Book
Social mobility in Kerala: modernity and identity in conflict
Pluto Press • London • Published In 2000 • Pages: xi, 320
By: Osella, Filippo, Osella, Caroline.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This book discusses social inequality among Kerala villagers. It begins with the life history of individuals belonging to three hierarchically-related castes: high-caste Hindu Brahmans and Nayars, middle-caste Christian families, and low-caste Izhavas. Much of the discussion is devoted to explaining the structural and cultural constraints Izhava families encounter in their attempt to improve their social standing through a lifetime of hard work as farmers, migrant laborers, salaried professionals, community organizers, politicians, and entrepreneurs. The most enduring of constraints are located in a caste system that rigidly differentiates people according to inborn substances and qualities; a system that has proven resilient, despite decades of effort by politicians and religious leaders to replace it with more secular and egalitarian principles.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Castes
- Inter-community relations
- Household
- Polygamy
- Family relationships
- Classes
- Accumulation of wealth
- Status, role, and prestige
- Political movements
- Pressure politics
- Labor supply and employment
- Income and demand
- Price and value
- Wages and salaries
- Gender status
- Political parties
- Priesthood
- Congregations
- Organized ceremonial
- Avoidance and taboo
- Purification and atonement
- Ethnoanatomy
- Ethos
- Functional and adaptational interpretations
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Sociocultural trends
- 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
- Book
- 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
- 1883-1996
- 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. 287-306) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 00009109
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Ezhavas
- Social mobility--India--Kerala