weapons and for
cutting branches of the tree. He also decides when the village (or nad) should
have the collective hunt, in which direction the hunting party should go if they
want the hunt to be successful and finally the man who should lead the hunt. The
weapons are cleaned and kept either in the sacred central hall or in the south-
western room. They are marked with sandal wood paste. The weapons are
worshipped with flowers and a favourite flower used for worship on this occasion
is toku which derives its name from the fact that it looks like a gun. Curried meat
and cooked rice-flour are offered on plantain leaves to the weapon. All the adult
males in every okka in the village or nad have to co-operate in the collective
hunt that is held after the festival of arms. Each okka takes its dogs to the hunt.
Every dog gets a portion of the meat of the animal killed. Every man taking part
in the hunt gets a share and those who hit the game first and second get an extra
share each. He who first hit the game is also entitled to the animal’s head while
the one who was the first to touch the killed animal’s tail is given one of the front
legs in addition to his ordinary share.

1.3.4 Conclusion
Srinivas’ aim in this book is to show the interconnection of religion with society,
and how religion contributes to an overall continuity of the social order. Among
the Coorgs, Srinivas says that the patrilineal, patrilocal, and patriarchal joint
family is at the core of the system and its continuity is the most important aspect.

1.4 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
This ethnography is a salient contribution to the understanding of rituals from a
functional perspective. The concept of Sanskritisation has also been given here,
which means that a lowly placed caste or tribe tries to emulate the customs and
10
practices of the upper caste, with an aim to become its member in due course of Sacred Knowledge
time. Srinivas illustrated this process with the help of the Coorgs.

To make the concept more understandable we will now focus on the work of
Jonathan P. Parry who gave a very lucid picture of rituals attached to death in the
holy city of Banaras in his book Death in Banaras published by the Cambridge
University Press.

1.5 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY Death in Banaras IS AN
EXAMPLE
This book is an example of the interpretive approach in anthropology. Parry is
concerned with finding out the meaning of rituals and how the ‘business of death’
is organised in Banaras.

1.6 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

This ethnography is a study of the death rituals as performed in the city of
cosmogony, Banaras.

1.6.1 Intellectual Context

As pointed out earlier this book is a fine example of the interpretive approach.
Among the social phenomena, death is one that has not been studied to the extent
it should be, and from that perspective, it is a significant contribution.

1.6.2 Fieldwork
The author of this work has spent a long time in the city of Banaras, working on
cross-section of populations, beginning with a study of a group of renouncers,
known as Aghori. The chapters comprising this work were presented as Lewis
Henry Morgan Memorial Lectures.

1.6.3 Analysis of Data

As a place to die, to dispose of the physical remains of the deceased and to
perform the rites which ensure that the departed attains a ‘good state’ after death,
the north Indian city of Banaras attracts pilgrims and mourners from all over the
Hindu world. This book is primarily about the priests (and other kinds of ‘sacred
specialists’) who serve them: about the way in which they organise their business,
and about their representations of death and understanding of the rituals over
which they preside.

Death and the City: Through Divine Eyes

This deals with Banaras’s association with death and its transcendence. This is
looked from a religious perspective that Lord Vishnu created the cosmos tie by
performing aesthetic austerities at what is now the city’s main cremation ground.
Kashi is known as the ‘Great Cremation Ground’ because it is there that the five
great elements which compose the world arrive as corpses. The gulf which divides
the city from profane space is again underlined by the maxim that it stands apart
from the three loks, the fourteen bhuvans and the nine khands. Kashi constitutes
a tenth khand. But if Kashi is the cosmos it is also symbolically identified with 11
Religion and Rituals the human body. The five ghats which are visited in the course of the panch-
tirath pilgrimage are sometimes explicitly equated with the five elements of
which the body is composed.
Since cremation is a sacrifice, regenerating the cosmos, and since funeral pyres
burn without interruption throughout the day and night at Manikarnika ghat,
creation is here continually replayed. As a result it is always the satya yug in
Kashi, the beginning of time when the world was new. That it is because of the
city’s sacredness that people come there to die and be cremated is an obvious
truism. What is less obvious perhaps is that the ideology itself implies that Kashi
is sacred precisely because they come for this purpose, for it is death and cremation
that keep the city at the navel of the universe yet outside space and time. It is no
accident, then, that the scene of cosmogony is also the site of unceasing cremation
or that the especially important corpses should be burnt on that very spot where
Vishnu sat for 50,000 years alight with the fire of the austerities by which he
created the world.

A Profane Perspective
With its reputation for orthodox Brahmanical Hinduism and its ancient tradition
of Sanskritic learning, it is the Brahmans who set the dominant religious tone of
the city. Despite its relatively small population, Banaras now supports three
universities, each of which prides itself on strength in Sanskrit studies and/or
Hindu philosophy, as well as a host of pathshalas (traditional schools) devoted
to transmitting under the tutelage of a Brahman guru a knowledge of the sacred
scriptures and an ability to recite the vedic mantras.
At the level of popular religion there is at least a degree of ‘syncretism’. Many
lower castes Hindus go as supplicants to the shrine of the Muslim martyr, Bahadur
Shahid, for the solution of problems caused by the malevolent ghosts of those
who have died a bad death, many lower castes Muslims visit the samadhi (tomb)
of a Hindu Aghori ascetic for the cure of barrenness. The pilgrims however have
continued to arrive in ever increasing numbers though it is likely that a smaller
proportion of them than formerly belong to the highest and the most affluent
sections of the society, and that the ‘index linked’ value of the average priestly
donation has declined. But this is almost certainly made up for by volume and
turn over. More and more pilgrims come by rail and bus on ‘package tours’ of a
number of sacred centres and fewer and fewer of them stay in Banaras for more
than a couple of days. Perhaps a majority are there only for a few hours. Many
are the first members of their family or village to have visited the city and do not
therefore have a hereditary panda. Increasing number of corpses are also brought
to the city for their last sacrifice and more people of rank aspire to cremate them
on the footsteps of Vishnu.
Some of those outsiders who have cremated their corpses in Banaras stay on to
perform the mortuary rituals of the first twelve days and some who have cremated
elsewhere come to the city to perform these rites. At certain seasons large numbers
of villagers from the surrounding countryside, accompanied by their exorcists,
visit the sacred tank of Pishach Mochan to lay the spirits of the malevolent dead
to rest. During pitri paksh (the fortnight of the ancestors) tens of thousands of
pilgrims stop at Kashi to offer rice balls to their ancestors at pishach mochan or
on the ghats before completing their pilgrimage to Gaya, where they perform
rites for their final liberation. In one way or another then death in Banaras is an
12 extremely big business.
Death as a Living: Shares and Chicanery Sacred Knowledge

This chapter describes the division of mortuary labour between various groups
of occupational specialists who earn a living in and around the burning ghats, a
division of labour which is closely constrained by the ideology of caste. One
type of caste specialist is, for example, required to handle the physical remains
of the deceased another to deal with his marginal and malevolent ghost before
its incorporation as an ancestor while a third type of specialist presides over
rituals addressed to the essentially benevolent ancestor.

At death the soul becomes a disembodied ghost (or prêt), a hungry and malevolent
state dangerous to the survivors. On the 12th day after death a rite is performed
which enables the deceased to rejoin his ancestors and become an ancestor himself.
The Mahabrahman (funeral-priest) presides over the rituals addressed to the ghost
during the first eleven days after death, and accepts on behalf of the ghosts the
gifts intended to it. A further set of gifts is made in the name of the newly
incorporated ancestor on the 12th day and these are accepted by the deceased’s
hereditary household priest (kul purohit) in the case of outsiders who have stayed
in Banaras to perform the mortuary rituals. The Brahman specialist stands in for
the soul he serves (the impure funeral-priest for the ghost, the relatively pure
pilgrimage-priest for the ancestor).

Mahabrahman means the ‘great brahman’. The caste is alternatively known as

Mahapatra, ‘great vessels’. An actor is a patra, a vessel for the qualities of the
character he plays. In the drama of death the funeral-priest is the vessel for the
rancorous greed of the ghost. Worshipped as the deceased he is dressed in dead
man’s clothes, is made to wear his spectacles or clutch his walking stick and is
fed his favourite foods. If the deceased were a woman, a female Mahabrahman
is worshipped and presented with woman’s clothing, cosmetics and jewellery.
At a rite which marks the end of the period of the most intense pollution, the
chief mourner, and then the other male mourners, are tonsured by the Barber.
But before even the chief mourner, the Mahabrahman should be shaved – as the
prêt itself- were the one most deeply polluted by the death.

Though unequivocally Brahman, Mahabrahmans are prêt Brahmans – ghost

brahmans- who are in many contexts treated much like Untouchables and are
described as acchut (not to be touched). No fastidious person or clean caste will
dine with them. In theory, they should live outside the village and to the south of
it (that is in the direction of death). Writing of the Banaras rural hinterland in the
1940s, Opler and Singh report they may not even enter the village to beg. With
regard to such matters as the consumption of meat and alcohol and the incidence
of widow remarriage and breaches of caste endogamy they could not be described
as paragons of Brahmanical orthodoxy, but nor could many of the other Brahman
communities who earn a living on ghats. The Mahabrahman’s relative degradation
is rather a consequence of the fact that they participate in the death pollution
which afflicts their patrons. Since they have many jajmans they are (as it were)
in a permanent state of impurity. Not only impure, the Mahabrahman is also
highly inauspicious. Although physical contact with a sweeper woman would be
unambiguously polluting, it is auspicious to see her face as one is embarking on
a new enterprise. By contrast it is at any time inauspicious to set eyes on a
Mahabrahman and if you chance to see one first thing in the morning then
somebody in your house may die. You should not even utter his name in the
13
Religion and Rituals morning. Nor may a Mahabrahman come to your door. ‘Nobody’ as the proverb
has it, should have the misfortune that a Mahabrahman cross his threshold. He is
somebody to be kept at bay, somebody to whom- in the custom of certain
localities- to throw stones as he departs at the end of the mortuary rituals least he
be tempted to return. Salt should not be put in the food he is served, for salt sets
up relationship with the eater and no relationship should be acknowledged with
the ghost (prêt).

The Mahabrahman is regarded with a mixture of fear and contempt. He is regarded

with ‘a gaze of hate’ (hay drishti), is known as the ‘bitter one’ (katu), is said to
have no ‘lustre’ (kanti) on his face, and the stereotype contrasts his fabulous
wealth with the squalor of his demeanour and life-style. He is treated with less
respect and consideration than the meanest untouchable. One Mahabrahman friend
resentfully recalls his teachers’ taunts that he should leave school to hang up
water-pot dwellings for the ghosts; another tells of a Khatri woman throwing
away all the chillies drying on her roof when he went to retrieve the kite which
had landed on it.

Mahabrahman weddings and other life-cycle rituals are presided over by a ‘pure’
Brahman. One Mahabrahman sells pan (the betel-nut which many Banarasis
chew addictively) in a quarter of the city where many people must be aware of
his caste; while another runs a tea-shop on the main road which passes through
his suburban village.

The rites of the first eleven days after death are conducted on the ghats (or on the
bank of some sacred tank). The Mahabrahman who officiates at these rites will
only come to the house of his jajman (patron) if he is summoned on the day of
the cremation to preside over the offering of five rice-balls made between the
door of the house and the funeral pyre. On the following day he directs the
hanging of the water-pot which serves as the home for the prêt in the branches of
sacred pepal (Ficus religiosa) tree; and he subsequently accompanies the jajman
there on daily expeditions to offer ware and a lighted lamp. He also conducts the
offering of one rice-ball each day, each of which creates a different part of a new
body for the deceased. This body is completed on the tenth day. On The eleventh
day it is fed and the prêt is now ready to become an ancestor. The Mahabrahman’s
duties are at an end. He is worshipped, fed, given gifts and departs having mashed
the water-pot dwelling of the pret.

