The Nayars Today

This 1976 study examines the Nayars of Kerala who, unusually, trace descent through the female line.

C. J. Fuller (Author)

9780521290913, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 December 1976

186 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1 cm, 0.24 kg

The Nayars of Kerala, south-west India, unusually trace descent through the female line and, in the past, had a marriage system in which women were allowed several husbands simultaneously. This system has brought the Nayars continuing fame in anthropological circles. In this 1976 study, Dr Fuller analyses fieldwork data collected among Nayars in a village in southern Kerala, a region on which there is practically no modern anthropological information. In the final section of the book, Dr Fuller looks at the 'traditional' marriage system of the Nayars and offers some suggestions about its operation. He also discusses the collapse of the old joint-family system and, with the aid of his data from southern Kerala, proposes some arguments about the process of its disintegration. More fully than previous authors, he situates his analysis in its historical context throughout, as befits an account of a rapidly changing society.

List of illustrations
List of tables
Preface
1. 'The Nobles of Malabar': foreign images of the Nayars
2. Introduction to the Nayas in Central Travancore
3. The Nayar kinship system in Ramankara
4. The Nayar marriage system in Ramankara
5. The 'traditional' Nayar marriage system
6. The disintegration of the matrilineal joint-family system
Notes
Glossary
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Anthropology [JHM]