The poison in the gift : ritual, prestation, and the dominant caste in a north Indian village / Gloria Goodwin Raheja.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Raheja, Gloria Goodwin, 1950-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ceremonial exchange--India--Pahansu.

Ceremonial exchange.

Gujars--Rites and ceremonies.

Gujars.

Brahmans--Rites and ceremonies.

Brahmans.

Kinship--India--Pahansu.

Kinship.

Caste--India--Pahansu.

Caste.

Rites and ceremonies.

Pahansu (India)--Social life and customs.

Pahansu (India).

India--Pahansu.

Physical Description:

xiv, 286 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Summary:

The Poison in the Gift is a detailed ethnography of gift-giving in a North Indian village that powerfully demonstrates a new theoretical interpretation of caste. Introducing the concept of ritual centrality, Raheja shows that the position of the dominant landholding caste in the village is grounded in a central-peripheral configuration of castes rather than a hierarchical ordering. She advances a view of caste as semiotically constituted of contextually shifting sets of meanings, rather than one overarching ideological feature. This new understanding undermines the controversial interpretation advanced by Louis Dumont in his 1966 book, Homo Hierarchicus, in which he proposed a disjunction between the ideology of hierarchy based on the "purity" of the Brahman priest and the "temporal power" of the dominant caste or the king.

By focusing on the significance of the many prestations made by the landholding Gujar caste to Brahmans, Barbers, Sweepers, and others in the village of Pahansu, Raheja demonstrates that the role of this caste is not based simply on its temporal power, but on a conception of certain gifts (dan) as providing for the well-being and auspiciousness of the donor and of the village as a whole through the ritual transferral of evil, sin, and affliction from donor to recipient. Members of this landholding caste, rather than the Brahman priests, are the ideological point of reference for the village, for they are the preeminent jajmans (sacrificers) and givers of dan in the village.

Grounding her argument in a comprehensive ethnography, Raheja shows that it is this pattern of centrality, rather than a hierarchical ordering, that is most salient in the rituals of birth, marriage, and death; in agricultural, astrological, and festival rituals; and in the gift-giving carried out to remove sickness, barrenness, and other afflictions. Raheja's precise, detailed account of the linguistic and ritual aspects of giving and receiving and her depiction of the vast ramifications of the Hindu concern with auspiciousness and inauspiciousness open up a hitherto unexplored dimension of South Asian social life.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Toward a Redefinition of "Dominance" in North Indian Society 1

The Village and the Region in Historical Perspective 1

Pahansu Today 14

Theoretical and Ethnographic Perspectives 24

2. Auspiciousness and Inauspiciousness as Cultural Constructs 37

The Language of Auspiciousness and Inauspiciousness 37

The Sources of Inauspiciousness 48

Hamare Ghar Me Kles Rahe: Afflictions in the House and the Problem of Diagnosis 60

3. The Structure of Ritual Action 68

4. The Ritual Contexts of Dan and the Ritual Construction of Gujar Centrality 93

The Rituals of Pregnancy, Birth, and Childhood 93

Marriage and the Giving of Dan 118

Death: Breaking "Connections" and the Giving of Gifts 147

Prestations at the Harvests and the Barkat of the Grain 162

Protecting the House and the Village: Placing the Niv and Kali Ka Bhet 169

Pujapa, Sandhara, and Bayana: The Transferral of Inauspiciousness in the Yearly Festival Cycle 172

Getting Sons, Removing Kast: Discovering Inauspiciousness and the Giving of Dan 185

On the Appropriateness of Patras 188

5. Prestation Types and Terminological Usages: Shifting Configurations of Castes and Kinsmen in Pahansu 203

At the Threshing Place: Phaslana 204

Non-phaslana Payments for Caste-specific Goods and Services 206

Agricultural Labor Arrangements 207

Payments for Ritual Services: Neg and Lag 212

"Signs of Brotherhood": Nyauta, Parosa, and Kothli 219

Gifts of the Meeting, Gifts of the Road: Milai and Wada 222

Prestation Types and Terminological Usages 232

Mol Lana: The Ritual Uses of "Bringing for a Price" 235

"You Can't Look a Gift Calf in the Mouth": Another Perspective on Dan 236

Centrality, Mutuality, and Hierarchy: Aspects of Relationships in Kinship and Caste 239.

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 271-278.

ISBN:

0226707296

0226707288

OCLC:

17209535