ABSTRACT
Ethnosociology emerged as an important approach to the study of Indian
culture and religion in the 1970s. Articles jointly authored by McKim
Marriott and Ronald Inden on “Caste Systems” (1974) and “Towards an
Ethnosociology of South Asian Caste Systems” (1977) laid the foundation
for this approach, and it was continued and expanded by Marriott in
“Hindu Transactions: Diversity Without Dualism” (1976a) and by a number
of Marriott’s students at the University of Chicago and by others over the
next three decades.1 Along with other ethno-disciplines, ethnosociology
offers valuable strategies for the study of Hinduism and Indic cultures
more generally. In this chapter, I briefl y sketch the initial development
of ethnosociology as an approach to the study of India, note some of the
criticisms made of it, and comment on a few of its contributions to the study
of Hinduism.