If cremation is carried out in panchak – (a block of five consecutive lunar mansions

(nakshattras) during which it is particularly inauspicious to burn a body) – the
Mahabrahman presides over the rite of ‘pacifying the panchak’ (panchak shanty).
In cases of ‘untimely death’ he superintends on the eleventh day the additional
rite of Narayani bali which has the object of preventing the embittered soul
from remaining in prêt form (yoni); and he also performs putla vidhan– at which
an elaborate effigy of deceased is constructed and then cremated for those whose
corpses were either lost or immersed in the Ganges. ‘Bad deaths’ generally
represents good income for the funeral priest.

The inventory constitutes the maximum elaboration of the Mahabrahman’s duties.

In most cases there is no question of panchak shanty, Narayani bali and putla
vidhan. Of the standard repertoire, the Mahabrahman would only expect to
perform the full complement for an important jajman from whom he expects a
14
munificent offering. For the majority his services are considerably attenuated, Sacred Knowledge
and often amount to no more than attending the rituals of the tenth and eleventh
days, scrambling them through with much surreptitious editing when the financial
pickings look slim, and accepting the gifts with more or less bad grace.

The Mahabrahman’s presence is, however, essential. He confers salvation, and

allows the soul to ‘swim across’ to the other world. For the successful conclusion
of the rites he must be satisfied with the gifts offered. ‘His belly must be full’,
though on such occasions he is seemingly insatiable. Without his blessing the
deceased will remain in the limbo of pret- hood to plague his family with
misfortune and further bereavement; with it their descent line can prosper and
increase. His curse is greatly feared, a fact which the Mahabrahman often exploits
with veiled threats designed to encourage a tight-fisted jajman to loosen his
purse-strings. A separate caste– the Mahabappas – is funeral priests to the funeral-
priests. Mahabappa settlements are small and scattered, and each serves the
Mahabrahman communities of a considerable area. No matter on which ghat
they are cremated (or immersed), the Mahabrahman who has pari (his ‘turn’ in
the rota) on the day on which the corpse is brought to the ghat has the exclusive
right to accept all gifts which will subsequently be made in the name of the
ghost, the most valuable of which are generally offered at the rituals of the tenth
or eleventh day.

In practice, the city Mahabrahmans are only likely to hear about, those who
cremate in Banaras, or whose ashes are brought for immersion. The residue
represents the least promising donors. In the past, four settlements of village
funeral-priests were appointed by the city Mahabrahmans to watch over their
rights, and inform them of any death in the vicinity. Today it is these local
representatives who appropriate a large proportion of the offerings made by village
jajman of the poorer sort. Jajman from outside the radius of pachchh do not fall
within the scope of the Banaras funeral-priests unless they stay in the city to
perform the tenth and eleventh day rituals, in which event they are claimed by
the pari-holder. But even when this is not the case, he may still derive some
income from them by presiding over the offerings made at the ghat on the day of
cremation. In total, the pari owner may acquire ten or twelve jajman who will
offer him sajja dan ten or eleven days later; and earn up to Rs. 150 from offerings
made at the pyre.

The mechanics of the system are such that occasionally a pari-holder

miscalculates, or more likely forgets to show up on the ghat on the day of his
pari (though he will usually have realised his error by the time of crucial ten or
eleventh day rituals). In such an eventuality, Bihari Maharaj – the richest and
most powerful pari-holder whose servants remain on Manikarnika ghat 24 hours
a day – takes charge of all jajman; and when the rightful owner eventually turns
up reimburses him with a proportion of the takings. In the course of the year
there are one or two paris which remain regularly unclaimed, and for all intents
and purposes Bihari has made these his own. Within the Mahabrahman
community pari rights are very unevenly distributed. Bihari Maharaj has rights
to some seventy-five days a year, while his half-brother and another man between
them account for a further fifty-five days. In other words, a third of the year is
owned by just three individuals.

15
Religion and Rituals In both pachchh and pari the right-holder needs the help of several semi-
permanent karinda-servants in order to attend to all his jajman, and to muster a
suitably imposing backing at the time of negotiating the offerings. About twenty
Mahabrahmans work more or less regularly as karindas, most of them for several
different employers. On the day of pari one of them will remain throughout the
twenty fours at Harishchandra ghat, and two or three at Manikanika, where they
collect information about prospective jajman and preside over offerings at the
pyre. The income from pachchh and pari is quite unpredictable. The profession,
people say, is dependent of the sky (akash-vritti). Several turns running may
yield only the most impoverished jajman. But there is always the chance that
once in a while the pari-holder may enjoy the windfall of a Maharaja, or a Marwari
business.

Other variants of pari

The untouchable Dom funeral-attendants labour at the pyres under a similarly
infamous reputation for rapacity. The cremation ground Doms – who distinguish
themselves as Gotakhor (driver) Doms – insists that they are an entirely separate
sub-caste from the Sweeper Doms of Banaras and other north Indian cities, and
from the Basket-maker Doms of the rural areas. They numbered around 670, and
mainly reside in two neighbourhoods in the vicinity of the two burning ghats.

The family barber has already cropped up in association with the funeral-priests.
He acts as a general factotum throughout the period of mourning; and would
normally accompany the funeral procession to the cremation ground where he
tonsures the chief mourner, sometimes all sons of the deceased, and sometimes
the corpse itself. An experienced Barber will have come to the ghat before, may
find himself directing many of the proceedings, and is usually expected to
negotiate with the wood-seller (who pays him commission of 1 anna in the rupee)
and with the shops which sell shrouds and other mortuary goods. Around 700
small crafts are licensed to work the river front. Most are owned and manned by
Mallahs, a caste of fishermen and boatmen. Each boat may take passengers only
from its own ghat, though the right to fish anywhere on the river is unrestricted.
An important source of subsidiary earnings on several ghats is the right to dredge
in the river mud for coins thrown into the Ganges by the pious pilgrims as gupt
dan – a ‘secret’ and particularly meritorious gift.

The way in which passengers are allocated between the various right-holders of
a single ghat is variable. Dashashvamedh is the most popular bathing ghat in the
city. The boatmen all sit together on a wooden platform at the bottom of the long
flight of stone steps that leads down to the river. As any potential passenger
reaches the top of the steps one of the boatmen will stake a claim by calling out
‘the one with the spectacles’, the ‘bell-bottom pant wallah’, ‘the red monkey
Englishman’. Whoever claimed the passenger takes him.

At Manikarnika ghat there are six established shops which specialise in the sale
of what are collectively called ‘the goods of the skull-bearing’ (kapal kriya saman).
These consist of shrouds, various offerings to the pyre, and the big water-pot
(gagra) which the chief mourner throws over his left shoulder at the end of
cremation to ‘cool’ the pyre. These shops also sell stone slabs for weighting
down corpses immersed in river. Forty or fifty years ago a single individual had
a monopoly on this business- which he reportedly enforced by smashing pots
brought by the mourners from elsewhere.
16
By contrast with the kapal kriya trade, the wood businessman at Manikarnika is Sacred Knowledge
today a relatively ‘free’ market. Up until about 1910, however, a single shop
owned and managed by a powerful Rajput family- had a complete monopoly
over all wood sold on the ghat. This shop still exists and remains the exclusive
supplier of wood to the Doms when they negotiate an ‘all-in’ price which includes
the cost of materials. The reason is that the arcaded structure where the Doms sit
to negotiate their ‘tax’, where they eat and store bamboo from the biers, is under
this Rajput family’s control, and the Doms use it only on their sufferance. The
same shop is also the sole supplier of the five mounds of wood which the
Municipal Council allows for the cremation of indigent corpses.

Pandagiri – the profession of pilgrimage-priest

As we have seen, many mourners bring the ashes of a deceased kinspersons to
Banaras to immerse in the Ganges, while the vast majority of pilgrims perform
offerings to their ancestors during the course of their visit. It is in principle the
pilgrimage-priest – the panda or tirath-purohit – who arranges, and may even
preside, over these rituals. In the case of those outsiders who remain in, or come
to the city to perform the post-cremation mortuary rites, it is he who stands in
for, embodies and receives gifts in the name of the newly incorporated ancestor
at the rituals of the twelfth day.

The panda puts the pilgrims up in his own house or in one of the numerous
pilgrims’ hostels, arranges their visits to the shops, temples and other sacred
sites and for the rituals they perform, and accepts the gifts associated with them.
He is, he says, ‘a contractor of religion’ (dharma ka thekedar)- a phrase which
nicely captures his role as a general purpose ‘fixer’ for both this-and other-worldly
comforts of his clients.

The Last Sacrifice: The Expression of Grief

At death it is men who give birth. In nearly all communities, women are regarded
as too faint hearted to accompany the corpse to the burning ghat and it is
exclusively men who assist cremation. Even in the absence of the son a man
serves as dagiya (the one who gives fire) and performs the subsequent rites.
What then is the role of women? The short answer is, to grieve.

The corpse are meticulously washed by women, wrap it in a white shroud and
lay out on the bed with thirty seven other brightly coloured shrouds draped over
it. When it is moved to one side for its bath, and when it is lifted onto the bed, the
women burst out into a chorus of wails and have to be cajoled by men to relinquish
it. More garlands and balloons are added to the bier, a golden sari is tied to a long
bamboo pole, a red sari to another. These are to serve as standards which would
lead to the funeral procession. Abir is rubbed on the face of the corpse. It is time
to move but the women who surround the bed become reluctant to make away
for the pall bearers. As they shoulder it the women cry out in anguish, the two
bands play different tunes, the young boys also dance frenziedly, and most of the
men raised a triumphant cry of Har, Har, Mahadev (a greeting appropriate to
Lord Shiva). The women are allowed to accompany the procession only a short
way.

17
Religion and Rituals The Good and Bad Death
A good death occurs at the right time and at the right place-ideally in Banaras on
the banks of Ganges with the lower limbs in the water. Failing Banaras or some
other place of piligrimage one should die at home on purified ground and in
open air, and not on a bed or under a roof. Even in Banaras there are good and
the bad times to go. Death in uttarayan-the six months of the year that begin
with the winter solstice (maker sanskranti)-is propitious for this is the day time
of the gods. During dakshinayan (the other six months) they spend much of their
time asleep and do not therefore take much notice of human affairs. But the
ancestors are now wide awake so dakshinayan is auspicious for the performance
of the shraddh rituals addressed to them and this is during this period that pitri
paksh– the fortnight of the ancestors- is celebrated.

A bad death is one, then, in which the deceased has revealed no intention of
sacrificing his body (e.g. the victim of violence or accident), or of renouncing its
desires (e.g. suicide). Alternatively it is that of a person whose body does not
constitute a fit sacrificial object.

Ghosts into Ancestors

In Banaras the post cremation mortuary rites describe the way to convert the
marginal prêt-ghost into an ancestral-pitr, and to facilitate the arduous journey
of the deceased to the adobe of the ancestors (pitr lok) where he arrives on the
anniversary of his death. Rites addressed to the ghost are presided over by the
Mahabrahman Funeral-priest, those addressed to the ancestors by the deceased’s
hereditary household – or pilgrimage – priest. In Banaras both sets of rituals are
collectively known as shraddh. Etymologically shraddh is closely related to
shraddha or faith, shraddh being popularly defined as that which is offered to
the ancestors with faith. The offerings are of two kinds. The first is pind dan the
gift of pinds- balls of rice, barley flour or khoa (a thick paste made by boiling
milk). The second kind of offering is mediated by the Brahmins who are fed and
offered gifts.

Panna Ojha
Those who die a good death are cremated. Panna Ojha is a man of commanding
presence in his mid sixties. Despite his ochre renouncer’s robe, Panna is a
householder. By caste a potter, he lives in a village some five or six miles from
the centre of the city. Most of his patients see him on the verandah of his house,
on one side of which is a raised platform which contains a shrine of the goddesses
Durga and Sitala, and a square sacrificial fire pit into the ash of which several
ascetics’ tongs and tridents are stuck. During his consultations Panna sits
imposingly on the platform with his patients- generally in family groups- at his
feet below him. His sessions begin with an elaborate act of worship for his tutelary
deities and a lengthy reading from various sacred texts.

