About the Book

Recent theoretical and methodological innovations in the anthropological analysis of South Asian societies have introduced distinctive modifications in the study of Indian social structure and social change. This book, reporting on twenty empirical studies of Indian society conducted by outstanding scholars, reflects these trends not only with reference to Indian society itself but also in terms of the relevance of such trends to an understanding of social change more generally. The book demonstrates how students of South Asia are turning to intensive, functional studies of the adaptive changes that particular groups in particular villages, towns, cities, and regions are undergoing. The authors view the basic social units of joint family, caste, and village not as structural isolates but as intimately connected with one another and with other social units through social and cultural networks of various kinds that incorporate the social units into the complex structure of Indian civilization. Within this broadened concept-ion of social structure, these studies trace the changing relations of politics, economics, law, and language to the caste system. The essays included in this book show that the study of Indian society reveals novel forms of social structure and change. Contributors • Bernard S. Cohn • David G. Mandelbaum • Edward B. Harper • Joseph E. Schwartzberg • Henry Orenstein • McKim Marriott • Joseph W. Elder • M.N. Srinivas • William L. Rowe • Owen M. Lynch • Ralph W. Nicholas • Leighton W. HazlehurstMarc Galanter • Pauline M. Kolenda • Maureen L.P. Patterson • Harold A. Gould • Milton Singer • William Bright • A.K. Ramanujan • William McCormack

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Contents

CONTENTS

I. CASTE AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

 

1. Notes on the History of the Study of Indian Society and Culture

Bernard S. Cohn, University of Chicago

 

2. Family, Jati, Village

David G. Mandelbaum, University of California, Berkeley

 

3. A Comparative Analysis of Caste: The United States and India

Edward B. Harper, University of Washington

 

II. THE STRUCTURE OF INTERCASTE RELATIONS

 

4. Caste Regions of the North Indian Plain

Joseph E. Schwartzberg, University of Minnesota

 

5. Toward a Grammar of Defilement in Hindu Sacred Law

Henry Orenstein, Brooklyn College, City University of New York

 

6. Caste Ranking and Food Transactions: A Matrix Analysis

McKim Marriott, University of Chicago

 

7.  Caste and World View: The Application of Survey Research Methods
Joseph W. Elder, University of Wisconsin

 

III. IS THE CASTE SYSTEM CHANGING?

 

8. Mobility in the Caste System

M. N. Srinivas, Delhi University

 

9. Mobility in the Nineteenth-Century Caste System

William L. Rowe, Duke University

 

10. The Politics of Untouchability—A Case from Agra, India

Owen M. Lynch, Harpur College, State University of New York

 

IV. CASTE IN POLITICS, ECONOMICS, AND LAW

 

11.  Structures of Politics in the Villages of Southern Asia

Ralph W. Nicholas, Michigan State University

 

12. Caste and Merchant Communities

Leighton W. Hazlehurst, University of Chicago

 

13. Changing Legal Conceptions of Caste

Marc Galanter, University of Chicago

V. THE JOINT FAMILY, ITS STRUCTURES AND CHANGES

 

14. Region, Caste, and Family Structure: A Comparative Study of

the Indian "Joint" Family

Pauline M. Kolenda, University of Houston

 

15. Chitpavan Brahman Family Histories: Sources for a Study

of Social Structure and Social Change in Maharashtra

Maureen L. P. Patterson, University of Chicago

 

16. Time-Dimension and Structural Change in an Indian Kinship System:

A Problem of Conceptual Refinement

Harold A. Gould, University of Pittsburgh

 

17. The Indian Joint Family in Modern Industry

Milton Singer, University of Chicago

 

VI. LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

 

18. Social Dialect and Semantic Structure in South Asia

William Bright, University of California at Los Angeles

 

19. The Structure of Variation: A Study in Caste Dialects

A. K. Ramanujan, University of Chicago

 

20.                          Occupation and Residence in Relation to Dharwar Dialects

William McCormack, Duke University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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About the Author / Editor

Milton Singer was Paul Klapper Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, Chicago. Bernard S. Cohn is Professor of Anthropology and History at the University of Chicago, Chicago.

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