article
Migration and the commoditisation of ritual: sacrifice, spectacle and contestations in Kerala, India
Contributions to Indian sociology (n.s.) • 37 (1 & 2) • Published In 2003 • Pages: 109-139
By: Osella, Filippo, Osella, Caroline.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article discusses the effects on religious ritual arising from Kerala male out-migration to the Middle East. The focus is on an extremely expensive annual public ritual called kuthiyottam, which was customarily sponsored by a class of families from the upper Nayar caste. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Kerala men who accumulated wealth from working in Gulf States became important sources for sponsoring the ritual at different temples. This weakened the religious power and status of Nayar elites in favor of newly rich migrants, some of whom happened to be of previously despised lower-caste backgrounds. This power shift further transformed the ritual itself by injecting new aesthetic forms and religiosities.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Organized ceremonial
- Prayers and sacrifices
- Labor supply and employment
- Income and demand
- Accumulation of wealth
- Status, role, and prestige
- Castes
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Sociocultural trends
- Inter-community relations
- Political movements
- Religious experience
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Kerala
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2017
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- South Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Teferi Abate Adem ; 2016
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1989-1996
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1930-2002
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Valiyagramam (pseudonym), Kerala, India
- NotesAdditional notes
- Filippo Osella and Caroline Osella
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-139)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 200331269
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Kerala (India)