Book

South India: the Tamil people and their country

Druck'und Verlag von C. Bertelsmann • GⁿTersloh • Published In 1899 • Pages:

By: Gehring, Hans, Schntze, Frieda.

Abstract

This source presents a general descriptive ethnography of the Tamil people as they existed in South India during the latter part of the 19th century. Despite the at times rather ethnocentric view of the author (a Lutheran missionary) in dealing with various aspects of the native culture (e.g. religion, the Brahman caste, etc.), the researcher will find an abundance of data on such things as geography, material culture, agriculture, fauna, flora, sex status, and general information on Tamil character, manners and customs. These data comprise the first half of this work. In the second half, Gehring takes the reader on an excursion through Tamil Land, describing in turn his observations on the northern districts, the Kaveri River Delta, Tondiman country, the southern districts, and the mountainous western region. In the latter section, particularly in the section on the 'Blue Mountains,' the author presents additional ethnographic data on the Toda (AW60), and the lesser known ethnic groups of Badaga (AW50), Kurumba (AW56), Kota (AW55), Irula (AW53) and the Malayali (AW63).

HRAF PubDate

2019

Region

Asia

Sub Region

South Asia

Document Type

Book

Evaluation

Creator Type

Missionary

Document Rating

3: Good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent

4: Excellent Secondary Data

Analyst

John Beierle ; Jan Simpson ; 1983

Field Date

no date

Notes

By Hans Gehring

Translation of: [Land und volk der Tamulen]

Includes bibliographical references

Translated from the German for the Human Relations Area Files by Frieda Schütze ca. 1983

LCSH

Tamil (Indic people)/Tamil Nadu (India)--Social life and customs