Introduction

This book is a study of stratification and social change in a Sinhalese peasant society. Treating caste, class and power not only as important ways of structuring relations between people but also as prominent ideologies, it examines the complex interplay of these hierarchies both within and between the social and cultural realms over a period of almost one hundred years. The book compares the social structure and ideology of inequality prevailing at two distinct points in time: the contemporary period and the period spanning the turn of the century. It is divided into two main parts. Each part examines the social structure and ideology of stratification in the Rangama/Devideniya community at a specific point in time. The internal organization of both parts is similar and is patterned on the study's theoretical framework, which makes analytical distinctions between society and culture, and within each realm between the three dimensions of caste, class and power.