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Anthropos, 86.1991,1/6

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Bibliographic Data

fullscreen: Anthropos, 86.1991,1/6

Journal

Structure Type:
Journal
Works URN (URL):
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820
URN:
urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820
Persistent identifier:
BV043334262
Title:
Anthropos
Place of Publication:
Fribourg
Publisher:
Ed. St. Paul
Year of Publication:
1906
Collection:
Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology
Domain:
Social and cultural anthropology > General overview

Journal Volume

Structure Type:
Journal Volume
Works URN (URL):
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711879
URN:
urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711879
Persistent identifier:
1513674362149
Title:
Anthropos, 86.1991,1/6
Year of Publication:
1991
Call Number:
LA 1118
Collection:
Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

Journal Issue

Structure Type:
Journal Issue
Title:
Bd. 86, 1991, Heft 4-6
Collection:
Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

Contents

Table of Contents

  • Anthropos
    -
  • Anthropos, 86.1991,1/6
    [685]
  • Front Cover
    -
  • Front Paste Down
    -
  • Endsheet
    -
  • Title Page
    -
  • Legal Notice
    -
  • Table of Contents: [Inhalt] Anthropos 86.1991/1-3
    -
  • Table of Contents: [Inhalt] Anthropos 86.1991/4-6
    -
  • Journal Issue: Bd. 86, 1991, Heft 1-3
    [1]
  • Journal Issue: Bd. 86, 1991, Heft 4-6
    [351]
  • Title Page
    [685]
  • Legal Notice
    [686]
  • Table of Contents: Autorenindex
    [687]
  • Table of Contents: Rezensenten
    693
  • Table of Contents: Geographischer Index
    [694]
  • Postscript
    -
  • Back Paste Down
    -
  • Back Cover
    -
  • Color Chart
    -

Full Text

Anthropos 86.1991; 351-365 
Clan, Kinship, and Panchayat Justice 
among the Jats of Western Uttar Pradesh 
Stig Toft Madsen 
Abstract. - The Jats see themselves as an egalitarian people. 
The caste consists of exogamous clans settled in separate 
villages forming a clan territory. Whereas a marriage creates a 
ranked relation between two families or local descent groups, it 
is supposed to have no effect on the status of the clans which 
are equal in rank. A conflict ensues if a clan considers its 
status lowered as a result of a marriage. In the case analysed 
traditional councils or panchayats were unable to harmonize the 
Principles of hierarchy and equality. Yet, the same panchayats 
have succeeded in mobilizing farmers demanding economic 
benefits from the state, revising the agenda of the panchayats 
in the process [India, Jats, caste, clan, hierarchy, equality, 
political mobilization] 
Stig Toft Madsen, Mag. Scient. (1980), M. A. (1976), studied 
Anthropology in Copenhagen and Sociology in Meerut, India; 
fieldwork in Uttar Pradesh in 1981-82; Socio-Economist on a 
fisheries project in South India in 1987-89 and a consultant 
m India and Bangladesh; presently Research Fellow at the 
Integrated Human Rights Programme, Institute of Sociology 
and Law, Lund University. - Publications include: Ripples on 
the Plains: Lawyers, Clients, and Legal Networks in Western 
Uttar Pradesh (Folk 1984); contributions to Sydasien (Lund, 
Sweden). 
Since the appearance in 1967 of Louis Dumont’s 
work “Homo Hierarchicus” it has become almost 
axiomatic that Hindu caste society is based solely 
on hierarchical values. The opposite values of 
equality or equivalence have been either over 
looked or proved difficult to incorporate into an 
analysis based on the premise of overarching hi 
erarchy. Yet, Dumont has repeatedly recognized 
the existence of equality within traditional Hindu 
society: “South Indian kinship presents us with ... 
something like an island of equality in an ocean 
of caste” (1983: 167). 
In the northern parts of India Dumont did not 
discover this island of equality within castes. Rath 
er, Dumont found that hierarchy had “invaded” 
the sphere of kinship to such an extent that “we 
cannot speak with any rigour of a ‘kinship sys 
tem’ as such” (1966: 106). In Dumont’s opinion 
'caste and its hallmark hierarchical status reduce 
the function of kinship in social life ... by grafting 
themselves on affinal relationships” (110). North 
India, he maintained, is characterized by a hyper- 
gamous model where notions of superiority and 
inferiority leave no room for egalitarian values: 
“Although hypergamy is actually in force only in 
very few groups, the hypergamous stylisation of 
the wife-takers as superior and the wife-givers as 
inferiors pervades the whole culture” (102). 
While Dumont is right in stating that hierar 
chical relations and values are very conspicuous 
in North India, this does not mean that values of 
equality have no place at all in traditional North 
Indian societies. 
Through an extended case study this article 
will examine how contending clans of the Jat caste, 
which places considerable value on equality and 
culturally defined notions of brotherhood, dealt 
with a particular marriage which was found to 
negate these values. 
I will show that, on the caste level and, es 
pecially, on the clan level, both hierarchical and 
egalitarian values need to be considered. I also 
want to argue that Dumont is wrong in maintaining 
that the kinship sphere is completely subjected to 
the hierarchical values of caste. In the case to be 
analysed the principle of hierarchy was rooted in 
the kinship system: hierarchy threatened the sphere 
of caste - not the other way around. 
Finally, I will argue that the principle of clan 
equality which structures the political-juridical in 
stitution of these Jats made the conflict difficult 
to solve. The clans are apparently better able to 
maintain their equality and democratic ethos when 
mobilizing politically against structures which are 
outside their moral universe, as for example the 
state. 
1. Western Uttar Pradesh and the Jats 
First I will introduce the caste with which this 
article is concerned and the area in which they 
live, i.e., the Hindu Jats living in the western parts
	        

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