1.6.4 Conclusion
The book provides an account of the association of the city of Banaras with
death rituals. It also gives a brief sketch of what is known about its history as a
pilgrimage centre, and as a place to die and to dispose of the physical remains of
the death.

18
 Sacred Knowledge
1.7 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE
OUR UNDERSTANDING
Generally, in the study of death, the focus has been on rituals. By contrast, Parry’s
work is a thick description of what is called the ‘business of death’. In addition
to a symbolic analysis of rituals- their meaning and purpose- the work provides
a detailed understanding of the ‘ritual technicians’ so to say, who are associated
with the performance of death rituals. From the study of the microcosm- the
Manikarnika ghat- Parry moves on to the understanding of Banaras as the ‘city
of cosmogony’.

1.8 SUMMARY
The study of religions can be approached in many ways and can present a number
of different kinds of problems. For social anthropologists or for some of them
one major problem is that of the social function of religion – how does religion
contribute to the existence of society as an ordered and continuing system of
relationships amongst human beings? In the first monograph on the Coorgs of
South India, the author has presented that religion is a binding force amongst
individuals. The scientific problem is how religion does this, how, in other words,
it functions.

Parry’s work focuses on the priests and other sacred specialists who serve the
enormous numbers of mourners and pilgrims who are drawn to Banaras from
throughout the Hindu world. A clear and coherent descriptive analysis of the
rituals performed by these specialists and their ideas concerning death and of
ways in which they organise their business, the book is at once a clear analysis of
the rituals concerning death.

References
Abbott, J. 1932. The Keys of Power: A Study of Indian Ritual and Beliefs. London:
Metheun and Co.

Bayly, C.A. 1981. ‘From Ritual to Ceremony: death, ritual and society in Hindu
north India since 1600’. In Joachim Whaley (ed.), Mirrors of Mortality: Studies
in the Social History of Death. London: Europa Publications Ltd.

Muthanna. 1931. Coorg and Coorgs. Siddapura: Coorg.

Parry, Jonathan P. 1994. Death in Banaras. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

Ritcher, G. 1887. Castes and Tribes found in Coorg. Bangalore.

Srinivas, M. N.1952. Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Suggested Reading
Parry, Jonathan P. 1994. Death in Banaras. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.

19
Religion and Rituals Srinivas, M. N.1952. Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sample Questions
1) Write an essay on the social structure of the Coorgs of South India?
2) Write in short on the ritual complex of Mangala of Coorgs.
3) Write briefly on the deaths as a living with special reference to shares and
chicanery in Banaras.
4) What is Pandagiri in Banaras? Comment.

20
 Sacred Knowledge
UNIT 2 PERFORMATIVE ASPECTS IN
RITUALS

Contents
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography The Forest of Symbols: Aspects
of Ndembu Ritual is an Example
2.3 Description of the Ethnography
2.3.1 Intellectual Context
2.3.2 Fieldwork
2.3.3 Analysis of Data
2.3.4 Conclusion
2.4 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
2.5 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography The Religion of Java is an
Example
2.6 Description of the Ethnography
2.6.1 Intellectual Context
2.6.2 Fieldwork
2.6.3 Analysis of Data
2.6.4 Conclusion
2.7 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
2.8 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives

After reading this unit, you will be able to understand the:
 performative aspects in rituals in two different ethnological regions; Africa
and Indonesia;
 the religious diversity and their value in anthropology; and
 performative aspects in rites de passage.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Religion is an important sub-system, and it is the one that intersects with other
sub-systems significantly in a cultural or social system. It embodies various
religious values, thoughts, ideas and notions and relates itself meaningfully to
political, economic, social organisational aspects. Each of these endow certain
values to the religious behaviour of people, thereby religion assumes importance
in everyday life. The aspect that gives strength to religion (or ‘factuality’ that
religion gets) come from the value placed on the performative aspect of ritual or
religious actions. It is derived from the concept ‘performative utterance’
21
Religion and Rituals introduced by J. L. Austin (1962), a language philosopher. According to Austin,
though most of the utterances or sentences uttered describe something in the
world, but certain of them does something in the world which he called
performative utterances. These unlike others are not related to true or false, or
not – truth evaluable, rather when something wrong had taken place or desired
end has not resulted, they are said as ‘happy’ or ‘unhappy’. The uttering of a
performative sentence is doing an action completely or partially. An example of
such an utterance is “I pronounce you husband and wife” declaration of the
Christian Minister at the wedding. Austin deals with them under illocutionary
speech act which is related to doing an action such as ‘is there salt on the table’,
which means not only an enquiry if there is salt on the table, but also asking
some one to hand over the salt. Similarly one utters looking at the door ‘it is cold
in here’ which implies a request to close the door. In this perspective ritual acts
do something which are believed to result in some consequences.

From this theoretical angle, ritual actions and religious behaviour can be examined
and understood from the performative perspective. It is a shift from the earlier
conventional approach to religion by formulations of the systems of beliefs, moral,
ethical values. It can be noticed in the definition of religion given by Clifford
Geertz, “A religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful,
pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating
conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with
such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic”
(1973:90). In this definition, he underlines symbolic objects, the dispositions
and symbolic actions of people governed by moods and motivations formulating
an aura of factuality. Victor Turner on the other hand looks at the performative
aspect in ritual as a social drama. The rituals of affliction among the Ndembu,
include dramatisation of breach of social norms, identification of the crisis,
negotiation of crisis situation and integration of the social group resolving the
problem through public action. The performance takes place in the context of
treating the sick person which affects the entire social group of which the sick is
a member. These two anthropologists have this perspective when they describe
ritual and religion in the broad framework of symbolic and phenomenological or
interpretative approaches to study religion. It must be pointed out that the
following description is the summary of the ethnographies.

2.2 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY The Forest of Symbols: Aspects
of Ndembu Ritual IS AN EXAMPLE
The work on Ndembu rituals is a contribution to the understanding of the meaning
of ritual performances. The meaning of the act is combined in the rituals.

2.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

2.3.1 Intellectual Context
Earlier, the focus of the religious and ritualistic studies was on the functions they
perform. With Turner, the focus shifted to the symbolic aspects, to finding out
the meaning of the rituals.
22
2.3.2 Fieldwork Performative Aspects in
Rituals
Intensive fieldwork was carried out using the standard anthropological methods.
In addition, the author collected the myths that the Ndembu held.

2.3.3 Analysis of Data

This book is a collection of essays already published in various journals and
anthologies, and these essays are arranged in two sections: (1) mainly theoretical
treatments of symbolism and witchcraft; and (2) descriptive accounts of aspects
of some rituals. At the time of investigation (1950s), there were about 18,000
Ndembu in Winilunga district, dispersed in scattered villages of about a dozen
huts over 7,000 square miles of deciduous woodland in Zambia (formerly
Northern Rhodesia) and Zaire (formerly Belgian Congo) in Africa. They are
matrilineal and practice virilocal residence, and the oldest male matrikin of the
senior genealogical generation is usually head of the village. The majority of
local groups in Ndembu society are relatively mobile, transient and unstable.
Men, of their own choice, and women through marriage, divorce, widowhood
and remarriage, constantly move from village to village and change in domicile.
Men go where they have kin who are widespread over the region. Villages may
break up and divide or disperse, members disperse and come together at another
point of time, but the structural principle remains the same. The residential pattern
is influenced by matrilineal descent and virilocal marriage. Matriliny governs
prior rights to residence, succession of office, and inheritance of property. A man
has right to reside with his matrilineal kin, primary or classificatory. He may live
in his father’s village if mother lives with him there or if she does not, as a
privilege granted to him by his father who has a right in his village matrilineage.
This kind of residential pattern has implication that at a given time the village
structure is made up of not only relationships between male matrilineal kin, but
also between these men and a variable number of matrilineal kinswomen who
have returned to them after divorce or widowhood, bringing their children. There
are two kinds of solidarity among the male kin: between fathers and sons and
between brothers. These receive recognition in rituals.

Symbols: Turner writes about ritual and symbol, “By “ritual” I mean prescribed
formal behaviour for occasions not given over to technological routine, having
reference to beliefs in mystical beings or powers. The symbol is the smallest unit
of ritual which still retains the specific properties of ritual behaviour; it is the
ultimate unit of specific structure in a ritual context.” (1967:19). The symbols
are objects, activities, relationships, events, gestures and spatial units in a ritual
situation. The structure and properties or meanings of these ritual symbols may
be inferred from (1) external form and observable characteristics; (2) interpretations
offered by specialists and by laymen; (3) significant contexts largely worked by
the anthropologist. The ritual symbols are stimuli of emotion, and they are at one
and the same time referential and condensation symbols, each symbol is
multireferential rather than unireferential. Ndembu regard some symbols
dominant, and such of them are mainly two classes: first tree or plant in a series
of plants, shrines in curative rituals. Both the classes of dominant symbols are
closely associated with non-empirical beings. Symbols instigate social action
and even act as “force” and they have to be examined within the context of the
specific ritual. The vernacular term for symbol, chinijikijilu, “to blaze a trail” by
cutting marks on a tree with one’s axe or by breaking and bending branches to
serve as guides back from the unknown bush to known bush to known path. 23
Religion and Rituals Turner writes, “A symbol, then, is a blaze or landmark, something that connects
the unknown with the known” (48). About meaning of a symbol, he states, three
levels must be distinguished: (1) the level of indigenous interpretations (or, briefly,
the exegetical meaning); (2) the operational meaning and (3) the positional
meaning. The first one is obtained by questioning the indigenous informants
about the observed ritual behaviour, the second one is what the Ndembu do with
the symbol, and not only what they say about it, and the third one is about what
is derived from its relationship to other symbols in a totality whose elements
acquire their significance from the system as a whole. The exegetical meaning
of dominant symbol may be conceptualised in polar terms. One cluster can have
a set of referents of gross physiological characters and on the other end these are
referents to moral and social structure. For instance, milk tree stands at one end
for physiological aspects of breast feeding with affectual patterns and at another
end matriliny.

In the paper on “colour classification in Ndembu ritual,” Turner deals with the
problem in primitive classification. Against the earlier opinion of dualistic
classification, like left and right, consanguineal and affinal, he argues that in
African and other contexts also there are lateral symbolisms of other forms of
dual classification. Among the Ndembu there is tripartite classification relating
to white, red, and black colours. Like any form of dualism which contains a
wider tripartite mode of classification, he finds white and red in close association
against the black. In Ndembu life-crisis rituals, there is mystery surrounding
three rivers: the rivers of whiteness, redness and blackness. The white relates to
or refers to mother, milk, semen, power and so on, and the redness relates to
blood of women, animals and so on, whereas blackness is related to death. There
are several other referents for these colours. However, the people clearly contrast
white and black in antithetical way as goodness/badness; purity/lacking purity;
lacking bad luck/lacking luck; life/death; health/disease and so forth. But white
and red form as a binary system and remain complementary to each rather than
as antithetical pair. Such a kind of association is found in several societies, and
examining some of them, Turner finds some interesting facts about the three
colours. These colours represent products of human body emissions, heightened
bodily experiences; heightened physical experience transcending the experiencer’s
normal conditions, experiences of social relationships. Black is particularly related
to catabolism, decay, sleep or darkness. Finally Turner makes a strong case stating
that these three colour stand for basic human experiences of the body associated
with the gratification of libido, hunger, aggressive and excretory drives and with
fear, anxiety, and submissiveness, they also provide a kind of primordial
classification of reality. This view contrasts Durkheim’s notion of social relations
in relation with things.

