The interpretation of caste/
Declan Quigley
- New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- viii, 184 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
- (Oxford studies in social and cultural anthropology) .
1. The Problem Before Dumont -- The Entrenched View of Caste -- The Word 'Caste' -- Is Caste an Orientalist Construct? -- 2. Dumont's Theory of Caste -- Epistemology and Sociology -- The Distinctiveness of Caste -- Status, Power, and Encompassment -- The Structuralist Interpretation of Caste -- Dumont's View of Empiricism -- Dumont's Critique of His Critics -- 3. The Problem With Dumont's Solution -- Why the Problem is not Simply about Caste -- The Sociological Bridge between Traditional and Modern Societies -- Power and Legitimacy -- Structuralism -- 4. The Pure Brahman and the Impure Priest -- The Ideal Brahman in the Real World -- Priests and 'Others' as Vessels of Inauspiciousness -- The Limits of Transcendence -- 5. Caste and Kinship -- Hypergamy -- Isogamy -- Hierarchy and Endogamy -- 6. Caste and Kingship: Hocart's Theory -- Kings and Priests -- Problems with Hocart's Theory -- The Ideologies of Caste -- 7. The Courts of Kings and Washermen -- A Model of Caste Systems -- The Explanation of Caste.