ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the positional perspectives of both women and men in five castes in Aruloor: the “untouchable” Pallars; the “untouchable” Christian Paraiyars; the agriculturist Muthurajahs; the rich, landed, and mercantile Vellan Chettiars; and the wealthy Telugu Brahmins. It focuses on the experiences of “untouchable” Pallar women, for two reasons of differing importance. The primary reason why Pallar women stand at the center of the account is because their experiences provide a unique analytical focus that sharpens and clarifies the ways in which three axes of identity—gender, caste, and class—are represented and conceived in South India. The secondary reason is that the majority of anthropological accounts of Tamil South India have focused on so-called caste-Hindus. Virtually no accounts exist of the discourses and practices of “untouchable” women engaged in agricultural labor; even Maria Mies’s useful study of poor women’s work tells the little about the cultural construction of their identities.
