The Nayars Today

Erscheinungsjahr 1976
ISBN: 978-0-521-21301-1
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 185 Seiten, Gewicht: 370 g

Reihe: Changing Culture Series

The Nayars of Kerala, south-west India, unusually trace descent through the female line and, in the past, had a marriage system in which women were allowed several husbands simultaneously. This system has brought the Nayars continuing fame in anthropological circles. In this 1976 study, Dr Fuller analyses fieldwork data collected among Nayars in a village in southern Kerala, a region on which there is practically no modern anthropological information. In the final section of the book, Dr Fuller looks at the 'traditional' marriage system of the Nayars and offers some suggestions about its operation. He also discusses the collapse of the old joint-family system and, with the aid of his data from southern Kerala, proposes some arguments about the process of its disintegration. More fully than previous authors, he situates his analysis in its historical context throughout, as befits an account of a rapidly changing society.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fuller, C. J.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Ethnolinguistik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophische Anthropologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; 1. 'The Nobles of Malabar': foreign images of the Nayars; 2. Introduction to the Nayas in Central Travancore; 3. The Nayar kinship system in Ramankara; 4. The Nayar marriage system in Ramankara; 5. The 'traditional' Nayar marriage system; 6. The disintegration of the matrilineal joint-family system; Notes; Glossary; References; Index.