essay

Viewing hierarchy from the bottom up

Encounter and experience; personal accounts of fieldworkHonoluluPublished In 1975 • Pages: 114-130

By: Mencher, Joan P..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
As a complement to 40: Béteille in this file, this document also presents a study in field methodology, but here the author chooses to study the village social hierarchy from bottom up - i.e., from the lower caste Harijan attitudes rather than the higher caste Brahman. Mencher associated freely with the Harijans during the period of her fieldwork. Their mutual interrelationship described in detail in the text, as well as the Harijan attitude towards various social institutions (e.g., caste pollution), make this a useful work for a study of field methods and for presenting an emic view of social structure.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Theoretical orientation in research and its results
Observation in research
Practical preparations in conducting fieldwork
Ethnosociology
Castes
Water supply
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Tamil
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2009
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
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Government Official
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.
3: Good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; 1983
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1963-1970
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1963-1970
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Manjapalayam village, Chingleput District, Tamil Nadu, India
NotesAdditional notes
Joan P. Mencher
Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-130)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
75902105
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Tamil (Indic people)