Book
Tribal law and justice: a report on the Santal
Concept • New Delhi • Published In 1984 • Pages:
By: Archer, W. G. (William George).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Archer, a Deputy Commissioner of Santal Parganas during the period of December 1942-June 1945, presents in this document an analysis of Santal tribal law which he observed in operation during the period of his administration. The work is divided into three major parts. Part I discusses civil law in Santal society, based in large part on the application of customary law to various offenses through the judicial system (i.e., the village courts and the Court of Five MANJHIS). Part II describes various ramifications of the application of BITLAHA sanctions to criminal justice. BITLAHA is the Santal term used to describe a mass punishment for major tribal offenses. Part III of this report deals with the structure of the judicial system in tribal regions (with special reference to the Santal Parganas), showing in effect the erosion of customary law and their supercession by statutory law (p. xvii). This section contains a number of suggestions by the author on how the Santal judicial system could be improved. In addition to the above, this study also contains much information on the right of men and women in the society, marriage and divorce, birth, naming customs, sickness, and death, relevant to the period studies (1942-1945).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Real property
- Inheritance
- Marriage
- Family relationships
- Informal in-group justice
- Legal norms
- Sanctions
- Sex and marital offenses
- Judicial authority
- Sorcery
- Organized ceremonial
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Santal
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1998
- 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.
- 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.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1996
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- December 1942-June 1945
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1942-1945
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Santal Parganas District, Bihar, India
- NotesAdditional notes
- W. G. Archer ; with an introduction by K. S. Singh
- v. 1. Civil law in Santal society -- v. 2. Bitlaha -- v. 3. Civil justice in tribal India, with special reference to the Santal Parganas
- 'Published under the Authority of the Bitlaha Government'
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 734-741)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 84901345
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Santal (South Asian people)