ABSTRACT

This study is a major addition to understanding the problems of social inequality and the nature of caste and kinship. A full account is given of the social structure of the region, emphasizing the continuity of principles, which govern relations between castes and relationships within castes.
The ethnographic data bear in particular on: the nature of untouchability; models of caste ranking; the way in which 'traditional' family structures adapt to a diversification of the economy and the debate about the 'instability' of regimes of generalized exchange.
Originally published in 1979.

part 1|128 pages

Inter-caste relations

chapter 2|27 pages

The setting

chapter 3|49 pages

The economy

chapter 4|45 pages

The hierarchical aspects of caste

part 2|189 pages

The internal structure of the caste

chapter 5|19 pages

Clans and their segments

chapter 6|45 pages

Households and their partition

chapter 8|23 pages

The ‘biradari' reform movement

chapter 9|27 pages

Marriage strategies

chapter 10|17 pages

Affines and consanguines

chapter 11|4 pages

Conclusion: The limits of hierarchy