Ecological organization of Indian rural population

Abstract

The Component Population Units (ECGs) of Indian Village Communities The rural populations in India are organized into village communities as agglomerations of several endogamous caste groups (ECGs), each with a distinct reproductive and cultural identity. The component ECGs of the village communities studied from the peninsular habitats still maintain their reproductive identity to a large extent. Members of an ECG with low local abundance in the village community accept the necessity of searching further for a suitable mate from their own endogamous group rather than breaking traditional endogamous barriers with coexisting groups. In addition to endogamy, the potential pool of marriage partners is further restricted by additional group specific rules of exogamy. Although the frequency of IGMs (inter caste marriages), i.e., breakdown of endogamous barriers, is still very low in these communities, it appears to be increasing in the recent decade, as claimed by many older members. The much higher frequency of IGMs among marriages sampled during the last decade compared to earlier decades suggests the same pattern. Social acceptance of such IGMs may also be a recent trend and positively correlated with the increasing number of such marriages. Community members note that over the years, the authority of traditional caste and village councils-which formerly punished couples and their families for breaking rules of endogamy-has weakened and given way to modern secular administration, which is often favourably disposed towards inter caste marriages. The Andaman Bengali population represents a special case of community organization in which demographic and social perturbations have led to a breakdown of endogamous barriers at a high frequency. The low population sizes of potential mates on the islands and poor communication with mainland populations appear to be the major forces behind this breakdown, accompanied by erosion in the traditional social controls over group behaviour. It is interesting that the frequency of IGMs is significantly higher among groups belonging to the lower socio economic strata in the village communities of the transect habitats. In the Andaman Bengali refugee populations, two groups-Brahmin and Kayastha-showed lower frequencies of IGMs and greater effort to avoid such marriages, consistent with their higher socio economic status in their original communities. IGMs between members of different ECGs with similar socio economic status seem to be socially more acceptable than those between groups with very disparate status. Besides reproductive identity, each ECG in a village community maintains a cultural identity distinct from other coexisting groups. A few coexisting groups are found to be very close to each other when cultural differences are ordinally scaled and expressed quantitatively for peninsular village communities. A particularly interesting observation is that two otherwise closely similar groups often maintain-deliberately and conspicuously-an exclusive variant of a cultural trait uniformly shared among their members. These exclusive traits likely serve as markers of group identity. Such markers may include distinctive variants of dress, language, or phonetics, which are neutral to subsistence activities, or variations in tools, technology, or the use of particular plant or animal species, which may influence subsistence performance. A caste specific occupation may also function as a group marker. These findings match the general proposition (Abruzzi, 1982; Richerson, 1990; Berreman, in press) that cultural traits without apparent functional significance may mark ethnic group affiliation. Sahlins (1976), however, cautions against overgeneralization; in the present case, participants’ perceptions gathered through interviews support the proposition. Religious beliefs and practices appear to be traditionally the most important category of cultural traits contributing to ECG identity. This is evident from the clustering patterns obtained through multidimensional scaling of coexisting groups in the transect habitats. Muslim and Lingayat groups cluster distinctly apart from Hindu groups. Hindu groups show higher internal variability, reflecting the well known diversity within Hinduism. Secondary clustering among Hindu groups is generally based on differences in mother tongue. Conversion to a new religion almost always results in the erection of an endogamous barrier between the converted families and the rest of the parental group. These converted families often retain other elements of their original cultural identity-especially name, caste occupation, and origin or migration history-and remain culturally and reproductively distinct segments within their new religious community. Settlement patterns, being group based, have an important effect on the pattern of cultural transmission of various traits, and hence on group specific cultural diversity. Variants of a trait may be transmitted through close interaction without conscious group enforcement. In such cases, because interactions occur more frequently within the same group, the trait variant tends to remain group specific. This is especially true for traits transmitted at an early developmental stage (e.g., phonetic variation, attitudes, values) because children move less from home than adults. Intrafamilial transmission, especially via the vertical route, is the most important mode of transmitting traditional cultural traits in these populations, including those related to subsistence activities. Passive learning-being low cost-favours vertical transmission. With vertical transmission, traits change little over generations. These traits indeed have characterized these populations over long periods with little transformation (Kosambi, 1975). Several modern traits, however, are elaborate and rapidly changing-for example, new medical knowledge incorporated into “medical treatment.” Such traits require specialized transmission sources (often multiple teachers) and active learning processes for their transmission.