essay

Viewing hierarchy from the bottom up

encounter and experience; personal accounts of fieldwork • Honolulu • Published In 1975 • Pages: 114-130

By: Mencher, Joan P..

Abstract
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 higher caste Brahman. Mencher associated freely with the Harijans during the period of her fieldwork. Their mutual interrelationship described in detail in the text, as well as the Harijan attitude towards various social institutions (e.g., caste pollution), make this a useful work for a study of field methods and for presenting an emic view of social structure.
Subjects
Theoretical orientation in research and its results
Observation in research
Practical preparations in conducting fieldwork
Ethnosociology
Castes
Water supply
culture
Tamil
HRAF PubDate
2009
Region
Asia
Sub Region
South Asia
Document Type
essay
Evaluation
Creator Type
Government Official
Document Rating
3: Good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent
Analyst
John Beierle ; 1983
Field Date
1963-1970
Coverage Date
1963-1970
Coverage Place
Manjapalayam village, Chingleput District, Tamil Nadu, India
Notes
Joan P. Mencher
Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-130)
LCCN
75902105
LCSH
Tamil (Indic people)