ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the framework of Gond society is explained with reference to events believed to have occurred in the mythical past when the ancestors of the present Raj Gonds instituted rules which ever since have provided the guidelines for socially acceptable behaviour. The myth of the origin of woman’s monthly flow leaves no doubt that the Gonds are well aware of the causal nexus between the sexual act and conception. The formation of the foetus though ascribed to the mingling of the man’s and the woman’s seed is believed to be dependent on the direct intervention of Sri Shambu. A Gond child enters at birth automatically a number of social groups, membership of which determines to a large extent the future course of his life. A pregnant woman should never eat sitting between doors; the lips of her child will always stand open. The Gond child is a member of all the main social groups.
