Page 111 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Social Stratification

Notes these features, the scholars have not made distinction between caste as a unit and caste as a
system. Keeping this difference in view, it may be maintained that the important features of caste
as a unit are hereditary membership, endogamy, fixed occupation, and caste councils; while the
features of caste as a system are hierarchy, commensal restrictions, and restrictions with regard to
physical and social distance. We will analyze these features of caste as a system and caste as a unit
separately.
Features (of Caste) as a System

(a) Hierarchy based on Birth
No two castes have an equal status. One caste has either a low or a high status in relation to
other castes. It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the exact or even the approximate
place of each caste in the hierarchical system. Two methods have mainly been used in
assessing the hierarchy : observational method and opinion-assessing method. In the former,
either the attributional method or the interactional method has been used for ranking the
castes. The attributional method determines the rank of a caste by its behaviour, for example,
its customs, practice of degrading occupation, vegetarianism, habits of liquor-drinking, etc.,
the interactional method evaluates ranks of two given castes in relationship to each other by
observing the commensal interaction and marital relations, etc. between the two castes. If a
caste ‘A’ accepts a girl in marriage from a caste ‘B’ but does not give a girl in that caste, ‘A’
will have higher status than ‘B’. This is because of the hypergamy rule according to which a
girl of a lower caste can marry in a higher caste but not vice-versa. Similarly, if the members
of a caste ‘A’ do not accept food from the members of a caste ‘B’ but members of caste ‘B’
accept it, it will indicate the higher status of ‘A’ over ‘B’.
In the ‘opinion-assessing’ method, the ranks of various castes in the collective caste hierarchy
are assessed on the basis of the opinions of various respondents from different castes. The
advantage in the ‘opinion-assessing’ method over the ‘observational’ method is that in the
former, it is possible to regard hierarchy and interaction as two variables and study their
relationship. A.C. Mayer, M.N. Srinivas, D.N. Majumdar, S.C. Dube, Pauline Mahar, etc. had
used the observational method while Mckim Marriot and Stanley Freed had used the
opinionassessment method in analyzing the caste ranks in the caste hierarchy. S.C.Dube
(1955 : 34-42) used only one criterion for determining the caste hierarchies in three villages
in Telangana : which castes can theoretically take food from which other castes. Mayer (Caste
and Kinship in Central India, 1960) on the other hand, used the criterion of ‘commensality’
which involves principally the giving and taking of food and water and sharing of the same
pipe (huka) among various castes. Pauline Mahar ( 1959 : 92-107) ranked castes with regard
to their ritual purity and pollution by using a multiple-scaling technique. She issued a 13-
item questionnaire about the kinds of interaction between castes which involve to a
considerable extent ritual purity and pollution. M.N. Srinivas (cf. Mckim Marriott, 1955) and
D.N. Majumdar (1959) constructed their own picture of hierarchy. Srinivas, however, agrees
that such evaluations (by constructing one’s own picture of hierarchy) are somewhat
subjective. Mayer also maintains that caste hierarchies constructed according to different
criteria do not completely agree.
Mckim Marriott (1955) and Stanley Freed (1963 : 879-91) used the card system to determine
median rank for each caste in the collective caste hierarchy. Both presented a set of movable
cards, upon each of which was written the name of a caste, to each respondent with a request
to arrange the cards in their order of rank. The slight difference between Marriott’s and
Freed’s procedure was that Marriott presented the cards one by one, while Freed presented
them altogether. Scholars like Srinivas and Mayer have commented that caste membership
may influence a person’s view of the caste hierarchy, or at least his opinion about the place

106 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY