Stanley A. Freed

Beliefs and practices resulting in female deaths and fewer females than males in India

A preference for sons and the low status of females are implicated in the preponderance of males over females as reported in each census of India from the first one taken in the 19th century. A number of cultural practices, some of which are quite ancient, are involved in this sexual imbalance, namely, maternal mortality due to unhygienic lying-in and postpartum conditions and practices, female infanticide, female feticide, Sati, murder, dowry murder, and suicide. This discussion is based both on 19th and 20th century sources and on fieldwork conducted in the North Indian village of Shanti Nagar in 1958–59 and 1977–78.These practices are most prominent in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and the Union Territory of Delhi. Initially the British tended to overlook some of them, but in the early 19th century and thereafter the British Raj passed laws to curb, especially, female infanticide and Sati. The modern Government of India has also sought to abolish dowry which would, presumably, put an end to dowry murder. Moreover, the Government has issued three circulars directing that action be taken under the penal code against anyone using a prenatal sex-determination test with the object of abortion—a directive aimed at stopping female feticide. Again with the intent of curbing female feticide, a bill providing for punishment and heavy fines for doctors violating the ban on sex-determination tests has recently been introduced in the state legislature of Maharashtra. Despite these efforts, most of the beliefs and practices here described have proved to be tenacious.

Ghost illness in a North Indian village

The substantial number of ghost possessions that came to our attention during fieldwork in a North Indian village in 1977-78 led to a thorough study of ghost beliefs as part of a holistic study of village life. Ghosts are not phantoms floating on the periphery of village life, the concern only of children and the credulous. Rather, the study shows that ghosts are linked with basic Hindu beliefs, village lore, ancient curing practices and theories, the diagnosis of illness and treatment of disease, individual stress and anxiety, and family, lineage, and village histories. Ghost possession, a subsidiary and dramatic form of ghost illness, is behavior in which the ghost speaks from its victim who undergoes a range of alternate states. Unpredictable events and heightened personal stress generally precede episodes of ghost possession. Cases of ghost illness and ghost possession include children and adults of both sexes and a range of ages. Our data contradict the village stereotype that only women suffer from ghost possession. Villagers have recourse to both traditional remedies and Western biomedicine to treat ghost illness.

Rites of passage in Shanti Nagar

................................................... 329 Introduction ........................................... 329 Acknowledgments .................................................... 329 A Note on the Transcription of Hindi Words and Nomenclature ....... ............ 329 Money and Measures ............ ............................... 330 Hinduism in Shanti Nagar ............... ............................ 331 Ceremonial Components ................ ........................... 333 Analysis and Interpretation of Rites of Passage ................ .................. 335 Van Gennep ........................................... 339 Freud ........................................... 340 Danielou and Other Sources ............................................ 346 Birth .................................................... 347 Conception ........................................... 347 Pregnancy and Prenatal Care ........................................... 350 Delivery .................................................... 355 Models for Delivery ........... ................................ 360 Twins .................................................... 363 Summary of Prenatal and Delivery Rituals ....................................... 364 Postnatal Events and Care .................................................... 365 Announcement of Birth .................. ......................... 365 Care of Mother and Child During Lying-In .................... ................ 366 Story of Jaswant Singh ................ ........................... 367 Nursing ........................................... 368 Nipple Washing (Chuchi Dhona) ........................................... 369 Nhanbar ........................................... 369 Diet of Mother ........................................... 369 Sleeping Arrangements ................ ........................... 371 Shortened Lying-In and Other Variations ..................................... 371 Sixth (Chhathi) ........................................... 372 Song Session ........................................... 378 Visits to Mother and Child ........................................... 381 Lifting Pollution ........................................... 383 Bathing Mother and Child ........................................... 383 Cot Changing ........................................... 384 Fire Ceremony ........................................... 384 Purification of Household and Incorporation into Community ....... ............ 388 Feast on Tenth Day ............. .............................. 388 Feast to Ward Off Danger ........................................... 388 Worship at Well on Fortieth Day .................................... .... 389 Variations on Well Worship ........................................... 394 Worship of Jahar ........................................... 395 First Haircut (Mandan) .................. ......................... 396 Ceremonies for Safe Passage from Infancy to Childhood ........ ................ 396 Ear and Nose Piercing ................ ........................... 398

