ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the strong localization of identity that divides even caste-groups and analyses its relevance for the segmentation of wage rates. Discussions of wage rates in India have so far had little to say about female labor, partly because women’s participation in labor has been very low in the areas researched. Ashok Rudra’s explanatory model assumes a self-contained village society that is “composed of two parts”: laborers and property owners. In the Aruloor area, on the contrary, only a model of very strong mutuality between workers of the same caste-street and, secondarily, a much weaker mutuality between same-caste workers in different villages can explain the segmentation of labor. Very significantly, kinship and caste loyalties were a crucial part of Pallar women’s sensitivity to the domains of other women workers. The intervillage kinship networks are of great importance because they are a major channel both for the communication of news about jobs and for access to these jobs.
