Gerald D. Berreman

Hindus of the Himalayas : ethnography and change

Prologue: Behind Many Masks, Ethnography and Impression Management 1. The Setting 2. The Economic Context 3. The Religious Context: The Supernatural 4. The Religious Context: Calendrical and Life-Cycle Ceremonies 5. Kin Groups and Kinship 6. Caste 7. Intercaste Relations 8. The Village Community 9. The Outside World: Urban Contacts and Government Programs 10. Conclusion - 1958 Epilogue: Sirkanda ten years later Bibliography Chapter Bibliographies - 1971 Notes, Index

Caste in India and the United States

Caste in defined in such a way as to be useful cross-culturally. Comparison of race relations in the southern United States and relations between the untouchables and other castes in India demonstrates that the two systems are closely similar in operation despite differences of content. Low-caste status in India, as in America, is actively resented. Research emphasis upon the realities of structure and process as revealed by cross-cultural studies of caste interaction is more likely to lead to useful generalizations about this kind of social stratification and intergroup relations than is the more conventional emphasis upon differences of cultural content.

Race, Caste, and Other Invidious Distinctions in Social Stratification

GERALD D. BERREMAN is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. This article was written while the author was a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. A society is socially stratified when its members are divided into categories which are differentially powerful, esteemed, and rewarded. Such systems of collective social ranking vary widely in the ideologies which support them, in the distinctiveness, number, and size of the ranked categories, in the criteria by which inclusion in the categories is conferred and changed, in the symbols by which such inclusion is displayed and recognized, in the degree to which there is consensus upon or even awareness of the ranking system, its rationale, and the particular ranks assigned, in the rigidity of rank, in the disparity in rewards of rank, and in the mechanisms

On the Nature of Caste in India A Review Symposium on Louis Dumont's Homo Hierarchicus : 3 The Brahmannical View of Caste

mont’s long discussions of the role of kingship in caste ideology? Kautilya’s King was surely, like Machiavelli’s Prince, an idea rather than a fact? But Dumont often writes as if he thought otherwise. On the other hand his view of the relevance of Kautilya for 2oth century ethnography is quite clear. In one of his papers he explicitly draws attention to the fact that &dquo;my own monograph on a South-Indian subcaste happens to have stressed a situation exactly similar to that given in the Arthashashtra. That cannot be attributed

Caste and Economy in the Himalayas

In order to understand the economic and social relationships in Indian villages which have been described under the heading jajmani system, their components and variations in different places and under different conditions must be made clear. This paper is an effort to analyze the system as it works in one area, to identify its components, and to describe some of the variables of caste and economy significant in its functioning. As a result of this analysis, some light may be thrown on the question of exploitation in the system, raised by Beidelman and discussed in a recent symposium on village economic systems. 1

Himalayan Rope Sliding and Village Hinduism: An Analysis

ONE of the most spectacular, yet little-known ceremonies inIndia is rope sliding, performed in the lower Himalayan area and known variously as bjdaRat, baRta, badwar, barat. Until I obtained two eye-witness accounts of this ceremony in western Garhwal, I had been unaware of its existence and, in fact, was at first suspicious that my informants were taking advantage of my credulity. I have since located seven brief, apparently independent accounts by nineteenth century observers which show a minimal distribution fthe ceremony from Garhwal District o the Sutlej valley, i.e. on both sides of the border between Central and Western Pahari-speaking areas.2 The half-dozen other references that I have found all derive from the accounts of Moorcroft and Trebeck, and of Traill,3 while some of the best accounts have been overlooked. The ceremony has even found its way into a novel by Philip Woodruff.4 Rope sliding is mentioned by these authors most often as a quaint, improbable, and fascinating performance. Some have maintained that it is derived from a form of human sacrifice and Frazer cites it in The Golden Bough as an example of the use of a human scapegoat. In none of the accounts, however, is there a full description of the ceremony nor an attempt to analyze it in cultural context. In this paper, by briefly considering the nature of the ceremony and its variations, affinities and alterations, its status as a Hindu ceremony may be assessed and some features of Himalayan Hinduism and of village Hinduism in general may be illuminated.

Inequality: Comparative Aspects

This article offers a panoramic overview of equality and inequality in human societies throughout history, from an anthropological perspective. Discussing power, status, and economy as major dimensions, it covers a wide range of societal forms, from small-scale groupings of foragers to contemporary large-scale societies, and it also discusses race and caste, colonialism, gender, and age as they have related to social inequality. Types of authority such as big men and chiefs are also noted.

Asia and AfricaHAROLD R. ISAACS. India's Ex-Untouchables. Pp. 188. New York: John Day, 1965.

common interests will remain. &dquo;Whatever course it follows,&dquo; he says, &dquo;Japan needs satisfactory foreign trade; its main trading partner is and will almost certainly continue to be the United States.&dquo; In evaluating the United States role, he declares: &dquo;To pursue policies that have helped create a prosperous, stable Japan has cost the United States something in resources, in adjustments in its own economy, and in subordination of some domestic interests to a broader conception of the national interest. Have the gains outweighed the losses? ... Compared to the alternatives, the reality of a flourishing Japan can fairly be said to justify the large transfer of American resources that helped bring it about. Judged on that basis, the cost to the United States certainly looks modest.&dquo;