Inside and Outside: Conceptual Continuities from Household to Region in Kumaon, North India
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INSIDE AND OUTSIDE: CONCEPTUAL CONTINUITIES FROM HOUSEHOLD TO REGION IN KUMAON, NORTH INDIA By Joanne Moller Thesis Presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of London London School of Economics and Political Science June 1993 UMI Number: U056210 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U056210 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 n + g s e s F 7 & 7 Z 1 ABSTRACT This thesis is an ethnographic study of the social organisation of a Central Himalayan village. Fieldwork was carried out between 1989-1991 in Almora district of the Kumaon region in the hills of Uttar Pradesh, India. Kumaoni villagers conceptually organise their social world on segmentary principles, locally expressed by the opposition between the inside ( bhiter) and the outside (bhyar). The conceptual opposition of ’inside’ and 'outside' is replicated at various levels of society. In this study it is examined with regard to intra-household, inter-household, affinal and inter-caste relations, and to interactions with the gods and spirits and plains society. Insiders and outsiders are ordered hierarchically such that insiders consider themselves morally superior to outsiders. At every level of identification, outsiders are constructed as greedy, dangerous and untrustworthy. Disorder and harm are presented as originating from 'outside', and are associated with 'outsiders'. The 'inside', as contextually defined, is vulnerable to these outside forces, and must be protected. Accompanying this presentation is the ideological stress on the separation, regulation and containment of social categories. This is most clearly elaborated on the household level, but is also pertinent on the levels of caste and region. Men and women's contrasting experiences of marriage, kinship and residence inform their representations of the household and supra-household relations. Although the inside/outside dichotomy and its associations are shared by both genders, men and women apply them differently. Men express the inside/outside opposition in terms of broader levels of community, be it lineage, caste, village or region. For women the inside/outside distinction, though significant on these broader levels, ultimately begins at the household level and extends outwards from there. The immediate 'community of insiders' for women is the household whereas for men it is the lineage. At the same time, however, the category of 'women' is not a homogeneous one: depending on their interests, status, role, age and so forth, women give different representations of the same social reality. Thus, men and out-married women (daughters and sisters of the village) talk about social relations in terms of harmony and cooperation. In-married women (wives of the village) present the village as a tense, conflict-ridden place where deceit and rivalry between households represent normal social relations. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................1 LIST OF MAPS AND TABLES.................................................................................... .6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................7 CHAPTER ONE Introduction ......................................................................................................................11 1.1 Methodology ........................................................................................................12 1.2 Synopsis of Thesis ...............................................................................................14 1.2.1 Note on Transliteration, Names and Abbreviations ............................... 16 1.3 Research Area: General Setting ......................................................................... 17 1.4 Historical Sketch ................................................................................................. 20 1.5 Social Groupings .................................................................................................23 1.5.1 Caste in Kumaon ....................................................................................... 23 1.5.11 Bhotiyas .................................................................................................... 26 1.6 Land Tenure in History ...................................................................................... 26 1.7 The Village Setting .............................................................................................30 CHAPTER TWO Land, Agriculture and Employment ........................................................................... 32 2.1 Land ......................................................................................................................32 2.1.1 Land Holdings ........................................................................................... 32 2.1.11 Attitudes Towards Land .......................................................................... 34 2.2 Agriculture...........................................................................................................36 2.2.1 Land Types .................................................................................................36 2.2.11 Crops and Crop Seasons ......................................................................... 36 2.2.iii Crop Rotation ........................................................................................37 2.3 Animal Husbandry .............................................................................................. 37 2.4 Annual Work Cycle ............................................................................................ 39 2.5 Division of Labour ..............................................................................................41 2.5.1 Women's W o rk .........................................................................................42 2.5.11 Men's W ork .............................................................................................. 46 2.6 Employment and Income Sources .....................................................................47 2.6.1 Migratory Employment .............................................................................49 2.6.11 Local Attitudes Towards Types and Place of W ork ................... .50 2.7 Concluding Remarks ..........................................................................................51 CHAPTER THREE The Household and Agnatic Kinship .................................. 52 3.1 What is the Household in Silora? ...................................................................... 52 3.2 Household Classification ....................................................................................53 3.3 Migration in Households .................................................................................... 55 3.4 Relations Within the Household ........................................................................57 3.4.1 Kinship Principles and Behaviour ........................................................... 57 3.4.11 Economic Principles and Organisation .................................................. 64 3.5 The Joint Household Ideal ..................................................................................67 3.6 The Spatial Organisation of the House ............................................................. 69 3.7 The Household as the Inside ..............................................................................72 3 3.7-i Mother, Milk and the Mother-Child Relationship ................................. 73 3.7.11 M ilk...........................................................................................................74 3.7.111 The Mother and the C ow ........................................................................77 3.7 .iv Milk and the Mother-Child Relationship ...........................................78 3.8 Levels of Agnatic Kinship ..................................................................................80 3.9 Brotherhood and Ideology ..................................................................................81 3.10 Agnatic Kinship, Ancestral land and Moral Conduct ....................................81 3.11 Concluding Remarks .........................................................................................84 CHAPTER FOUR Social Divisions and Patterns of Exchange within the Village ............................... 86 4.1 Neighbourhoods .................................................................................................. 86 4.2 Local Exchange and Cooperation ...................................................................... 87 4.2.1 Invitations ...................................................................................................87 4.2.11 Tika............................................................................................................89 4.2.111