''The Remembered Village'' is a 1978

ethnological Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropology, so ...

work by

M. N. Srinivas Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas (16 November 1916 – 30 November 1999) was an Indian sociologist and social anthropologist. He is mostly known for his work on caste and caste systems, social stratification, Sanskritisation and Westernisation i ...

. The book is about the villager who lives in the small village, named as Rampura in the state of

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

, then called Mysore. It is notable for the absence of fieldnotes as a base for the work, which is considered standard in ethnography following the standards set by Bronislaw Malinowski in ''

Argonauts of the Western Pacific ''Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea'' is a 1922 ethnography by Bronisław Malinowski, which has had enormous impact on the ethnographic genre. The book is ...

'' as they were lost due to arson, and elicited fierce debate in the anthropological community due to its unorthodox origin, among other factors. The book is noted for its concern on the aesthetic, flowing prose and the significant role of the ethnographer himself, a marked departure from earlier works such as

Evans-Pritchard Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard FBA FRAI (21 September 1902 – 11 September 1973) was an English anthropologist who was instrumental in the development of social anthropology. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Ox ...

's studies on the Nuer, which is written with a more objective voice.

Background

The

caste A caste is a Essentialism, fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (en ...

system in India has long been the subject of scholarly interest, but there was a distinct lack of ethnographic material on it as noted by

Radcliffe-Brown Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown, FBA (born Alfred Reginald Brown; 17 January 1881 – 24 October 1955) was an English social anthropologist who helped further develop the theory of structural functionalism. He conducted fieldwork in the Andam ...

. Inspired by this and other works such as that of

Robert Redfield Robert Redfield (December 4, 1897 – October 16, 1958) was an American anthropologist and ethnolinguist, whose ethnographic work in Tepoztlán, Mexico, is considered a landmark of Latin American ethnography. He was associated with the Universi ...

and Fei Hsiao-Tung, M.N. Srinivas set out to a remote part of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

to carry out fieldwork as part of the position he was offered by his teacher,

and ended up choosing Rampura due to his fluency in

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

and several emotional factors, including his ties to Mysore and being awed by the local view.

Overview

The book consists of eleven chapters. General summaries of each chapter are included below. * Chapter I: A description of the educational background of Srinivas and key theoretical influences, including

and his decision to pick Rampura as the fieldwork site * Chapter II: A brief overview of Rampura * Chapter III: Three important men; The Headman, Kulle Gowda, and Nadu Gowda * Chapter IV: Role of agriculture, and the general preoccupation of land by the villagers * Chapter V: The role of sex in division of labour and sexual urges of the villagers * Chapter VI: Inter-Caste relationships, purity and pollution plus discussions on

Harijans Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold varn ...

and Muslims * Chapter VII: Compounding of caste hierarchy by land possession, and the landowner-client relationship * Chapter VIII: Changes of the village since 1948 to around 1952 * Chapter IX: Quality of social relations and reciprocity * Chapter X: Role of religion, regarding pan-Indian deities in Hinduism and local deities * Chapter XI: The author's recollections of his last few days in Rampura

Theoretical concepts

Sanskritisation

The all-India ''

varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city ** Varna Province ** Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna ** Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis * Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy * Varna (Šabac), a village in Serbia Asia * Var ...

'' and the local ''jati'', based on land ownership, often are not strictly the same, with

Brahmins Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

and Lingayats higher in the caste order often being clients lower in the ''Varna'' order. The disparity in rank between the economic status and the ritual status could result in high ''jati'' classes moving up the ''varna'' hierarchy by adopting practices of higher castes.

Dominant caste

The concept of dominant caste in the book, where the peasant caste has much practical power, including influential members such as the headman, his lineage and the God's house lineage, could be related to their large numbers viv-à-vis the smaller numbers of the Brahmins, and could be used to explain other social phenomena, such as prestige among English trade unions.

Reception

David Francis Pocock David Francis Pocock (3 September 1928 – 25 November 2007) was a British anthropologist whose main field of study was the people and diaspora of the Indian state of Gujarat, and in particular the Patidar community of that state. David Pocock ...

criticized Srinivas for putting excessive sociological jargon for his supposed audience,"the educated layman" and yet not sufficient to justify it as scholarly work, and also noted on the question of subjectivity. Another common form of criticism relates to the shortcomings of

structural-functionalism Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is "a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability". This approach looks at society through a macro-level o ...

, the basis of the work as taught by Evans-Pritchard in the vein of Durkheim.