Sacred Cows and Water Buffalo in India: The Uses of Ethnography [and Comments and Reply]

In 1958-59 and in 1977-78, we undertook holistic ethnographic studies of a village in northern India. Profound technoenvironmental change occurred in the 18-year period between the two studies. With regard to cattle, the principal change was a shift from bullock power to machinery. This provided the basis for a test of the two principal positions that have been taken in the sacred-cow controversy: (1) technoenvironmental determinism, which denies that religious belief is an independent determinant of Indian cattle demography, and (2) the position that religious belief is one of a number of factors that affect the demography of Indian cattle. Our data demonstrate that belief in the sanctity of the cow significantly influences the demography of cattle in this village. In an attempt to evaluate the sacred-cow controversy, we note two characteristics of its history: First, it appears to reflect a tendency to dismiss obvious explanations in favor of unexpected ones. Second, the lack of relevant field data for deciding the issue suggests a general decline in holistic ethnographic studies. We argue that our article illustrates the usefulness of analytical holistic ethnography.

Urbanization and Family Types in a North Indian Village

This research, based on data collected in a north Indian village, is an analysis of the relationship of family types to a number of variables: caste, type of house, ownership of land, and the urbanization, type of employment, age, and education of the family head. There is no statistically significant difference in family types between families headed by urban-oriented men and those headed by village-oriented men. Type of house, education, and type of employment also prove to be non-significant. Family type is correlated with high- and low-caste status, landownership, and the age of the family head. High-caste landowning families are more likely to be joint than low-caste landless ones. Also, older men are more likely to head joint families than younger ones.

Research Pitfalls as a Result of the Restoration of Museum Specimens

HE THUNDER PIPE of the Blackfoot Indians (FIG. 1) was one of the T most renowned objects on display in the old Hall of the Plains Indians at the American Museum of Natural History. The pipe and its associated ritual objects occupied a case near the Blackfoot tipi, the centerpiece of the exhibition hall. The pipe, consisting of a decorated stem and a pipe bowl, was illustrated and described by Clark Wissler (pp. 136-140),22 the great early expert on the Blackfoot. Wisslers illustration of the Thunder Pipe also appeared in Indians of the Plains, by Robert Lowie (p. 28),15 a book which for many years served as a standard source for information about the Plains Indians because of Lowies well-deserved reputation as an expert for that area. Collected in the field by Wissler in 1904 and cited by Lowie in his scholarly work, the Thunder Pipe appeared to be unquestionably genuine and certainly important. In the early 1960s, the Plains Indian exhibition, then over 50 years old, was dismantled for revision and reinstallation in another area of the museum. The Thunder Pipe case was opened and I was able to examine the pipe for the first time. When I removed the bowl from the stem, I was surprised at its lack of weight, for I had expected a heavy stone bowl. Blackfoot pipe bowls were often carved from a soft green stone that hardened and darkened with use; the Thunder Pipe bowl had the external appearance of such stone. Carefully examining the bowl, however, I observed a small chipped area which revealed the bowl as white beneath its dark surface. Apparently it was made of plaster of paris that had been painted. Some 20 years later, I can still recall my shock at the realization that the bowl of this famed Thunder Pipe was not genuine.

MALE AND FEMALE ANTHROPOLOGISTS

In March 1971, a questionnaire was mailed to a sample of the anthropologists then on the subscription list of the American Anthropological Association as either fellows o r members. The questionnaire was designed to investigate comparatively the status of females and males in anthropology and to attempt to determine whether females suffered professional discrimination and, if so, at which stages of their careers was it most manifest. Basic to the undertaking and a major focus of the questionnaire was the attempt to specify the qualities and training essential in the “making of an anthropologist,” whether one could identify in the life histories of anthropologists personal or familial characteristics or biographical accidents, both in and out of academic life, that were important in directing individuals to the study of anthropology and in providing them with the motivational and intellectual resources to establish successful and satisfying

Ghost illness of children in north India.

