Durham E-Theses Kinship and ritual in a South Indian micro-region Good, Anthony How to cite: Good, Anthony (1978) Kinship and ritual in a South Indian micro-region, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/8074/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk KINSHIP AND RITUAL IN A SOUTH INDIAN MICRO-REGION Anthony Good A Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Dior ham 1978 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged ABSTRACT Fieldwork carried out m the Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu, South India, has led to the delineation of a 'micro-region' of three agricultural villages This micro-region acquires its sociological unity by virtue of a system of inter-caste relation- ships and prestations which embraces all these villages and which manifests itself equally in the religious, economic, political and administrative spheres. In particular, the various specialist caste-groups perform their respective services for clienteles made up of all or part of the population of the micro-region concerned. One aspect of each specialist's duty is his role in the life- crisis rituals of his clients. These rituals are themselves subsequently re-examined from the opposite perspective, namely with reference to the intra-caste relationships which they bring into play. Particular attention is paid to female puberty rites and to marriagei these are considered as a single ritual complex, concerned with caste purity and the legitimation of off-spring The phenomenon of marriage between a man and his elder sister's daughter is examined. There is a discussion of the problems which this practice raises for the conventional view of the 'Dravidian' marriage system, and an alternative structure is suggested for the kinship terminology in the present case It is argued throughout that the problems being considered are best approached from a sociological, structural perspective, and a three-level model of social reality is adapted for this purpose. As a complement to this, the study concludes with a critique of the recently-advanced 'cultural' and 'ethnosocio- logical' approaches in South Asian anthropology. (0 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface vin The Transliteration of Tamil Words xii Part One : Inter-Caste Prestations in a Tamil Micro-Region Chapter 1 j Three Villages 1 1 Village Selection 1 1 2 Conditions of Fieldwork 8 1.3 Methods of Data Collection 14 1.4 Caste Composition 17 1.4.1 Caste Hierarchy 32 1.5 Religion 40 1.6 Kinship 57 Chapter 2 t The Contextt History, Administration and Ethnography 2.1 General Introduction 67 2 2 History 70 2.3 Recent History and Administration 76 2.4 Village History 81 2.5 The Ethnography of the Region 87 Chapter 3 » Agriculture 3 1 General Data on Soil 94 3 2 Irrigation 94 3 3 Lands Classification and Taxation 98 3.4 The Agricultural Year 100 3 5 Organization and Remuneration of Agricultural Labour.. 102 3.5.1 Pastoralism 110 3.5.2 Other Payments Ill 3.6 Agricultural Techniques 112 3.6.1 Paddy 112 3.6.2 Kampu 121 3.6.3 CoLam 122 3 6.4 Keppai 122 3 6.5 Pulses 123 3.6 6 Cotton 124 3.6.7 Chillies 126 3.6.8 Plantains 127 369 Tubers 127 3 6 10 Other Crops 128 Chapter 4 i Dominance 4.1 The Distribution of Property 129 4.2 Land 130 4.2.1 Tenant Farmers 143 4.3 Livestock 145 4.4 Housing and Other Property 147 4.5 The Dominant Caste 152 4.6 The Concept of Dominance Refined and Applied 160 4.7 The Present Case 165 4.7.1 Caste Panchayats and Dispute Settlement 165 4.7.2 Numerical Strength 167 4.7.3 Political and Administrative Power 167 4 7 4 Economic Power 171 4.7.5 Caste Ranking 173 4.7.6 Discussion 174 Chapter 5 * Inter-Caste Prestations 5.1 Inter-Caste Relationships1 General Introduction ... 178 5.2 The Threshing Floor 180 5.3 Gifts and Obligations 181 5.4 Wedding Prestations I85 5.5 Funerary Prestations .. 