South Asian
Family, Society, and Polity
October 24, 2013
Review
What is the difference between Northern Song and
Southern Song?
Who are the literati? What does their emergence tell us
about government and society during the Song?
What was the status of women in Song China?
Why did the Song fail to make the transition to an
industrial revolution?
What is Neo-Confucianism?
The family in South Asia
Trautmann, pp.86-91
•
patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal (Trautmann,
pp. 87-89)
•
extended membership, joint property ownership
•
marriages were arranged and indissoluble, and
exogamous.
•
Women brought a dowry into their marriage.
•
Ritual homage to ancestors was important.
South Indian differences
Trautmann, 92-93
•
There were some matrilineal families in South India,
particularly in Kerala and among the Tamils.
•
In parts of South India, marriage exogamy
sometimes was modified by a preference for
marriages between cousins.
Social Structure
Trautmann, pp.94-97
A segmented society: caste (varna and jati)
• A caste society is one that is segmented, with the segments
hierarchically arranged and endogamous. Caste status is
inherited
Varna: 1) priest, 2) ruler/warrior, 3)
merchant/landowner/merchant/farmer, 4) servant/tenant +
untouchables (Dalit)
Jati (caste): occupationally-defined and regionallybased. Endogamous. Rejects food prepared by a lower
caste.
Criteria for caste ranking
Ritual pollution: dealing with bodily products makes you
unclean and unable to take part in higher status rituals
Food pollution: What you eat, and whom you receive cooked
food from, also determines how clean
” you are. Beef is the most polluting food.
Castes sometimes try to change their ranking through
Sanskritization.
Hinduism supports caste hierarchy.
Caste relationships
•
In a traditional village, before it was penetrated by a
monetary economy, we can find the jajmani system,
in which lower castes are required to provide certain
goods and services to higher castes, in return for a
share of the harvest.
•
Trautmann, 94.
•
varna and jati are not in a strict one-to-one
relationship. They are overlapping categories.
Polity
Trautmann, 97-101
•
Some republics, which means rule by a few
members of the elite. A republic at this time in South
Asian history is an oligarchy,not a democracy.
•
There were also monarchies, but the kings, though
they may be seen as semi-divine, nonetheless did
not have unlimited power. They had to allow some
autonomy to some self-regulating groups.
The position of women
•
Sati (suttee), widows joining their deceased
husbands on their funeral prye, emerges during the
Gupta period.
•
The importance of dowries also suggests that the
labour of women is not valued particularly high.
•
Women do not inherit a share of their father’s
property, though their brothers do so.
The social structure in China
No castes: relatively egalitarian for males
Civil service examinations allowed some male social
mobility
Traditional ranking: scholars, peasants, artisans,
merchants.
Supported by Confucian equating of scholarship with
virtue
Social structure
in Korea and Japan
•
In Korea, aristocrats still retained their status. In
Silla Korea, moreover, the rulers tended to also be
the chief warriors. Their officials had to have the
right family background to hold an official post.
•
Japan was similar in that, through the Heian period,
aristocrats monopolized power. There were no civil
service exams.
Social Structure in SE
ASIA
Merchants had higher official status than elsewhere
Relative equality of men and women,
including in Vietnam
Slavery common, but often was temporary, a result of
unpaid debt.
Criteria for Social Ranking
Is status inherited or earned?
In most places, it was inherited, but in China men could earn
high status
What role do virtue, ritual purity, family background, or skill
(military, commercial, etc.) play in status?
In China, virtue (learning) was important.
In India, ritual purity was important
In the Malay world, commercial skill was important.
In Japan and Korea, family background was important.
Need for Social Hierarchy
Provides stability by defining individual social roles
Eases individual uncertainty about what to do with
one’s life
Explains why the fruits of a society are distributed
the way they are
What is the relationship between
religion, philosophy, and the social
structure?
Religions and philosophy legitimize the existing
social structure by claiming that it is natural or even
divinely ordained. However, religion and philosophy
can also be double-edged swords since both might
generate ethical principles (such as the value of the
individual, and the equality of all human beings)
that can challenge those aspects of the existing
social order which conflict with those principles.