This analysis of the relationship of infant and childhood illness and death to ghost beliefs is based on holistic fieldwork in the late 1950s and the late 1970s in Shanti Nagar (a pseudonym), a village in North India. Illness and the supernatural world are linked by the concepts of ghosts and Fever, the latter an index of ghost illness, deriving from a supernatural being. The links between ghosts, Fever, and ghost illness involve basic Hindu beliefs, tales from Hindu and Sanskritic texts, ancient curing practices, stress, and local and family histories. A limited number of cases from the many in Ghosts: Life and Death in North India (R. Freed and S. Freed 1991) are here presented to illustrate particular points and general characteristics of ghost illness, including ghost possession, when found in children. The village health culture includes curing practices from the Atharva-Veda (the most ancient Sanskritic literature), Ayurvedic Medicine, Unani Prophetic Medicine, and Western Biomedicine.

Caste Ranking and the Exchange of Food and Water in a North Indian Village

The ranks of the castes of a north Indian village were investigated by two methods. First, 26 randomly selected male respondents were asked questions about the castes from which they would accept food and water. Analysis of the responses led to a caste hierarchy based upon food exchanges. This was compared to a caste hierarchy developed from an analysis of opinions about caste rank as reported in Freed (1963). The two hierarchies agree so closely that, in effect, there is a single caste hierarchy that can be revealed through an analysis of either opinion or food transfers. Other culture patterns do not correlate well with this hierarchy throughout its entire range. Wealth and power, for example, are attributes of one or a few castes at the top of the hierarchy but they do not systematically explain the distinctions customarily made in the middle and bottom of the hierarchy.

Ghosts : life and death in North India

................................................................. 8 INTRODUCTION ............................................................ 8 Acknowledgments ........................................................... 10 Chapter 1: The Village Setting ............. ..................................... 11 Chapter 2: Basis for the Study of Ghost Beliefs ................................... 15 Definitions of Ghost Illness, Ghost Possession, and Poltergeist Attack ..... ....... 17 Chapter 3: Fieldwork, Techniques, and Problems ................................. 18 Chapter 4: Brief History of the Delhi Region ..................................... 21 Chapter 5: Causes of Death .............. ...................................... 24 War and Other Turbulence ............. ...................................... 25 Famine.................................................................... 26 Disease ................................................................... 28 Chapter 6: Deaths of Females and the Favored Status of Males ..... ............... 32 Biomedical Differences ................ ....................................... 33 Sati ..................................................................... 34 Female Infanticide .......................................................... 37 Female Feticide............................................................. 41 Dowry and Other Murders, and Suicides....................................... 43 Infant and Maternal Mortality ........... ..................................... 43 Chapter 7: Health Culture ............... ...................................... 44 Prevedic Age ............................................................... 45 Vedic Age .................................................................. 46 Ayurveda................................................................... 46 Laws of Manu and Hereditary Diseases ........... ........................... 49 The Arya Samaj ......................................................... 49 Islamic Period .......................................................... 49 Western Influences ......................................................... 51 Chapter 8: Ideology: Sanatan Dharma, Arya Samaj, Eclecticism ...... .............. 54 Chapter 9: Ideological Interviews............................................... 58 Life, Death, Soul ......................................................... 61 Action, Rebirth, Release ..................................................... 63 Chapter 10: Fruit of Action, Fate, Discipline .......... ........................... 70 Believers and Nonbelievers ................................................... 72 Fence Sitters Ambivalence................................................... 72 Jat Viewpoints .......................................................... 74 Discussion in a Chamar Baithak ................ .............................. 74 Jat Children ......................................................... 76 Chapter 11: Ghosthood ........................................................ 80 Ancient Traditions .......................................................... 80 Pan-Indic Beliefs ......................................................... 81 Village Terms for Ghosts..................................................... 82 Becoming a Ghost ......................................................... 84 Chapter 12: Merchant, Muslim, Priest .............. ............................. 86