A subcaste of south India: social organization and religion of the Pramalai Kallar

Dumont, Louis; Schutze, Frieda

Book

A subcaste of south India: social organization and religion of the Pramalai Kallar

Mouton & Co. • La Haye, Paris • Published In 1957 • Pages: 6, 6, 460

By: Dumont, Louis, Schutze, Frieda.

Abstract
In contrast to numerous community reports and village surveys on the Tamil as a whole, this monograph is one of the relatively few comprehensive studies on an entire Hindu subcaste -- the Pramalai Kallar. Although the Kallar long have had popular and scientific appeal, early ethnographers generally kept clear of these people because of their 'fierce' reputation. Dumont is in fact one of the first fieldworkers in the area who was able to live successfully among the Kallar and gather ethnographic data. Despite the author's claim that the main subject of the study is the hamlet of Tengalapatti -- indeed much of the information contained within this source does concentrate around the area -- he and/or his informants ranged all over Pramalai Kallar country in gathering their data, an area of roughly 10 by 18 miles in extent. As a result of the narrow focus of this study, a regionally delimited subcaste, Dumont has come up with some rather unusual features of caste life that previously have attracted little attention from ethnographers, namely: (1) rank ordering on the basis of caste isogamy versus intercaste hypergamy (or hypogamy?), (2) the existence of permanent status impurity, (3) the existence of kingly charter and appointment of chiefs, and (4) the presence of higher caste temples and priests in the community. Other unusual features brought out in this study are: (1) settlement patterns in which senior lineages live in the older areas and junior lineages in the more recent areas of settlement, and (2) the relationship of kinship geography to exogamy and endogamy. The source is divided into three major parts, the first of which deals with the group as seen from without (locality, agriculture, techniques in material culture, economy); second, social organization (political structure, lineages, marriage, kinship, etc.) ; and thirdly, religion, especially in its collective manifestations. The reader should note that the term Madura, used for both the district and city in this study, is often spelled Madurai. The French word 'lignTe' has been translated throughout as 'line,' although the context may often suggest 'lineage.'

Castes

Lineages

Regulation of marriage

Towns

Districts

Spirits and gods

General character of religion

Congregations

Tillage

Tamil

HRAF PubDate

2019