The Poison in the Gift - Ritual, Prestation, and the Dominant Caste in a North Indian Village (Hardcover)

"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.

General

Imprint:	University of Chicago Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	June 1988
First published:	June 1988
Authors:	Gloria Goodwin Raheja
Dimensions:	232 x 161 x 2mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	300
ISBN-13:	978-0-226-70728-0
Categories:	Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Cultural studies > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social groups & communities > Rural communities Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Customs & folklore > Customs
LSN:	0-226-70728-8
Barcode:	9780226707280

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!