Structure and Change in Indian Society

by Cohn,Bernard S.

• ISBN13: 9780202361383
• ISBN10: 0202361381
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2007-12-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. v
Preface	p. vii
Transcription of Indian Words	p. xiii
Caste and Social Structure
Notes on the History of the Study of Indian Society and Culture	p. 3
Family, Jati, Village	p. 29
A Comparative Analysis of Caste: The United States and India	p. 51
The Structure of Intercaste Relations
Caste Regions of the North Indian Plain	p. 81
Toward a Grammar of Defilement in Hindu Sacred Law	p. 115
Caste Ranking and Food Transactions: A Matrix Analysis	p. 133
Caste and World View: The Application of Survey Research Methods	p. 173
Is the Caste System Changing?
Mobility in the Caste System	p. 189
Mobility in the Nineteenth-Century Caste System	p. 201
The Politics of Untouchability-A Case from Agra, India	p. 209
Caste in Politics, Economics, and Law
Structures of Politics in the Villages of Southern Asia	p. 243
Caste and Merchant Communities	p. 285
Changing Legal Conceptions of Caste	p. 299
The Joint Family, Its Structures and Changes
Region, Caste, and Family Structure: A Comparative Study of the Indian "Joint" Family	p. 339
Chitpavan Brahman Family Histories: Sources for a Study of Social Structure and Social Change in Maharashtra	p. 397
Time-Dimension and Structural Change in an Indian Kinship System: A Problem of Conceptual Refinement	p. 413
The Indian Joint Family in Modern Industry	p. 423
Language and Social Structure
Social Dialect and Semantic Structure in South Asia	p. 455
The Structure of Variation: A Study in Caste Dialects	p. 461
Occupation and Residence in Relation to Dharwar Dialects	p. 475
Participants in the Conference	p. 487
Index	p. 491
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