Book
Culture change in two Garo villages
Anthropological Survey of India, Govt. of India • (42) • Published In 1978 • Pages: xi, 188 , plates
By: Majumdar, Dhirendra Narayan.
Abstract
This is a study of the effect of economic change on basic Garo institutions. Majumdar compares two villages from the Ambeng sub-tribe. Because of increased population in the region and land scarcity, both villages have reached the limits of shifting cultivation. One village continues to practice shifting cultivation, supplemented by outside wage labor. The other village has reclaimed marshland to form permanent paddy and grow cotton on their shifting plots. The author discusses how these changes have impacted differently on social relations within the household, village, and clans in each village. One finding is that the increased importance of a money economy and decreasing importance of landed property in the one village has significantly undermined the corporate nature of the household, and the authority structure of the village and lineage. Whereas in the other village traditional social institutions have been able to accommodate the change over to permanent agriculture. The author also looks at respective changes in religion, inheritance, dispute resolution, and settlement patterns. Also, he gives a good account of the property relations of shifting cultivation.
- HRAF PubDate
- 1999
- Region
- Asia
- Sub Region
- South Asia
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Ian Skoggard ; 1998
- Field Date
- 1953-1965
- Coverage Date
- 1953-1965
- Coverage Place
- Matchakolgiri and Wajadagiri, Garo Hills Autonomous District, Meghalaya State, India
- Notes
- Dhirendra Narayan Majumdar
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-188)
- LCCN
- 79906248
- LCSH
- Garo (Indic people)