The Interpretation of Caste (Oxford Studies in Social & Cultural Anthropology)

This book provides a radical alternative to prevailing theories of caste which either build on indigenous rationalizations of the Brahman's supremacy or reduce hierarchy to material factors. Drawing on a wide range of historical and ethnographic sources as well as four years fieldwork, Declan Quigley proposes a comparative approach which locates caste-organized communities in the context of complex agrarian societies generally. At the heart of caste, he argues, there is a tension between the centralizing forces of kingship with its associated ritual and the decentralizing forces of kinship. Dr Quigley believes that it is this tension, rather than Brahminical ideology, which generates the characteristic patterns of hierarchy and the preoccupation with purity and pollution. In making kingship central to the explanation of caste, this book calls for a considered re-examination of the theory of caste proposed by A.M. Hocart over half a century ago, and offers a wide-ranging comparative interpretation of facts which have until now eluded satisfactory explanation. This book should be of interest to teachers and students of anthropology and sociology, particularly of South-East Asia; and students of comparative social structures and of general anthropological theory.