Documents
eHRAF is comprised of thousands of ethnographic sources including monographs, journal articles, dissertations and manuscripts. Use this page to find relevant documents by searching or filtering. Each document in eHRAF also contains a Publication Information page with added metadata including brief abstracts written by HRAF analysts who have subject-indexed the file.
Changing familial roles among south Malabar Nayarsarticle 1962 • Mencher, Joan P.
Kerala • Asia > South Asia
The traditional Nayar caste household consisted of a large number of matrilineally-related persons. With the advent of government-legislated land reforms beginning in the 1930s, this unit gradually broke down into smaller nuclear families of the kind...The lessons and non-lessons of Keralaarticle 1980 • Mencher, Joan P.
Kerala • Asia > South Asia
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the government of Kerala undertook a series of public campaigns that resulted in higher literacy rates and improved access to health, reflected not just in an expansion of clinics but in real drops in child mortality, fo...Namboodiri Brahminsarticle 1966 • Mencher, Joan P.
Kerala • Asia > South Asia
The patrilineal Namboodiri Brahmins historically constituted a wealthy, aristocratic, landed caste group of high ritual and secular rank. The main principles of social organization that helped them stay at the apex of the caste hierarchy were the cus...Growing up in South Malabararticle 1963 • Mencher, Joan P.
Kerala • Asia > South Asia
This article finds a correlation between the form of family organization, ideals of “proper behavior” for men, women and children, and some of the methods of inculcating social values among the Nayar and other matrilineal caste groups....Agriculture and social structure in Tamil NaduBook 1978 • Mencher, Joan P.
Tamil • Asia > South Asia
This work is basically a study of the various social forces that tend to speed up or slow down cultural change in society. The primary focus here is on agriculture, since the author believes that this is of crucial importance in any society, and also...Viewing hierarchy from the bottom upessay 1975 • Mencher, Joan P.
Tamil • Asia > South Asia
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 hi...Kinship and marriage regulations among the Namboodiri Brahmans of Keralaarticle 1967 • Mencher, Joan P. & Goldberg, Helen
Kerala • Asia > South Asia
The kinship and marriage practices of the Namboodiri Brahman caste have long been viewed as atypical for the region. Unlike the culturally-related Nayar caste that lived in large, matrilineally-related extended families, Namboodiri Brahmans were orga...