In ‘betwixt and between: the luminal period in rites de passage’ Turner considers
the liminality – the transition from one position to the other - as an interstructural
situation in the rites of passage. Though rites of passage are found in societies,
they reach maximum expression in small scale societies. Structure he means the
‘structure of positions’ which is a relatively stable condition or state. In this state
individuals or group or society are no longer classified and not yet classified.
Symbols represent this situation in many societies drawn from the biology of
death, decomposition, catabolism and other physical processes that have negative
tinge. In circumcision and puberty rituals the neophytes are structurally “dead”
among the Ndembu. In some cases the transitional beings are particularly polluting
24
since they are neither one thing nor another. In some other the neophytes find Performative Aspects in
Rituals
connection of deities with superhuman powers. The neophytes are structurally
invisible. The liminal processes are regarded as analogous to those of gestation,
parturition and suckling. Sometimes incumbents experience many kinds of
subordination or superordination. In many societies, the neophytes acquire special
spiritual knowledge through sacra which is classified as: (1) exhibition, “what
is shown”, (2) actions, “what is done”, and (3) instructions, “what is said”. Turner
considers the liminality of rites of passage as the building block of culture as
individuals pass out of and re-enter the structural realm.

In ‘witchcraft and sorcery: taxonomy versus dynamics’, while critically reviewing

the book Witchcraft and Sorcery in East Africa (Middleton and Winter, 1963)
Turner finds that anthropologists are concerned with exhibition of “structures”
of social relations, ideas, and values and cultural analysis. He suggests they move
forward employing process theory employing a construct “action-field”
reproducing the structure or “web of relations” identifying goals, motivations,
rationality, meaning and so on. There should be consensus on the definition of
witchcraft and sorcery, now anthropologists have used these concepts interchangeably.
He urges them to engage in unraveling structure of the social system in its dynamic
process while analysing the components at cultural level.

Rites: In ‘Muchona the hornet, Interpreter of religion’ Turner shows the ritual
specialist’s knowledge about plants and animals in the area, their medicinal
properties, symbolic value, their meanings and interpretations. Such persons are
great resource for getting insights into the peoples’ interpretation of their world.
In the chapter ‘Mukanda: the rite of circumcision’ he provides detailed account
of the process and analysis of the Ndembu’s circumcision ritual which is quite
complex, employing field theory. Before describing the ritual organisation, he
gives a detailed account of the social field and its properties. These include the
differences in the size, origins, and extant interests of villages, their internal
segmentation, marital interconnections of the residents, sociospatial distances
between them, and other aspects of their interdependence with and independence
from one another. Further, customary relationships between categories of people
and psychological differences among the individuals and so on in the field are
also indicated. These properties are significant in terms of sponsoring role of a
village, identification of Establisher, and Senior Circumciser and their assistants.
The selection of these persons involves conflicts, association of groups, and
change of alignments, differences and resolution of the disagreements. The rite
of Mukunda has three main phases: kwing’ija – causing to enter, kung’ula –
seclusion and kwidisha – the rites of return. The sequence of the episodes is as
follows. After the formal invitation to Senior Circumciser the activities of the
ritual begin under kwig’ija, the assembling of food and beer at the sponsoring
village and clearing of a site for the camp of the novices’ parents and kin; these
are preliminary. The activities that takes place on the day before circumcision
are: the collection of ku-kolisha strengthening medicine, the sacralisation of the
camp and sponsoring village, prayer to the ancestors of the sponsoring village,
sacralisation of the ijiku Makukanda fire by the Establisher, the setting up of a
chishing’a pole, sacralisation of the circumciser’s fire, and the night dance in
which novices’ parents take a leading role. On the day of circumcision, there are
ritual washing, preparing novices’ food, procession to the circumcision site, the
beating of drums by guardian, the erection of mukoleku gate, preparation of the
circumcision site, the hyena, the circumcision, ritual washing and feeding of
25
Religion and Rituals novices. The kung’ula, the next phase, includes the building of the lodge where
the boys are secluded till they are healed which takes around two to four weeks.
During this time, there is appearance of makishi masked dancers, training and
esoteric teaching of the novices. In the final phase, kwidisha – the rites of return,
on the first day, the activities include assembly at katewu kanyanya, the small
shaving place where medicine is applied, nayakayowa, man dresses as a woman
and miming of copulation, the first entry of the novices in which mothers witness
their sons, the ifwotu, site for the stay of boy, the second entry of the novices and
the night dance. On the second day, there is burning of the lodge, the final
purification, katewu keneni, the great shaving place – shaving around hairline,
the making of nfunda – the medicine, the lodge instructor’s final harangue, the
third entry, the ku-tomboka war dance, and finally the payment. In this rite mudyi
and chikoli trees, the nfunda – medicine made of various barks and scrapings of
trees, and death of novices are the significant symbols besides various other
symbolic acts.

In ‘themes in the symbolism of Ndembu hunting ritual’ Turner aims at providing

the meanings of various symbols that appear in rites related to hunting cults –
wumbinda and wuyang’a. These meanings can be noted at different levels –
exegetical, operational and positional. For the Ndembu, the hunting is more than
a food quest, it is a religious activity. It is preceded and followed by the
performance of rites. The wumbinda and wuyang’a are assemblage of various
rites, the former is concerned with worship of a hunter ancestor and propitiatory
rites whereas the latter is for attainment of a certain degree both of proficiency in
killing of animals and of esoteric knowledge of the cult mysteries. The dominant
symbol in these rites is chishing’a, a branch forked in one or more places, stripped
of all its leaves and bark. It is termite resistant and strong wood representing the
strength of huntmanship.

In ‘Lunda medicine and the treatment of disease’ Turner aims at not simple
enumeration of afflictions and healing procedures but revealing ideas implicit in
the Ndembu treatment of diseases. He shows that these ideas pervade wider
realm of belief and action. Besides the presence of colour, trees and other
symbolism, he notes ultimate and axiomatic values of Ndembu religion and ethics
entered into such an everyday matter as curing a headache. Finally, in ‘A Ndembu
doctor in practice’ he is concerned with the healing processes of illnesses. The
Ndembu healers use herbal medicines as well as therapeutic magico-religious
rites following divination. All deaths are attributed to sorcery or witchcraft, but
only those of structurally important individuals are singled out for special ritual
attention. Chimbuki whom Turner calls “doctor” is a “ritual specialist” who
performs the rites through cult association devoted to manifestation of the
ancestral shades that afflict its living kinswomen or kinswomen with various
illnesses. With the help of an extended case study Turner analyses the ihamba
cult therapeutic practice, which is very significant in the curative processes. This
is different in the way that the “doctor’s” task is less curing an individual patient
than as remedying the ills of a corporate group. The disease has social dimension,
breaches of social relationships due to conflicts and factional rivalry which need
sealing up through confessions of grudges and ill-feelings. Ndembu social norms
and values, expressed in symbolic objects and actions are saturated with
generalised emotions.

26
2.3.4 Conclusion Performative Aspects in
Rituals
The book provides a detailed understanding of the cosmology of the Ndembu.
The practices of these people lead on to their thought patterns. Making use of the
extended case study method, Turner shows the channelisation of emotions through
these rituals.

2.4 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
This work is a contribution to the symbolic understanding of rituals. It is one of
the crucial texts for following the interpretive approach. Besides understanding
the meaning of rituals among the Ndembu, the book lays the foundation of the
approach, which can be used in other studies.

2.5 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE

ETHNOGRAPHY The Religion of Java IS AN
EXAMPLE
Clifford Geertz’s ethnography on Javanese religion is a contribution to the
interpretive approach in anthropology. Geertz, an American anthropologists, is
hailed a symbolic anthropologists. His book on Javanese religion is one of the
few books on the religion of a non-Western people. The book apprises the reader
of the intricacies of Javanese spiritual life.

2.6 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

Geertz (and his wife, Hilda geertz) carried out a long fieldwork in Java, publishing
a number of works, one of which is on religion. The fieldwork was carried out in
Modjokuto, a small town in east central Java, using the method of history and
anthropology.

2.6.1 Intellectual Context

The time when this work was carried out was mostly devoted to the study of
small-scale tribal communities. Geertz thought of carrying out a study in a small
town. This work is famous for syncreticism. Geertz was highly influenced by the
writings of two philosophers, Gilbert Ryle and Ludwig Wittgenstein. He drew
upon the tradition of ordinary language philosophy. He followed the concept of
‘thick description’ from Gilbert Ryle and the concept of ‘family resemblance’
from Ludwig Wittgenstein.

2.6.2 Fieldwork
Fieldwork was carried out in the town using the standard anthropological
techniques and methods. Besides conducting fieldwork in Southeast Asia, Geertz
also conducted fieldwork in North Africa. In his fieldwork, he turned anthropology
towards the frame of meaning within which people live out their social life.

27
Religion and Rituals 2.6.3 Analysis of Data
The ethnography focuses on Modjokuto, a small town in east central Java,
Indonesia which had a population of about 20,000 in 1951-52 of whom about
18,000 were Javanese, 1,800 Chinese, and few Arabs, Indians and others. It is
the capital of a district as well as a sub-district. While the Chinese are mainly
involved in trade and business, the Javanese are peasants, government officials,
white collar clerks, teachers, artisans and manual labourers. According to the
world-outlook – religious beliefs, ethical preferences and political ideologies –
the Javanese constitute three cultural forms: abangan, santri and prijaji. The
religious system consists of a balanced integration of animistic, Hinduistic and
Islamic elements. This syncretism is the island’s basic folk tradition predominantly
found in Javanese villages. In the towns most of lower-class and the dispersed
peasants continue to follow the tradition known as abangan tradition. The purer
Islamic tradition is called santri mostly followed by Javanese traders, but not
strictly confined to this group as it has great influence even in villages among
the peasants. The social elites, who have roots in the Hindu — Javanese courts
and entered in salaried civil service as white-collar elites, and conserved a highly
refined court etiquette, are called prijaji. Their tradition includes complex art of
dance, drama, music, and poetry, and a Hindu-Buddhist mysticism. While abangan
stress the animistic aspects, the santri represent a stress on Islamic aspects, and
the prijaji stress the Hinduist aspects of Javanese syncretism of religion. These
are not constructed types but the Javanese themselves apply to their societal
divisions. Though these three appear to be three sub-communities, they are
actually enclosed in the same social structure, and share many common values.

The Abangan variant of religion: The abangan religion represents the peasant
synthesis of tribal inheritance and urban tradition besides several others. It is an
amalgam of a little native curing, a little Tantric magic, a little Islamic chanting
and so on. The communal feast called slametan forms the cultural base of abangan
religion which is found uniformly in all the three religious variants of Java.

