An Untouchable Community in South India

An Untouchable Community in South India PDF Author: Michael Moffatt
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400870364
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
While many studies suggest that Indian Untouchables do not entirely share the hierarchical values characteristic of the caste system, Michael Moffatt argues that the most striking feature of the lowest castes is their pervasive cultural consensus with those higher in the system. Though rural Untouchables question their particular position in the system, they seldom question the system as a whole, and they maintain among themselves a set of hierarchical conceptions and institutions virtually identical to those of the dominant social order. Based on fourteen months of fieldwork with Untouchable castes in two villages in Tamil Nadu, south India, Professor Moffatt's analysis specifies ways in which the Untouchables are both excluded and included by the higher castes. Ethnographically, he pursues his structural analysis in two related domains: Untouchable social structure, and Untouchable religious belief and practice. The author finds that in those aspects of their lives where Untouchables are excluded from larger village life, they replicate in their own community nearly every institution, role, and ranked relation from which they have been excluded. Where the Untouchables are included by the higher castes, they complete the hierarchical whole by accepting their low position and playing their assigned roles. Thus the most oppressed members of Indian society are often among the truest believers in the system. Originally published in 1979. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

An Untouchable Community in South India

An Untouchable Community in South India PDF Author: Michael Moffatt
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400870364
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Get Book

Book Description
While many studies suggest that Indian Untouchables do not entirely share the hierarchical values characteristic of the caste system, Michael Moffatt argues that the most striking feature of the lowest castes is their pervasive cultural consensus with those higher in the system. Though rural Untouchables question their particular position in the system, they seldom question the system as a whole, and they maintain among themselves a set of hierarchical conceptions and institutions virtually identical to those of the dominant social order. Based on fourteen months of fieldwork with Untouchable castes in two villages in Tamil Nadu, south India, Professor Moffatt's analysis specifies ways in which the Untouchables are both excluded and included by the higher castes. Ethnographically, he pursues his structural analysis in two related domains: Untouchable social structure, and Untouchable religious belief and practice. The author finds that in those aspects of their lives where Untouchables are excluded from larger village life, they replicate in their own community nearly every institution, role, and ranked relation from which they have been excluded. Where the Untouchables are included by the higher castes, they complete the hierarchical whole by accepting their low position and playing their assigned roles. Thus the most oppressed members of Indian society are often among the truest believers in the system. Originally published in 1979. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Ants Among Elephants

Ants Among Elephants PDF Author: Sujatha Gidla
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
ISBN: 0865478112
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Like one in six people in India, Sujatha Gidla was born an untouchable. While most untouchables are illiterate, her family was educated by Canadian missionaries in the 1930s, making it possible for Gidla to attend elite schools and move to America at the age of twenty-six. It was only then that she saw how extraordinary -- and yet how typical -- her family history truly was. Her mother and uncles were born in the last days of British colonial rule. They grew up in a world marked by poverty and injustice, but also full of possibility. The Independence movement promised freedom. Yet for untouchables and other poor people, little changed. In rich, novelistic prose, Ants Among Elephants tells Gidla's extraordinary family story detailing her uncle's emergence as a poet and revolutionary and her mother's struggle for emancipation through education.

The Untouchables of India

The Untouchables of India PDF Author: Robert Deliège
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
"This book addresses the problem of untouchability by providing an overview of the subject as well as penetrating insights into its social and religious origins. The author persuasively demonstrates that untouchability is a deeply ambiguous condition: neither inside nor outside society, reviled yet indispensable, untouchables constitute an original category of social exclusion." "The situation of untouchables is crucial to the understanding of caste dynamics, especially in contemporary circumstances, but emphasis, particularly within anthropology, has been placed on the dominant aspects of the caste system rather than on those marginalized and excluded from it. This book redresses this problem and represents a vital contribution to studies of India, Hinduism, human rights, sociology, and anthropology."--Jacket

Kings and Untouchables

Kings and Untouchables PDF Author: Rosa Maria Perez
Publisher: Orient Blackswan
ISBN: 9788180280146
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This Book Presents Fieldwork Done On The Vankar A Caste Of Untouchable Weavers In Gujarat. This Book Confronts The Western Perception Of Untouchability With The Notion Of Reversibility, And A Fresh Translation Of Social Norms.

Broken People

Broken People PDF Author: Smita Narula
Publisher: Human Rights Watch
ISBN: 9781564322289
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Women and the Law.

Social Mobility In Kerala

Social Mobility In Kerala PDF Author: Filippo Osella
Publisher: Pluto Press
ISBN: 9780745316932
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Filippo and Caroline Osella, anthropologists who spent three years in rural Kerala, south India, write about the modern search for upward social mobility: the processes involved, the ideologies that support or thwart it, and what happens to the people involved. They focus on the caste called Izhavas, a group that in the mid-19th century consisted of a small land-owning and titled elite and a large mass of landless and small tenants who were largely illiterate and considered untouchable, and who eked out a living by manual labor and petty trade. In the 20th century, Izhavas pursued mobility in many social arenas, both as a newly united caste and as families. The work considers how successful the mobility has been and looks at the effects on their society of an ethos of progress. Distributed by Stylus. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Cast System And Untouchability In South India

Cast System And Untouchability In South India PDF Author: Nandu Ram
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788178271842
Category : Caste
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description


Community and Worldview Among Paraiyars of South India

Community and Worldview Among Paraiyars of South India PDF Author: Anderson H M Jeremiah
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441178813
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Demonstrates the inadequacy of the category 'religion' by focusing on the Paraiyars of South India, exploring the complexity of religious belief in marginalized indigenous communities.

Untouchable

Untouchable PDF Author: S. M. Michael
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ISBN: 9781555876975
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Exploring the enduring legacy of untouchability in India, this book challenges the ways in which the Indian experience has been represented in Western scholarship. The authors introduce the long tradition of Dalit emancipatory struggle and present a sustained critique of academic discourse on the dynamics of caste in Indian society. Case studies complement these arguments, underscoring the perils and problems that Dalits face in a contemporary context of communalized politics and market reforms.

Men and Masculinities in South India

Men and Masculinities in South India PDF Author: Caroline Osella
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1843313995
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
'Men and Masculinities in South India' aims to increase understanding of gender within South Asia and especially South Asian masculinities, a topic whose analysis and ethnographising in the region has had a very sketchy beginning and is ripe for more thorough examination.