Aspects of Caste in South India, Ceylon and North-West Pakistan

This book endeavours to test two opposing arguments about the meaning of the term caste.

E. R. Leach (Author)

9780521096645, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 October 1971

160 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.9 cm, 0.24 kg

When this book was originally published in paperback in 1971, one of the most hotly debated themes in Indian sociology was the meaning of the term caste. At one extreme Professor Dumont argued caste is an aspect of Hinduism that cannot be isolated from its religious matrix; on the other, certain American-trained sociologists represented the caste order as a specially rigid form of social class hierarchy. Aspects of Caste endeavoured to test these two hypotheses against the data. The first paper, by E. Kathleen Gough, describes the caste order of a village in Tanjore that corresponds closely to Dumont's ideal type. The second paper, by Michael Banks, relates to a Jaffna Tamil community in Northern Ceylon. Nur Yalman's paper describes a Buddhist Sinhalese community in Central Ceylon. Fredrik Barth's study of Swat in Northwestern Pakistan exhibits an even more divergent case. Edmund Leach's introductory essay discusses the general theoretical issues raised by these examples and their importance for an understanding of social issues in South Asia.

Contributors to this issue
Note on the spelling of caste names
Preface
Introduction: what should we mean by caste? E. R. Leach
Caste in a Tanjore village E. Kathleen Gough
Caste in Jaffna Michael Banks
The flexibility of caste principles in a Kandyan community Nur Yalman
The system of social stratification in Swat, North Pakistan Fredrik Barth
Bibliography
Map 1: General map showing the location of Tanjore, Jaffna, 'Terutenne' and Swat
Map 2: Map of Tanjore district
Map 3: Sketch-map of Kumbapettai
Map 4: Map of Ceylon
Fig. 1: Kinship diagram: the Potters of Terutenne
Fig. 2: Castes and occupations in Worejo
Fig. 3: The organization of agricultural activities in Swat: services and renumeration
Fig. 4: The caste composition of four Swat villages
Fig. 5: The hierarchy of castes in Swat.

Subject Areas: Sociology & anthropology [JH]