The Slametan Communal Feast: It is small but constitutes the core ritual in
Javanese religious system, wherein food forms the significant symbol and recurs
on all occasions such as birth, marriage, sorcery, death, house moving, bad dreams,
harvest, name-changing, opening a factory, illness, supplication of the village
guardian spirit, circumcision, and starting off a political meeting and so on. The
components of the ritual include, special food which differs depending on the
intent of the slametan, incense, Islamic chant, the extra-formal high-Javanese
speech of the host which varies with the occasion, but it lacks drama. It is mostly
held in the evening, just after the sun has gone down and evening prayer. As the
guests, neighbours, friends, kinsmen and others arrive, the host opens up a speech
expressing gratitude for accepting the invitation, and hopes everyone shares the
benefit of the slametan and then states the intention of giving the slametan.
Lastly he begs pardon for any errors that he may have made in his speech. It is
followed by Arabic chant-prayer. Each participant is served a cup of tea and a
banana-leaf dish into which is put a sample of each food item from the centre of
the food which was already placed, before the slametan started. When everyone
has filled the dish, the host bids them to eat. After half-dozen scoopfuls one by
one they stop eating and ask for permission to leave, while most of the food
remains uneaten, as they desire to eat in private or with their family members
and leave the place. The meaning of slametan is drawn from the result; no one
28
feels different from others, and no one has a wish to split off from the other Performative Aspects in
Rituals
person. Also importantly the local spirits will not cause ill feelings among the
people and keep them unhappy and confused. These spirits are believed to be
existing at old Hindu ruins, woods and unusual points in landscape. The incense
and aroma of food pacify the spirits. There are three main kinds of spirit: memdi
(frighteners), lelembut (ethereal ones) and tujul (spirit children). While the memdis
are harmless and enjoy playing practical jokes, the lelembut possess individuals,
cause illness, even death and these are to be driven out by dukun (curer). Tujuls
are familiar spirits, one get them by fasting and meditation and one has to make
devil’s pact of satisfying them and in return get wealth from the spirits; if one
becomes rich suddenly, the reason is attributed to the tujul owned by that person
and are encountered by prayers and magical spells. There are other spirits called
as demits (place spirits) which inhabit certain places, trees and so on which respond
to the pleas of people and receive slametan with special foods and danjangs
(guardian spirits) are like demits but the difference is that they are spirits of
historical figures like village headman. The slametan concentrates, organises,
and summarises the general abangan ideas of order, their “design for living”
(Geertz 1960:29). The slametan falls into four main types: (1) those centering
around the crises of life like birth and death, (2) those associated with the Moslem
ceremonial calendar like birth of the Prophet, (3) those concerned with the
integration of village, the cleaning of the village of spirits and (4) those concerned
with occasions like departing for a long trip, changing place of residence or
changing name and so on. The limit of space forbids going into details about
these. On each of these, there is change of food which obtain certain symbolic
meaning relevant on the occasion and change of chants or spells. However, the
basic structure and meaning remains the same. It may be important to note here
about the dukuns who are curers, sorcerers and ceremonial specialists. There are
a variety of them dealing with various physical ailments and disharmonies. They
are believed possessing ilmu, a special knowledge having even magical powers,
sometimes learned from a teacher. In several cases the powers do not remain
with the individual permanently. Not only that there are different opinions about
the dukuns, but the general belief is negative as they inevitably die violent death.
The abangan worldview in slametan practices are infused with the Permai
political and nationalist ideology which shun the strict Islamic tradition though
general cooperation is extended to people of all walks of life.

The Santri variant of religion: There are three elements in the santri ummat
(community) in Modjokuto: peasants, traders and penghulu family members.
From northern Java, peasants who were already attracted to Islam migrated to
southern part of the island for various reasons around 1825 AD. This was followed
by a group of itinerant Javanese traders in cigarette, cheap cloth, dry fish, leather
goods, small hardware came from northern Javanese towns in sixteenth century
and propagated Islam in Modjokuto and the country side. They aped the business
and life styles and religious customs of the Arabs, and gradually became wealthy.
As time passed more of these peripatetic traders settled in Modjokuto. The
penghulu family members are a sort of aristocrats worked for Dutch government
under colonial rule. The santri religious ideological background rests on the
core of Islam – Koran, Hadith, Sharia, and the five pillars (confession of Faith in
Allah and the Prophet, the five time prayers, fasting in the month of Ramadan,
pilgrimage to Mecca) and zakah or zakat, religious tax. The difference between
the abangan and satri is that the former are indifferent to orthodox Islamic doctrine
29
Religion and Rituals but fascinated with ritual detail while among the santri the concern is with the
doctrine overshadows the attenuated ritualistic aspects of Islam. The santri find
themselves in conservative group called kolot or modern group identified with a
charitable non-political entity called Muhammadijah. There are two political
parties of santri in Modjokuto: Masjumi and Nahdatul Ulama (NU). The Masjumi
has close association with Muhammadijah and the NU represents the conservative
group. There is a minor third party called Partai Sarekat Islam Indonesia (PSII)
which identifies with the modern group. The loyalties of the santri swing largely
between the Muhammadijah and NU parties.

As the abangan religious form is tied up with the custom it does not need formal
training to support it and it can be learned in peasant’s life following examples
set by others. But for santri Islamic school system is necessary specially to combat
with the religious illiteracy and backsliding, neither of them is less meaningful
to abangan. The traditional school system of santri lies in pondok. A pondok
consists of a teacher-leader, commonly a pilgrim who is called kijaji and a group
of male pupils anywhere three or four to a thousand, called santri. The santris
live at the pondok in dormitories, cook their own food and wash their own clothes.
They live by themselves either working in the fields of the kijaji or others or
supported by the parents. The kijaji is not paid, and the students do not pay
tuition. All costs of the institution are born by pious members of the ummat as
part of their religious duties under the zakat. The pondoks are located in country
side, usually consists of a mosque, a house for kijaji and dormitories for santri.
Classes are held in the mosque where the kijaji chants passages from books of
religious commentary and interprets the same. The verses from Koran are
memorised by the santri. There has not been time regulation and grading of the
students. This kind of school later got influenced with the secular school system.
The NU started secular schools with strong religious component on the lines of
modern education, called madrassah while the Muhammadijah started modern
schools not totally without religious instruction. Both paved way for reformation
of the santri traditions.

The Ministry of Religious Administration has an office at Modjokuto which

looks after the affairs of marriage and divorce. This office is headed by naib and
assisted by chotib and others. Under the Muslims Law if a man pronounces the
talak only once, he may change his mind within three menstruation periods and
take back his wife. He may again dismiss his wife later and take her back again
within three menstruation periods. If he does not take back his wife either first
time or second, the man and his wife are irrevocably divorced. If the talak is
pronounced third time, they cannot remarry unless the woman is remarried to
someone and divorced. These matters are looked after by naib. The officials also
collect information about the running of mosque and giving courses for the village
religious officials about Muslim Law.

The Prijaji variant of religion: The prijajis are Java’s gentry while the abangans
its peasantry. They trace their ancestry back to the great semi-mythical kings of
pre-colonial Java, who did “refined” and “non-refined” work. This is said to be
an outgrowth of the old Hindu system that had five groups – Brahmans, Satrijas
(Kshatriyas), Vaisias, Sudras, and Paraiah. They represent mainly Great Tradition
and have always mainly been in towns, while the abangan represent Little
Tradition peasantry of the villages. The prijajis are seen as self-controlled,
polished, learned, and spiritually refined. They symbolise alus, meaning pure,
30
refined, polished, polite, exquisite, ethereal, subtle, civilised and smooth. The Performative Aspects in
Rituals
outlook of prijajis is also explained with a pair of concepts: lair and batin. Batin
means the “inner realm of human experience” and lair “the outer realm of human
behaviour”. The religious life or values of prijaji focus on etiquette, art and
mystical practice. The etiquette conceals the alus prijaji the real feelings from
others, manifests in humbling oneself politely and is the correct behaviour to
adopt toward anyone who is of equal rank or higher. There are different linguistic
styles to be employed when interacting with people of different ranks. The Great
Tradition of Javanese has three varieties of art complexes: Alus Art, Kasar Art,
and National Art. Each of these complexes consists a variety of play, orchestra,
myth or story, poetry, performance/dances, text and set ups.

The mysticism of pre-Colonial Java forms the basis of prijaji religious variant.
It can be summarised in eight postulates. (1) In the everyday life of man “good”
and “bad” feelings, “happiness” and “unhappiness”, similarly other emotions
are inherently and indissolubly interdependent. No one can be happy all the time
or unhappy all the time. The aim in life is to minimise the passions in order to
find out the real feelings behind. (2) Underneath these coarse human feelings
there is a pure basic feeling-meaning, rasa, which is the individual’s true self
and a manifestation of God within the individual. (3) The religious aim of man
should be to “know” or “feel” this ultimate rasa in himself. (4) In order to achieve
this ultimate rasa one must have purity of will and must concentrate one’s inner
life by instinctual discipline such as fasting, staying awake and sexual abstention.
(5) Besides the spiritual discipline, one must empirically study the human
emotional life; a metaphysical psychology leads to an understanding and
experience of rasa. (6) As people vary both in their ability to carry out the spiritual
disciplines, it is possible to rank individuals according to their spiritual abilities
and achievements. (7) At the ultimate level of experience and existence, all people
are one and the same and there is no individuality for rasa and others are the
same in all. (8) Since the aim of all men should be to experience rasa, religious
systems, beliefs and practices are only means to that end and are good only
insofar as they bring it about. This leads to a relative view of such systems.

Within this broad mystical conceptuality of human emotions and experiences,

there are variants such as Budi Setia which is heavily influenced by the
international theosophy movement of Annie Besant. Sumarah believes in the
existence of God who has created heaven and earth and all in it, and acknowledge
the prophets and the Holy Books, but not idolize them but practice self-surrender.
Kawaruh Kasunjatan recognises guru who exhorts to plain living and high
thinking, use techniques of breath regulation, concentrate on inner life, and
perceive the ultimate rasa-sounds in one’s inhaling-exhaling (hu Allah).

2.6.4 Conclusion
Geertz finally concludes, the “three groups are all enclosed in the same social
structure, share many common values, and in are, in case, not nearly so definable
as social entities as a simple descriptive discussion of their religious practices
would indicate” (1967:355). He says, “religion does not play only an integrative,
socially harmonising role in society but also a divisive one, thus reflecting the
balance between integrative and disintegrative forces which exist in any social
system” (ibid).

31
Religion and Rituals
2.7 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE
OUR UNDERSTANDING
Geertz’s work is often referred to in the context of the functional theory of religion.
Durkheim, who is regarded as the primary contributor to the functional theory,
saw that religion binds people in a moral community called church. However, in
reality, this thesis is applicable to those situations where there is a singularity of
religion- all members of the community belong to one religion and obviously it
creates solidarity among them. Geertz’s work draws our attention to a situation
of religious pluralism where religion instead of creating solidarity in society
produces divisiveness, and may become the main source of conflict and
disintegration. So, from one perspective religion is the source of social integration,
but when we look at social reality from the perspective of the entire society, it
creates divisiveness and conflicts.

A Comparison
Other than the fact of different geographical locations, the two studies focus on
the population that is different in its political and economic background. As the
Ndembu is primarily hunting tribe, the Javanese society is basically agrarian.
The Ndembu are largely conservative animists though some converted to
Christianity, whereas the Javanese religion is syncretism of animism, Hindu-
Buddhist and Islam. In both the cases religion plays significant role in the day to
day life of people; among the Ndembu the political aspect of religion has not
been highlighted perhaps it is underplayed under the powerful colonial British
rule, but among the Javanese it has strong political links at regional and national
level. Apart from these, the significant difference between the two is the theoretical
approach. While Turner adopts Field Theory, Geertz depends on
phenomenological and epistemological approach. Geertz finds that religion is
integrative as well as disintegrative force but in case of Turner, it appears more
as an integrative force bringing back social harmony as the social structural
principles, practical and idiosyncratic behaviour often create social conflicts and
tensions.

2.8 SUMMARY
Ritual constitutes an important component of a religion which varies in content
and form depending on the context and intent. Within the religions of Ndembu
and Javanese, as discussed above there are several rites. However, underlying
principles and structures are same in each case. Though rituals can be examined
and explained from various theoretical perspectives, they exhibit certain features
specific to their nature. One such feature is the performative aspect in which the
actors that participate relate themselves to various categories – human and non-
human beings. In this interaction process they take for granted instant or delayed
occurrence of certain desired things as a result of the symbolic actions, and
perform their actions in a way that bridges are constructed over the breached
norms which caused affliction to individuals in order to restore health to
individuals and social harmony. These two case studies presented in this unit
explain this phenomenon.

32
References Performative Aspects in
Rituals
Austin, J. L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Geertz, Clifford. 1960. The Religion of Java. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press.

Middleton, John and Winter, E.H. 1963. Witchcraft and Sorcery in East Africa.
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Turner, Victor. 1967. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press.

Suggested Reading
Geertz, Clifford. 1960. The Religion of Java. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press.

