The Interpretation of Caste (Oxford Studies in Social & Cultural Anthropology) PDF
Preview The Interpretation of Caste (Oxford Studies in Social & Cultural Anthropology)
OXFORD STUDIES IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Editorial Board JOHN DAVIS LUC DE HEUSCH CAROLINE HUMPHREY EMILY MARTIN PETER RIVIERE MARILYN STRATHERN THE INTERPRETATION OF CASTE Google Original frcm 01gitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN OXFORD STUDIES IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Oxford Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology represents the work of authors, new and established, which will set the criteria of excellence in ethnographic description and innovation in analysis. The series serves as an essential source of information about the world and the discipline. OTHER TITLES IN THIS SERIES Organizing Jainism in India and England Marcus Banks Society and Exchange in Nias Andrew Beatty The Culture of Coincidence: Accident and Absolute Liability in Huli Laurence Goldman The Female Bridegroom: A Comparative Study of Life-Crisis Rituals in South India and Sri Lanka Anthony Good Of Mixed Blood: Kinship and History in Peruvian Amazonia Peter Gow Exchange in Oceania: A Graph Theoretic Analysis Per Hage and Frank Harary The Arabcsk Debate: Music and Musicians in Modern Turkey Martin Stokes Google Origlr.al from 01g1tizea by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN THE INTERPRETATION OF CASTE DECLAN ,SUIGLEY CLARENDON PRESS · O XFORD 1993 Google Orlgiral frcn1 Oi9itiz a by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN GN Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford ox2 6DP Oxford New York Toronto 4q l,y Delhi Bombay CalcUlla Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town . Q5 '11 Melbourne Auckland Madrid and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford Universiry Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Declan Quigley 1993 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford Universiry Press. Within the UK exceptions are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in other countries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford Universiry Press, al the address above British Ubrary Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available l.ibrary of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Quigley, Declan. The interpretation of caste/D ec/an Quigley. p. cm.-(Oxford studies in social and cultural anthropology) Includes bibliographical references. I. Caste. 2. Cast~Asia, Southeastern. I. Title. II. Series. GN491.4Q54 1993 92-27757 305.5'1 22-dc20 ISBN 0-19-827882-9 Typeset by Cambrian Typesetters, Frimley, Surrey Printed in Creal Britain on acid-free paper by Biddies Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn Google Original from 0191t1zed by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN (;,L 4t ~l.f~\ ~t' -i./t\3 To my parents Gerry and Kathleen Quigley and to Ernest Ge/Iner Gol gle 011Qiral from 019111, by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I grateful to a number of people who have read part or all of AM the manuscript at various stages of its progress. Their comments and criticisms have been invaluable in helping me to formulate the argument. In particular, I would like to thank Pascal Boyer, Patricia Crone, David Gellner, Ernest Gellner, Gabriella Giannachi, Tony Good, John Hall, Caroline Humphrey, Eivind Kahrs, Rowena Robinson, Tom Selwyn, Vinay Srivastava, and Peter Webster. I am also indebted to the many students whose straightforward questions have encouraged me to write a book which is primarily for them. Throughout the writing of this book I have been plagued by migraines and have made quite unreasonable demands on my doctor, Richard Irons, and his colleagues in the practice, Drs Jennens, Short, and Stevens. To all of them I am extremely grateful. The research for this book was financed by a postdoctoral fellowship from the British Academy which I held in the Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University. During this time.and for two subsequent years, while working as a lecturer in the department, I was affiliated to King's College as a Member of the High Table. I owe a huge debt to all of these institutions and to my colleagues who provided such a stimulating environment. I would also like to acknowledge my gratitude to my copy editor, Margaret Hardwidge, and to those at Oxford University Press who have been responsible for seeing the book through to publication. The book is dedicated to my parents, whose support over the years has gone far beyond the call of parental duty, and to Ernest Gellner who has been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement. Google Original from 0191t1zed by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CONTENTS List of Figures and Table x1 I THE PROBLEM BEFORE DUMONT I The Entrenched View of Caste 1 The Word 'Caste' 4 Is Caste an Orientalist Construct? 12 2 DUMONT'S THEORY OF CASTE 21 Epistemology and Sociology 21 The Distinctiveness of Caste 25 Status, Power, and Encompassment 30 The Structuralist Interpretation of Caste 31 Dumont's View of Empiricism 35 Dumont's Critique of His Critics 37 3 THE PROBLEM WITH DUMONT'S SOLUTION 39 Why the Problem is not Simply about Caste 39 The Sociological Bridge between Traditional and Modem Societies 41 Power and Legitimacy 45 Structuralism 52 4 THE PURE BRAHMA~ AND THE IMPURE PRIEST 54 The Ideal Brahman in the Real World 54 Priests and 'Others' as Vessels of Inauspiciousness 68 The Limits of Transcendence 82 5 CASTE AND KINSHIP 87 Hypergamy 87 Isogamy 101 Hierarchy and Endogamy 111 Google Onginal fron1 01g1tlz•dby UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Contents VIII 6 CASTE AND KINGSHIP: HOCART'S THEORY 114 Kings and Priests 114 Problems with Hocart's Theory 122 The Ideologies of Caste 131 7 THE COURTS OF KINGS AND W ASHERMEN 142 A Model of Caste Systems 142 The Explanation of Caste 158 Bibliography 171 Index 181 Google Original from 0191t1zed by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - - --·--·- ---- ____ ,,....... . - ·- . ------·----··· - - FIGURES 1. Raheja's model of orderings of caste and kinsmen in Pahansu 77 2. Raheja's ordering of 'mutuality': Guj ars and 'one's own people' 78 3. Gellner's model of the general form of the social structure of agrarian societies 142 4. Hall's model of 'The land of the Brahmans' 146 5. General form of the social structure of complex agrarian societies which are divided between centralized and uncentralized communities 152 6. Social structure from the viewpoint of the king or dominant caste 153 7. Social structure from the viewpoint of a non-dominant Merchant caste 154 8. Social structure from the viewpoint of castes which supply ritual specialists 156 TABLE I. The Kangra caste hierarchy 91 Google Origlr.al from 01g1tizea by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Or,Qtnal trom UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
The list of books you might like
