book chapter
The Todas
Macmillan • London • Published In 1906 • Pages:
By: Rivers, W. H. R. (William Halse Rivers).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This standard ethnological study of the Todas is based on the authors field work among them in 1901-02. Rivers primary emphasis has been placed on the religion and sociology of the people; their personalities and physical characteristics have been the subject of studies published by the author and others elsewhere. Full details are provided in this work on the complex social, economic, ritualistic and ceremonial aspects of the dairy organization. The importance of ritual in the dairy structure provides the basis for Rivers theory that the Todas are a people who possess a religion in process of degeneration --that their religious orientation has been transferred from the formerly highly developed idea of 'god' of 'gods' to a series of almost entirely ritualistic practices and mechanical formulae applied predominantly to the dairy animals, dairymen-priests, buildings, vessels and sacred bells. Among other distinctive features of Toda culture the author lists Toda relationships with neighboring tribes of the Nilgiri hills, polyandry, and female infanticide. The division of Toda society into moieties and the resultant cultural distinctions between the two groups, the organization of the clan communities, and the elaborate funeral customs, are also discussed in detail.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Pastoral activities
- Dairying
- Comparative evidence
- Sacred objects and places
- General character of religion
- Priesthood
- Ritual
- Etiquette
- Mythology
- Cultural participation
- Sociocultural trends
- Community structure
- Kinship terminology
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Toda
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2010
- 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 chapter
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- 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
- Mary L. Bartlett; 1954
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1901-1902
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1602-1902
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Nilgiri Hills, southern India
- NotesAdditional notes
- William Halse Rivers
- The glossary on pp. 741-748, indexed for the subject GLOSSARY (104), should be consulted for definitions of native words used extensively in the text. The genealogical charts frequently are indexed for the subject KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY (601).
- Omitted from the collection pages 749-755). Page numbers [749] to [788] have been assigned to the unpaginated genealogical charts
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 07018149
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Toda (Indic people)