Turner, Victor. 1967. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press.

Sample Questions
1) Explain the performative aspect of a ritual.
2) Discuss the relationship between ritual and religion.
3) What have you understood by religious symbol from this unit?

33
Religion and Rituals
UNIT 3 RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND
RELIGIOUS CONFLICT

Contents
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Theoretical Part of which the Ethnography Iran from Religious Dispute to
Revolution is an Example
3.3 Description of the Ethnography
3.3. 1 Intellectual Context
3.3.2 Fieldwork
3.3.3 Analysis of Data
3.3.4 Conclusion
3.4 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
3.5 Theoretical part of which the Ethnography Religious Division and Social
Conflict: The Emergence of Hindu Nationalism in Rural India is an Example
3.6 Description of the Ethnography
3.6.1 Intellectual Context
3.6.2 Fieldwork
3.6.3 Analysis of Data
3.6.4 Conclusion
3.7 How does the Ethnography Advance our Understanding
3.8 Summary
References
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives

This unit will teach you about:
 the importance of religion in contemporary life;
 religious conflicts; and
 how different kinds of conflicts are found in different societies.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
‘Anthropology of Religion’ has been one of the important areas of anthropological
research. However, during the last three decades or so the study of various aspects
of religion such as the growing religious conflict, religious consciousness and
religious movements have assumed significant dimensions in the wake of
‘religion’, in one way or the other, occupying the centrestage in different parts of
the world including south Asia.

The present unit deals with two accounts— one from India dealing with religious
conflict and violence in the wake of the rise of Hindu Nationalism (understood
in the Indian context as Hindutva) and the other with Iran where the religious
dispute took the form of revolution and changed the Iranian society in several
34 ways.
 Religious Movements and
3.2 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE Religious Conflict

ETHNOGRAPHY Iran from Religious Dispute to

Revolution IS AN EXAMPLE
The situation in Iran is different from the rest of the Islamic world, for Iran is a
country of Shia Muslims. In terms of civilisational complex, it is Persian. Changes
started occurring in Iran after Ayatollah Khomeini came to power. This monograph
deals with the contribution of different cultures at different points of time.

3.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

3.3.1 Intellectual Context
The book published in 1980 is devoted to the role of religion in social
transformation. Not many works are devoted to religious education. The focus
of the author is on the role of religious education in moulding the character of
people.

3.3.2 Fieldwork
The author of the monograph conducted first hand fieldwork in Iran. This book
began as a personal note. The author has always been concerned with the self-
reflective dimensions about the ethnographic and anthropological endeavour.
All this is reflected in this work. The author made use of the historical method in
his work.

3.3.3 Analysis of Data

Iran is one of the largest and most powerful Muslim countries of the world and is
different from the mainstream Islamic world and is represented by Shia Muslims
(the mainstream Islamic world is represented by the Sunni Muslims). Moreover,
it is also different civilisationally – unlike the Arab civilisation, it is Persian
civilisation. To understand contemporary Iran’s complex society and polity, it is
essential to grasp the historic changes initiated by Ayotallah Khomeini in 1979-
the supreme religious and spiritual leader of not only Iranian people but also
conceded as one of the most influential leaders of the Shias of the world.

As the author of this monograph Michael. M. J. Fischer points out, “one of the
great puzzles for anthropologists and philosophers is how and why culture and
common sense are differently constituted in different historical times and in
different societies.” Today in Iran both culture and common sense are undergoing
change. This work examines the transformation, particularly the part played by
religion. The focus is on religious education, both learned and popular, and its
function in moulding character and thereby reinforcing the common sense. This
function may also be called as the anthropology of education.

The present monograph begins with a philosophical discussion on Culture, History

and Politics. Two of the most interesting segments of culture are symbolic
structures and common sense. In the religious realm of culture, Shiaism is the
established form of Islam in Iran. It may be understood in several forms of
expressions such as preaching, passion plays and the curricula and debates of the
madrasa (a typical religious school) which can be viewed as cultural form
35
Religion and Rituals composed of symbolic structures. Within this perspective Islam is not merely a
set of doctrines that can be simply catalogued. Rather, it is a “language” used in
different ways by different actors in order to persuade their followers, to
manipulate situations, and to achieve control of political position. In Iran, there
are atleast four main styles of using Shiaism, the popular religion of the villages
and bazaars (popular, traditional markets) which may encompass a number of
local or ‘little traditions’, the scholarly religious (textual) being imparted in the
madrasa where the religious leaders are trained, the Islamic mysticism known as
Sufism, and the privatised, ethical religion of the upper classes. A fifth style may
also be added which may be a combination of the scholarly religion of the
madrasas and the privatised, ethical religion of the upper classes which Dr. Ali
Shariati’s (a sociologist-philosopher- liberal scholar) followers have promoted
as the ideological basis of the 1977-79 revolution. Ali Shariati, the hero of Irans’
youth in the 1970s attempted to bridge the gap between traditional Shiaism and
contemporary sociology.

Reflection
Shia Islam (Arabic Shi’i) is the second largest denomination of Islam after
Sunnis. Shia is the short form of the historic phrase Shiatu Ali (Friends or
followers of Ali or party of Ali). Like other schools of thought in Islam, Shia
Islam is based on the teaching of the Quran and the message of Prophet
Muhammad. In contrast to other schools of thought, the Shias believe that
only God has the right to choose a representative to lead and safeguard Islam,
the Quran, the Sharia. They believe that Ali was chosen to succeed
Muhammad after his death and Ali was succeeded by eleven Imams (leaders)
through his lineage, the twelfth Imam being still alive and in hiding. Thus,
they reject the institution of caliphate. The Shias believe that Muhammad’s
family the Ahl-al-Bayt has special spiritual and political authority over the
community. The overwhelming majority of the Shias are known as Twelver
Shias believing in twelve Imams while the minority Shia sub-sects are Ismaili
Khojas and Dawoodi Bohras. Iran, Iraq and Azerbaijan are the Shia majority
countries followed by Bahrain where, though in majority, they are not the
rulers. It is largely believed that the Shias constitute around 20% of the total
Muslim population of the World.

Several accounts of religion and political conflict in Iran have been written but
most of these failed to convey the religious sensibility and its transformation
perfectly. It was not an easy task. As per the Shia doctrine, their last Imam is in
hiding going into occultation in the ninth century AD (he is not dead, merely not
manifest in the world) and shall appear at an appropriate time. This belief gave
the Shias strength and a sense of security in the face of persecution by the non-
shia rulers. The belief in an Imam (leader) in the hiding should not be taken that
whatever the Kings or temporal leaders and government do should be taken as
illegitimate and wrong. It simply means that such authorities should not be
followed blindly and if they deviate or violate Islam/Shiasim, they must be defied.
This led to the popular revolt against the King of Iran during 1977-79 revolution.

The institution of Madrasa plays a vital role in the Shiite Iranian Islam. The
madrasa schools represent a form of education, the western world would be
familiar with as they are the same as the Jewish ‘Ye Shiva’ and the catholic
medieval stadium. All three has lost their creative vitality by the thirteenth or
36
fourteenth century replaced by modern universities and other secular institutions. Religious Movements and
Religious Conflict
But the story of the madrasa is a story of rise, decline and again rise of a traditional
institution. The madrasa is a symbolic structure as well as an educational forum.
The curricula do not impart religious education only but also includes philosophy,
logic, history, geography etc. It has also been accommodative to modern demands.
Significantly the state and the religious establishment always considered the other
a threat to its own legitimacy and have been suspicious of each other. The madrasas
in Iran have been like a free university with lot of flexibility where the students
enjoyed greater freedom and come for the sake of learning. They may choose
their teachers and continue as long as they wish. The early dropouts may just act
as village preachers and the serious ones after years of learning may become
scholars or legal experts (Mujtahid).

Though madrasas in Iran vary in terms of style and substance, the madrasa centre
of Qum (a city in Iran) holds a special significance. Qum may be described as
the religious heart of Shia Iran. It played a very important role in the
transformation/revolution of 1979. Qum is located 150 km. from Tehran, the
capital of Iran. Currently, it is the largest centre for Shia scholarship in the world
and attracts Shias of the entire world interested in religious scholarship. It is
described as the city of seminaries. Most of the seminaries teach their students
modern social sciences and western thought as well as traditional religious studies.
Qum is considered holy by the Shias. It is a small town with practically no industry.
It is still a very traditional town based on farming weaving, some herding, selling
to pilgrims prayer material as souvenirs and services to the madrasas and shrine
population. Although Qum has a long madrasa tradition, the current set of
madrasas are only a century old. Most of the exalted religious scholars known as
Ayotallah come from the Qum seminaries. This includes Ayotallah Khomeini,
the leader, of 1979 revolution. The radical – revolutionary thoughts of Iranian
Islam come from this centre and that is why the King Razashah Pahalvi clamped
a number of restrictions on its clergy and that is why Qum emerged as the ‘arena
of conflict’.

The influence of Qum may not be very vital to Shiaism in day to day life of the
common people but the sanctity of the ‘Tragedy of Karbala’ gets further legitimacy
from the seminaries of Qum. More than any other event in its history, the ‘tragedy
of Karbala’ has moulded the psyche of the Shias and it played a crucial role in
the overthrow of the powerful King backed by US. These events may not be
understood in entirety without having some idea of this tragic event which created
the eternal schism in the Islamic world. After the death of Prophet Mohammed,
the group of his followers closely affiliated to Ali, his cousin, associate and son-
in-law was called Shia-tu-Ali- (the friends of Ali). The people belonging to this
group, while disassociating themselves from others, formed a nucleous around
Ali and believed in his Imamate (leadership). Thus, the term ‘Shia’ means all
those who support the claim of Ali as the first and rightful, direct successor to
Mohammed. They considered Ali as the successor of Mohammad in temporal as
well as spiritual matters. The Shias further believe that Allah and His prophet
(Mohammad) has clearly designated Ali as the only legitimate successor of
Mohammed, who has continued all the fourteen hundred years, to preserve,
uninfluenced by political and dynastic considerations the teachings and directions
of Mohammad in their original and purest form through his (Alis’) descendents
– the twelve Imams. Thus, the Shias clearly reject the institution of caliphate
coming into existence after the death of Mohammad. Those who did not agree
37
Religion and Rituals with this Shia stand and recognised caliphate are popularly called Sunni and
constitute the mainstream Islam/Muslims. The Shias were pushed to the fringe
and did not enjoy any political power for centuries. Most of their Imams were
poisoned or assassinated and they continued to face persecution in the entire
Muslim world.
After the ‘martyrdom’ of Ali the ‘tragedy to Karbala’ played the most important
role in the growth of Shiasim and Shia identity. It was in the year 680 AD that
Husain, the third Imam of Shias, son of Ali and grandson of Mohammad from
his daughter Fatima was brutally massacred together with his seventy two
companions by the forces of Yazid, the then Muslim caliph, at the desert town of
Karbala, now in Iraq. Mohammads’ family and descendants were humiliated.
The commemoration of tragedy of Karbala forms the basis of the Muharram
mourning observance throughout the world. The intensity of grief over tragedy
of Karbala is seen to be believed. Many describe the hearts of the Shias as the
‘living tomb of Husain’. The grief is reflected in the day to day life of the Shias
and to a large extent forms the basis of Shia identity.
Religious settings in the villages and old urban neighborhoods serve a variety of
social needs. The mosque with its daily routine of prayer, the weekly gatherings
for religious discussion, the annual passion plays related with commemoration
of Husain’s tragedy, mournings on the death days of various Imams and celebration
of their births, special pilgrimages to the Shia shrines and celebration of the
death of the tormentors of Shia Imams constitute important events in the daily
life of the people. Visit to the various stopping places of saints (Imamzada,
qadamgah), sacred trees and wells for vows and cures, the Khanqah or shrines
of Sufi Saints are favourite events especially in women’s lives. Charity to the
assembled beggars and Thursday Ziyarat (visits, pilgrimages) to the graveyards
to ancestral ties and duties are some other important events in the lives of the
people. Ulema (Clerics) are not involved in some of these events. They lead
prayers in the mosque as Imams (leader of prayers). An educated village Imam
can be an important community leader. Even the Ayatollahs (elevated clerics)
also serve as Imams in their respective places.
The position of Imam-e-juma (leader of Friday prayer) in big cities were usually
state appointees till Khomeini’s revolution in 1979. For the god fearing and
pious Shia Muslims they were a butt of joke and hardly commanded peoples’
respect as most of them were ignorant to Arabic — the language of the Islamic
religion, and it was alleged that they were addicted to sports cars, wine and
women in Switzerland. These ulemas teaching Islam but not embodying it in
their lives were anathema to the masses. Same was the case with westernised
Muslims.
Sufism, in different forms remain important to the Persian/Iranian consciousness.
The Sufi saints, their teaching and poetry appealed to the masses as well as to the
highly urbane, sophisticated and westernised upper class. The masses consider
such individuals, who are open and trust worthy, as the true sufis or darvesh.
‘Such individuals need not worry about proper clothes or rules of propriety
because they are epitome of honesty and hospitality and thus enjoy moral authority.
Such persons have rejected materialism and worldly temptations and refused to
blindly follow the royal diktats. Together with the dissenting clerics they acted
as the central point of dissent and revolt against the Safavid King who ruled Iran
up to 1979.
38
The Revolutionary Movement of 1977-79 Religious Movements and
Religious Conflict
Iranian society like any other society of the world has been changing not exactly
as Europe or America. A transformation from a patrimonial agrarian society to
an industrial-technocratic one was going on. Like several agrarian societies, men
and women had different roles. In Iran it was largely in conformity to the Islamic
morality revealed in their first and most revered Imam Ali’s sermons but the
Shah (King) of Iran was a man in hurry and took to, largely, Turkey’s example of
forced modernisation espoused by its leader Kemal Ataturk, who wanted the
Turkish Muslims to ape the western lifestyle and imbibe the western secular life
style and value system. His draconian and anti-democratic way of governance
not allowing any dissent compounded the situation further.

