Author: T N Madan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 325
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195657853
Description
This paperback edition contains a new preface by the author, who highlights the loss of the traditional Pandit way of life between the years of his fieldwork (1956-86) and now.
Soon after its publication in 1965, this book earned recognition in anthropological and sociological circles as a pioneering and ethnographically rich account of the Hindu family—indeed it has since become a classic. It has been widely cited and discussed, and used as a text worldwide in courses on kinship.
In his foreword to the book, Professor J A Barnes (then at the Australian National University) wrote: ‘Dr Madan’s study adds to our understanding of social behavior in general, without restriction on region and epoch.’ Three and a half decades later Professor Michael Witzel (Harvard) says: ‘The book was my “Bible” during the 1970s in my search for the literary traditions of the Kashmiri Pandits. I welcome the re-appearance of this outstanding monument to their society. One hopes it will not be the epitaph, and the Pandits will overcome their present plight as they have done so resiliently during the past millennium.’
This paperback edition contains a new preface by the author, who highlights the loss of the traditional Pandit way of life between the years of his fieldwork (1956-86) and now.
REVIEWS :
A serious step forward in our knowledge of the functioning of the family in India.
— Louis Dumont, Annales, 1968
Contents
Foreword
Preface to the Paperback Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION: PROBLEMS AND METHODS
Kinship Studies in India
The Present Study
CHAPTER 2
KASHMIRI PANDITS: HISTORY AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
The Hindus of Kashmir
Pandit Subcastes
CHAPTER 3
UTRASSU-UMANGRI
The Villages of Kashmir
The Villagers
CHAPTER 4
THE HOMESTEAD AND THE HOUSEHOLD
The Homestead
The Household in Relation to the House
CHAPTER 5
RECRUITMENT TO THE HOUSEHOLD : BIRTH AND ADOPTION
Birth, Physical, Supernatural and Cultural Factors in Childbirth
Adoption, Rules of Adoption
The Parent-Child Relationship
CHAPTER 6
RECRUITMENT TO THE HOUSEHOLD: MARRIAGE AND INCORPORATION
Importance and Nature of Marriage
Structural Consequences of Marriage
Incorporation
CHAPTER 7
THE ECONOMIC ASPECT OF THE HOUSEHOLD
Traditional Sources of Household Income
Joint Ownership of Property
CHAPTER 8
PARTITION OF THE HOUSEHOLD
CHAPTER 9
THE FAMILY AND THE PATRILINEAGE
The Family
The Patrilineage
CHAPTER 10
THE WIDER KINSHIP STRUCTURE: NON-AGNATIC KIN
CHAPTER 11
HOUSEHOLD AND THE FAMILY AMONG THE PANDITS OF RURAL KASHMIR: CONCLUSDIGN REVIEW
Appendix I: Structural implications of Marriage: Wife-Givers and Wife-Takers
Appendix II: The Ideology of the Householder
Appendix III: Language of Kinship
Appendix IV: The language of Kinship
Appendix V: The ‘Convoy’: A Note on Five Informants
Appendix VI: On Living Intimately with Strangers
Glossary
References
Index