Anthropos: Anthropos, 86.1991,1/6

Anthropos, 86.1991,1/6

Bibliographic Data

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

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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