Exiled by the King, Ayatollah Khomeini was living in Paris and then migrated to
Iraq. But Dr. Ali Shariati, a charismatic scholar, philosopher, socialist was already
very popular there. The conservative clerics did not see eye to eye to Shariati for
his modern Shiite views appealing to the masses especially to the educated youth.
He was expelled from the University of Mashhad. His idea of reform was not in
consonance with the conservative interpretation of Islam espoused by many
clerics. Trained at Sorbonne, France he was working on an Islamic sociology.
When his ideas began appealing to sections of students studying in the traditional
madarsa, many clerics were alarmed. Thus, he antagonised the royal authority as
well as the clerical authority in general. He called for rethinking the Islamic
message by thinking about Islam in sociological terms rather than metaphysical
terms. He did content analysis of the Quran through linguistic – phenomenological
analysis of key Islamic terms. He rejected western capitalism and had a vision of
a just Islamic society. He represented the modernist Shiite thought thus
antagonising the monarchy as well as the clergy.

In any narration of how the religious dispute led to revolution, the role of Ali
Shariati and Ayatollah Khomeinis’ teaching occupy the central place. While
Shariati was developing his ideas of a modernist Shiite Islam, Khomeini was
espousing the concept of marje-e-taqleed, and Wilayat-e-faqih, thus both hitting
at the roots of the tyrannical monarchy. The term marja-e-taqleed designates the
highest ranking authorities of the ‘Twelver Shia’ community. There used to be 4-
8 such high ranking jurists (ayatollahs) but after 1970’s the Shia community was
dominated by two ayatollahs of immense stature- Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-
1989) an Iranian, and Ayatollah Khui (1899-1992) an Iraqi, whose followers
were mostly Arabic speaking Shias. The terms marja refers to centre and taqleed
refers to following. Thus the highest ranking cleric leads the community in both
religious and secular matters. It gave legitimacy and recognition to these clerics.
The term wilayat-e-faqih means the guardianship of the jurist. Khomeini was
accepted as such by a large number of Shias of Iran and elsewhere. When he
came to power in 1979, he became the supreme arbiter of all matters of
government in Iran.

With the beginning of the decade of 1970’s, the restlessness of the Shia community
against the dictatorial governance of the King was craving for political liberation.
The causes of the revolution were both economic and political. Oil prices increased
in 1973 and it led to several structural problems. The massive increase in revenues
led to reckless spending and phenomenal increase in urban wages and a very
high rate of inflation. The increased urban wages caused massive migration from
39
Religion and Rituals rural to urban area as the rural population was suffering from stagnation in
agricultural sector due to relative neglect of agricultural sector. There were hardly
any incentives for the peasantry. Instead of raising production prices by supplying
credit to stimulate production, food was imported on a massive scale and sold at
subsidised rates. Small producers were not given any respite and money was
channeled towards new mechanised agriculture and projects dependent on large
irrigation dams.

Large sections of peasants were displaced and squeezed off the land to make
way for the agribusiness and state farm co-operations. To top it, lakhs of semi-
skilled and skilled labour were imported from foreign countries – Afghanis,
Koreans and others were preferred. That also led to great resentment.

Dissent was always hated by the monarchy, but harassment of dissidents both
rural and urban increased. SAVAK, the secret Police of the Kings’ administration
was used recklessly to crush all dissidents. They were picked, detained and many
never appeared again. Muharram commemoration of 1977 and 1978 was used
politically to mobilise the mourners. The King was popularly portrayed as Yazid-
the Muslim caliph, hated by the Shias for his role in the massacre of Imam Hussain
and his family and friends in Karbala. Now the revolution was on. It was joined
by the rural folk, students, intellectuals, religious clergy, petty traders and left-
wing activists. Ayatollah Khomeini who was living in Iraq for several years and
leading the anti-King forces, was forced to leave Iraq. He got asylum in France
where he continued to live till his triumphant return to Iran. The entire Iran was
engulfed in protest including its major cities- Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad, Qum,
Shiraz, Abadan and others. Amidst lot of bloodshed, the King left Iran on January
16, 1979 and went to USA, its protector, promoter and closest ally. Later,
dissidents who did not agree with the King but also differed with Ayatollah
Khomeini on ideological issues-prominent clerics like Ayatollah Teleghani, leftist
organisations such as Mujahiden-e-Khalq and Fidayeen-e-Khalq and a host of
others – were persecuted by the Khomeini regime too. Now, the religious
revolution was complete. The Kings’ socially liberal policies, especially with
relations to the status and freedom to women, were also reversed and Iran became
a theocratic state. Shiaism was given a radical and militant idiom. The political
revolution also served to revolutionise Shiaism itself and led to many changes.

3.3.4 Conclusion
This book shows that the Iranian society is changing but it is not like the change
that is occurring in Europe or America. The society is changing from an agrarian
state to an industrial-technocratic one. The role of religious education is examined
in detail.

3.4 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
Certain parts of the world have remained relatively unstudied and that includes
the Islamic world. This ethnography advances our understanding of the Islamic
world, especially that of the Shias.

40
 Religious Movements and
3.5 THEORETICAL PART OF WHICH THE Religious Conflict

ETHNOGRAPHY Religious Division and Social

Conflict: The Emergence of Hindu Nationalism in
Rural India IS AN EXAMPLE
The ethnography Religious division and social conflict: The Emergence of Hindu
Nationalism in Rural India, by Peggy Froerer describes the role of religion in
society.

3.6 DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHY

3.6.1 Intellectual Context
Emile Durkheim’s thesis states that religion performs the function of integrating
society; however this theory is applicable to those societies that have a singularity
of religion. In a religiously plural society, this thesis is not applicable because of
the likely conflict between different religions and their ideologies. This ethnography
asserts this view.

3.6.2 Fieldwork
The author of this work carried out a piece of fieldwork with a tribal community
using the standard anthropological methods. Historical data was also collected.

3.6.3 Analysis of Data

Religion may play an integrative role in uni-religious lands and nations but may
be divisive under certain circumstance and conditions in multi-religious societies.
The social conflicts we are witnessing, in present day India, in the arena of
religious faiths has been studied from different angles in various disciplines of
social sciences.

The present study deals with ‘religious division’ and ‘social conflict’ with
reference to the rise of Hindu Nationalism. The research was carried out between
1997-99 in Mohanpur, a village located in one of the more densely forested
subdivisions (tehsil) of Korba district in Chattisgarh having a large tribal
population. There is an extensive body of academic work within differet social
sciences devoted to the origins and contemporary manifestations of the Hindu
nationalist movement. Moreover, the present monograph may also be viewed
within the contest of more competitive religious assertions taking place across
the globe and the present study deals with this aspect with reference to Hindu
and Christian religious assertions.

The RSS, Adivasis and Christianity

Protecting the ‘Hindu nation’ against conversion to Islam has been central to the
agenda of Rashtriya Swam Sewak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliating organisations
but from 1970s onwards it incorporated Christianity too in the wake of some
conversions of Adivasi communities of central India to Christianity and this
become its central concern. As the author writes “One of the objectives of this
book is to demonstrate how particular strategies being employed by RSS activists
are underpinned by the broader mimetic relationship that the organisation has
41
Religion and Rituals with the Church. Throughout India the more visible forms of mimesis include
the re-conversion programme.” The Vanvasi Kalyam Ashram and the Vidya Bharti,
affiliates of the RSS that are concerned with the physical welfare and education
of tribal communities, are patterned after the church’s long term engagement in
the social upliftment of more vulnerable communities.

Area and People

The fieldwork for this ethnography was carried out between 1997-99 in the village
Mohanpur near Korba of Chattisgarh. It is a rice growing area and cut off from
urban mainstream. The total population of the village was 886 consisting of 163
households. The village is divided mainly into two groups-Hinduised/Hindu
Adivasis and Christian Oraons. Ratiya Kanwar, Majhuar and Dudh Kanwar are
Hindu scheduled tribes while the Oraons are a Christian scheduled tribe. The
non-adivasi households consist of Yadav (OBC) and Panika, Chauhan and Lohar
(scheduled castes). The Ratiya Kanwar are the earliest settlers in this village and
they are the dominant group. They have been living in this village for 9-10
generations. They are enjoying the highest social status, first settler status and
landownership makes them the most dominant group followed by Majhuar and
Dudh Kanwar who settled here 2-3 generations after Ratiya Kanwar. The Christian
Oraons comprise of 241 people divided into 42 households. Significantly the
adjoining twenty villages have no Christian presence and the local catholic mission
is located 6 kms from this village.

In the local caste/social hierarchy the Yadav, Panika, Lohar and Chauhan despite
being scheduled castes enjoy higher status than the adivasis/scheduled tribes.
Christian Oraons come lowest. Within Ratiya Kanwar group and within the village
as a whole Gandhel clan is the most powerful being the earliest settlers. The
traditional authority in the village lies with the Gandhel clan of Ratiya Kanwar
and the entire village acknowledges their authority. The Christian Oraons arrived
from Pathelgaon- a town near Jashpur and settled here in the 1970s and they feel
indebted to the Ratiya Kanwar for allowing them to settle down in the village.
Significantly all the Oraons are Christians and they happen to be the only
Christians in this village. The village head man allowed the four earliest families
of the Oraons to settle here on the condition that they would establish their Basti
(settlement) atleast half a kilometer away from the village and shall not use the
village well because of ritual reason as they were considered as untouchables.
The first wave of migration was followed by some other Oraon families who
joined them in the same basti. All of them came in search of good cultivable
land. Today the Christian Oraons are the second largest group in the village after
Ratiya Kanwar.