190 5.5.1 Prestations at the Funeral 190 5.5.2 Prestations at the Karumati Rite 199 5.6 Prestations at Female Puberty Rites 200 5.7 Prestations at Birth 202 5.8 Prestations at Temple Festivals 202 5.9 The Specialist Castes 210 5.9.1 The Barber 210 5.9.2 The VaNNar 212 5.9.3 The Temple Priests 215 5.9.4 The Artisans 221 5.9.5 The Channel-Controller 228 5.9.6 The Scheduled Castes 229 5.10 Summary and General Conclusions ....... 232 (iii) Chapter 6 i The Micro-Region 6 1 Introduction 237 6.2 Geography 237 6.3 Administration 238 6.4 Kinship 240 6.5 The •Neighbourhood* 24l 6.6 The 'Jajmani System' 244 6 7 The 'Cultural' Approach to Prestations 251 6.8 The 'Micro-Region'1 Fusion and Fission at the Level of "The Village' 257 6.9 Conclusion 262 Part Two 1 Intra-Caste Relationships in Life-Crisis Rituals Chapter 7 1 Life Crises» Birth and Infancy 7.1 General Introduction 265 7.2 Birth 266 7.3 Early Infancy 270 7.4 Naming and Other Ceremonies 272 Chapter 8 » Life Crises1 Female Puberty 8.1 SaDankut the Female Puberty Ceremony 275 8.2 SaDahku Rites in Terku VaNDanam 276 8.3 Sociological Relationships Involved in the Puberty Rite 300 8.4 Other Female Puberty Rites in South Asia 305 8.4.1 The 'Standard' South Indian Puberty Ceremony ... 307 8.4.2 Puberty Ceremonies Among the Sinhalese 308 8.4.3 'Token Pre-Puberty Marriage' in Central India .. 310 8.4.4 The 'Tali-tying' Rituals of Kerala 311 8.5 Puberty Ritual and Marriage 313 8.6 Exegesis 3l6 8.6.1 The Psycho-Analytic Approach 316 8.6.2 The Symbolic Approach 320 8 6.3 The Socio-Structural Approach 326 8.7 A Socio-Symbolic Analysis of the SaDaftku Rite 333 8.8 The Overall Pattern 340 Chapter 9 » Life Crises% Marriage 9.1 The Significance of the Marriage Rite 3^+7 9.2 Categories o Rules and Behaviour 348 9.3 South Indian Marriage Rules and the Local Context .. 351 9.4 Exogamous Groups 353 9.4.1 The KoNDaiyaftkoTTai Maravar 353 9.4.2 The Ayotti ReDDiyar 359 9.4.3 The ToTTi Cakkiliyar 360 9.4.4 The Kammavar Nayakkar 360 9.4.5 The VaNiya CeTTiyar 36l 9.4.6 The Asari 36l 9.4.7 Other Castes 362 9.5 Sub-Divisions of the Exogamous Group 363 9.6 The Urimai Relationship 365 9.7 Marriages in TVi the General Pattern 367 9.7.1 Intra-Caste Prestations at Marriage 370 9.8 The Mukurttakal Ceremony 376 9.9 The KalyaNam Ceremony 380 9.9.1 Christian Marriages in VaDakku VaNDanam 399 9.10 Analysis 402 9.11 Second Marriages 410 9.12 Divorce 4l2 Chapter 10 1 Elder Sister's Daughter Marriage 10.1 Introduction 4l4 10.2 The 'Dravidian' Kinship Terminology 415 10.3 Substance or Structure f 425 10.4 Frequencies and Norms in Empirical Marriage Patterns 431 10.5 Previous Theories 437 10.6 The Present Case 446 10.7 The 'Dravidian' Kinship Terminology Re-examined ... 455 Chapter 11 1 Life Crises1 Death 11.1 Introduction 462 11.2 The Funeral Proper 463 11.3 The Second Day Ceremony 4?6 (v) 11.4 The Final Ceremony 477 11.5 The Funeral of an Infant 487 11.6 NaDar Christian Funerals 491 11.7 Discussion 493 Chapter 12 t Cultural Analysis and the Analysis of Culture 12.1 Prolegomena 499 12.2 Three-Level Views of Social Reality 499 12.3 Ethnosociology 504 12.4 A Critique of Ethnosociology 507 12.5 Cultural Data and Sociological Analysis 514 Appendix s Glossary of Tamil Terms 517 References 522 (vi) LIST OF TABLES IN TEXT 1.1 Census Details 19-23 1.2 The Caste Composition of the Micro-Region as Compared to Tirunelveli District as a Whole .... 28-30 1 3 Caste Hierarchy in TV According to Informants' Statements 38 1.4 Caste Hierarchies in W and KP According to Informants' Statements 39 1.5 Temples Within the Micro-Region 46-56 3.1 Annual Rainfall in Kayattar Panchayat Union .... 97 3.2 Permanent Agricultural Labourers and their Payment 109-10 3.3 Costs of Paddy Cultivation 119 3.4 Costs of Keppai Cultivation 123 4.1 Land Holdings 132-3 4.2 Distribution of Land Types Among Local Landowners 142 4.3 Livestock Holdings 148 4.4 Market Prices of Livestock and Farming Equipment. 149 5.1 The Nature and Extent of Inter-Caste Relationships 233-6 8.1 Relationships of Participants in Puberty Rituals.