ABSTRACT

A great portion of Muli's life history deals with the effects of the physical environment on him and his family. In Muli's life history, most marriages in his family occurred during the summer months, when his family still had some money and food, and the pressure of work was less than during the harvest. During Muli's adult life, the Mallias have moved into a greater variety of occupations than any other caste group, primarily because the Mallias vary greatly in their levels of wealth and education. Muli describes many times in his life when, faced with no food in the house, he and others stole vegetables from wealthy landowners, ate rough grains usually given only to livestock, and still often remained hungry. As Muli shows in his life history, the poor spend much of their daily wage repaying loans, at exorbitant rates of interest, that they were forced to take in order to eat.