Because of their untouchable status and not serving any specific ritual or economic
role for the Hindus, there is little daily interaction with the Hindus. Yet, they
occasionally participate in communal labour activities. Their ‘outsider’ status is
underlined by linguistic differences too. They speak Kurukh, a Dravidian based
language having no relation with Chatribole, the popular dialect of Chattisgrah
spoken by the rest of the population.

Oraons and Christianity

The Oraons converted to Christianity only two generations ago but became
practicing Christians only after migration to Mohanpur under the impact of the
42
local catholic mission situated nearby. Though the catholic mission in central Religious Movements and
Religious Conflict
India has been working since 1840 but its impact was negligible. Later it became
popular only when they took up non-Evangelical activities in the field of
education, medical services, famine relief, cooperative banking etc. Significantly,
religious conversion was a collective act and not individual. Thus, it was like a
mass movement. Conversion to Christianity helped them combat the exploitative
landlords/moneylenders. They were organised and mobilised by the mission,
developed consciousness about their exploitation and ways and means to combat
it. A little education too, was also an empowering factor.

In 1970s a dispensary and health clinic was opened and two catholic sister-cum-
nurses joined followed by the construction of a small church. The medicines and
potions distributed by the dispensary posed a challenge to the prevalent traditional
healing method and it created some social tension. The Christian Oraons
could never be assimilated in the local population because of their belief in a
different faith – Christianity.

Oraons’ Economy
The economic activities of the Oraons helped them attain prosperity within a
short period of time. Though they did not have much cultivable land, they
supplemented their income by earning as wage labour in construction sites of
the nearby town, Korba. They were also experts in preparing liquor from Mahua
flower and sold it to the entire village. Since they did not have substantial land,
they did not have many Mahua trees and hence they purchase it from the local
shopkeepers. The Ratiya, Kanwar used to sell their mahua to the shopkeepers
instead of selling it directly to the Oraons but the margin of profit carried from
the sale of liquor compensated the cost. Thus, they became more prosperous
than the other groups in the village. The Oraons gave credit of their prosperity to
hard work and Christs’ blessings. Thus, liquor production and vending became
one of their stable sources of income supplemented by the cash earned by them
as wage labourer.

Hindu Adivasis
They virtually monopolised land ownership and are politically much more
empowered than the Oraon Christians. Yet, their livelihood largely depended
upon cultivation. Erratic monsoon and the resultant decreased yield has been a
big barrier in their economic mobility and prosperity. Because of increasing
Hinduisation popular Hindu gods such as Rama, Krishna, and Shiva entered
into their pantheon but these ‘big gods’ are less involved than the local tribal
deities in the affairs of day to day life. Moreover, the local deities are neither
housed nor worshipped in the small village temple. This temple is meant for
propitiation of ‘big gods’. Brahmin priests occasionally visit it to supervise rituals
3-4 times every year and express resentment for the neglect and non-maintenance
of the temple.

Points of tension and role of the RSS

Life in the village has been going on its pace with minor tensions emerging and
getting dissolved through the mediation of the panchayat, till 1980s when the
RSS emerged as an important actor in this region. However, the effective
intervention of RSS in the village affairs may be traced back to 1990s. Its’ local
headquarter is located in Korba where its activists (pracharaks) reside and operate
43
Religion and Rituals in the adjoining areas. A young man from the dominant Ratiya Kanwar group,
who could not make it big during his stay in the nearby town, facilitated the
entry of RSS pracharaks into the village. It assiduously cultivated the Gandher
clan of Ratiya Kanwar which became its support base in the times to come.
These activists started promoting the Hindutva agenda by projecting the Christian
Oraons as the hated ‘other’. Like the Christian mission they also have a broader
‘civilising mission’. They looked at many of the customs and traditions of the
adivasis as ‘uncivilised’ and understood these as ‘Junglee Hinduism’ (Savage
Hinduism). They have contempt for the local healing practices. They projected
Hindi as ‘language’ of Hindus’ against the local dialect. They found that the
main obstacle to the Hindutva ideology is Church and thus they projected
Christianity as part of a global conspiracy to subjugate the Hindus. RSS
propagated that the unity of Hindus against Muslims and Christians was essential
to protect the Hindus and the ‘Hindu nation’.

Taking clue from the Christian mission they also came out into social services
network and established a bio-medical facility to attract the Hinduised adivasis
they have already a network of schools- Saraswati Shishu Mandir under the
umbrella of Vidya Bharti.

Exploiting the resentment of Ratiya Kanwar and other Hindu groups against the
growing material prosperity of Christian Oraons, they struck a sympathetic chord
among these groups. With the help of some sympathetic members of Ratiya
Kanwar groups, they identified two point of tension:
i) Liquor related disputes
ii) Land related disputes
Like most of the tribal regions, liquor is an important component of the local
society and culture. Daru or arkhi is the local name of the country made liquor
produced through Mahua flowers (bassica latifola). It is an important ritual,
medicinal and social necessity of the entire village. It is offered to the deities and
used in healing practices. Significantly, the bulk of production and sale are in the
hands of the Oraons while the bulk of customers and consumers are Hindu
adivasis. Like other parts of India the higher social groups do not produce liquor,
they only consume it. Against popular perception, the income obtained through
the sale of liquor is not substantial but the monopoly over production and sale of
liquor served as a triggering point of social tension. The fact remains that the
growing prosperity of the Oraons rests on the wages carried by the Oraons from
construction sites in Korba and elsewhere. Cash earned from sale of liquor and
wages have helped the Oraon purchase substantial cultivable land or obtaining it
through mortgage transactions. On the other hand the Christian mission never
put a blanket ban on production, sale and consumption of liquor on religious
ground. It was only excessive drinking that was propagated as ‘unchristian’ by
the missionaries. Before the advent of the Oraons there used to be a government
run liquor shop but it could not cope with the competitive rates of liquor produced
by the Oraons and hence shutdown. In order to minimise the dependence on the
liquor produced by the Oraons, some Hindu adivasis took up the production of
liquor but it was largely meant for the ritual and medical purposes. The practice
of purchasing it from the Oraons for daily use continued.

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Another point of tension is the procurement of Mahua flowers for the production Religious Movements and
Religious Conflict
of liquor. Since most of the land is owned by the Hindu adivasis, especially the
Ratiya Kanwars, most of the mahua trees are owned by them. Because of
traditional economic obligations the bulk of mahua flowers are sold to the local
shopkeepers and not to the Oraons directly who are obliged to purchase it from
the local market on higher rates. Attempt was also made by the RSS activists to
discourage the Hindu adivasis from consuming liquor as it was detrimental to
their economic interests. In the process, they took the risk of losing support
since liquor consumption was an integral part of their culture. However, it was
largely ignored.

When other arguments forwarded by the RSS activists did not cut much ice with
the Hindu adivasis they were told that the Christians have a hidden agenda of
acquiring all Hindu land through sale of liquor. Under the pressure of RSS activists
the Hindu adivasis demanded their land sold to the Oraons back, leave the village
and go to Manpur (an adjoining town) to live with their ‘fathers’. The Oraons
were threatened that all the material luxuries purchased by them, such as TV
sets, through sale of liquor would be snatched or smashed. The crux came when
the Oraons were told that if they wished to live in the village they should stop
going to church and worship in Hindu temple. The Oraons were terrorised.

The RSS activists further unfolded the Hindutva agenda by fabricating a new
ethno-religious identity as part of the larger nationalist concern. For the first
time in a meeting the Oraons were referred to as ‘Christians’. It never happened
before. They were always referred to as ‘Oraons.’

Thus, the pre-existing local tensions provided the local RSS activists with a
convenient platform which strategically extend to the Hindutva ideology of RSS.
Local tensions increased with the increased frequency of RSS ‘training meetings’
where the youth of Hindu adivasis are taught Hindutva ideology. The projection
of Hindu adivasis as ‘true Hindu’ and to bring them into the ‘Hindu mainstream’
added a new dimension to tribal identity. Moreover, emphasis on ‘Hinduness’ of
adivasis creates a sort of ‘imagined community’.

Land related disputes and conflicts constitute another point of tension. Any
organisation or individual can assert its’ role only on the basis of its credibility.
RSS, through assistance in bio-medical treatment, education and enforcement
of accountability of local level state officials has endeared itself to the local
Hindu community. Extension of bio-medical assistance and education reduced
the dependence of Hindu adivasis on mission services. But taking up the issue of
harassment and corruption on the part of lower level bureaucracy helped and
empowered them. This gave weight to the voice of the RSS activists.

Ratiya Kanwar enjoyed special rights and entitlements being the original and
earliest settlers as per local traditions. They dominated the local society through
possession of agricultural and forest land. That in why land tension evolved into
central ‘conflict symbols’ and this was used intelligently by the RSS to transmit
Hindutva.

The ecological conditions are such that nobody in the village can survive on
agricultural income alone. The vagaries of nature and low productivity play an
important role in the local scenario. The Hindu adivasis earn their livelihood
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Religion and Rituals through agriculture-mainly paddy cultivation and collection of seasonal tendu
leaves used in bidi making which does not provide them much cash. On the
other hand, the Oraons cultivate whatever little land they have, produce and sell
liquor and involve in wage labour in construction sites in the nearby towns.
Thus, they are more hard working and enterprising. Though as original settlers
Ratiya Kanwars have the first right to clear land and make it cultivable, they
have not exploited this entitlement to the extent they should have. On the contrary
they have been selling or mortgaging their land to the Oraons. They have not
forgotten that when the Oraons emigrated to this village they were poor and had
nothing in their hands but within three decades they attained more prosperity
that their Hindu hosts. The steady acquisition of land by the Oraons created
resentment and jealousy among the Ratiya Kanwars.

As original settler the Ratiya Kanwars are obliged to perform certain rituals on
behalf of the village to propitiate the local deity. Though Oraons are exempt
from participation in these rituals, they are expected to participate and contribute.
The Oraons sometimes reluctantly participate but refuse to join in frequent pujas
because they have their own god. It reinforces the Oraons’ outsider status and
amplify cultural distance. The RSS took full advantage of this situation and
espoused the call for ‘son of the soil’ to deprive the Oraons’ of their hard earned
prosperity. Thus, they are taking advantage of cleavage between the Hindu and
Christian adivasis. They have successfully created an ‘enemy’ for the Ratiya
Kanwar and carved out a political constituency for their agenda through sustained
engagement in civic activism. When the news of violence against tribals of Orissa,
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and other adjoining states reach the village through
mass media the Oraons become terror struck but they have not left the village yet
and continue to make compromises to buy peace.

3.6.4 Conclusion
The present study is concerned with ‘religious division’ and ‘conflict’ in the
context of the rise of Hindu nationalism. An area which had remained largely
unstudied is the impact of the religious movements in tribal communities. This
work examines this in the monograph.

3.7 HOW DOES THE ETHNOGRAPHY ADVANCE

OUR UNDERSTANDING
This work advances our understanding with reference to the dynamism of religion.
The book shows that livelihood and economic advantage is used as a factor in
creating communal tensions. It was possible because the prosperity of Christian
Oraons had upset the existing configuration of social relatives and hierarchies.
The book shows how religion works in a tribal community, which are formally
regarded as closed and unchanging ideas that are wrong.

3.8 SUMMARY
The two ethnographies discussed in this unit have a number of common and
uncommon points with reference to religious assertion and political use of religion.
Yet the main point of difference is that in the Irans’ context their religion was not
in conflict with any other religion but in the Indian context the other religion and
46
its’ followers were demonised and through the ‘politics of hatred’ created the Religious Movements and
Religious Conflict
‘other’ as enemy and pursued its’ political agenda.

References
Fischer, Michael M.J. 1980. Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution. London:
Harvard University Press.

Froerer, Peggy. 2007. Religious Division and Social Conflict: The Emergence of
Hindu Nationalism in Rural India. New Delhi: Social Science Press.

Sample Questions
1) Discuss the religious dispute in Iran.
2) Discuss the cause of religious and social conflict in Mohanpur.

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