Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its ImplicationsLouis Dumont's modern classic, here presented in an enlarged, revised, and corrected second edition, simultaneously supplies that reader with the most cogent statement on the Indian caste system and its organizing principles and a provocative advance in the comparison of societies on the basis of their underlying ideologies. Dumont moves gracefully from the ethnographic data to the level of the hierarchical ideology encrusted in ancient religious texts which are revealed as the governing conception of the contemporary caste structure. On yet another plane of analysis, homo hierarchicus is contrasted with his modern Western antithesis, homo aequalis. This edition includes a lengthy new Preface in which Dumont reviews the academic discussion inspired by Homo Hierarchicus and answers his critics. A new Postface, which sketches the theoretical and comparative aspects of the concept of hierarchy, and three significant Appendixes previously omitted from the English translation complete this innovative and influential work. |
Contents
Preface to the Complete English Edition | xi |
Preface to the First French Edition | xlv |
Brief Note on Transliteration of Indian Words | li |
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
HISTORY OF IDEAS | 21 |
FROM SYSTEM TO STRUCTURE | 33 |
HIERARCHY | 65 |
THE DIVISION OF LABOUR | 92 |
COMPARISON | 201 |
COMPARISON CONCLUDED | 217 |
TOWARD A THEORY OF HIERARCHY | 239 |
APPENDIX A | 247 |
APPENDIX B | 267 |
APPENDIX C | 287 |
APPENDIX D | 314 |
MAPS | 336 |
Common terms and phrases
ahimsā anthropology artha Arthashastra aspect authority Blunt Bouglé Brahmans Buddhism called caste system Chapter commensality comparison concept considered corresponding culture dharma distinction distinguish division of labour dominant caste Dumont economic egalitarian endogamy example fact function Ghurye hierarchy Hindu Hinduism Hocart Hutton hypergamy idea ideology India Indian Sociology individual inferior jāti king kinship Kshatriya l'Inde Lingayat literature M. N. Srinivas Manu marriage Marriott Max Weber modern Muslims nature notion opposition panchayat particular point of view political precisely present priests principle pure and impure purity question Rajput rank recognize reference region relation relationship religion religious renouncer renunciation ritual sanyasi sect seen sense Shudras social stratification society Sociology Sous-caste speak Srinivas status structural subcaste superior Talcott Parsons tendency territorial texts theory tion traditional Untouchables Uttar Pradesh values varnas vegetarianism village whilst whole