Chapter 10 - Centers and Boundaries of Regional Caste Systems: Toward A General Model

Abstract

This chapter discusses the centers and boundaries of regional caste systems. In several parts of India, a single dominant caste controls the agricultural activities of a whole region. The chapter also discusses the overall issue of dominance and some of the main features of social organization that tend to accompany it. It explains a test case based on data from southern India. A whole series of social features are related to variations in the basic dominance pattern. Associated components include local food exchange hierarchies, settlement patterns, spatial positioning within the region, and the varied types of historical circumstances that brought particular groups to the area. The status of a dominant caste appears to rest on two things: a near monopoly of management rights in local resources and considerable numerical strength vis-à-vis an otherwise fragmented local population. A dominant caste, just as a dominant species of animal or plant life, once established, tends to expand its domain to fill the space available. This may be an ecologically defined territory bounded by natural features, such as mountains, or a socially defined territory bounded by other equally powerful groups. Once expanded to its natural limit, a group tends to remain stable over time, until outside forces somehow disturb its previous pattern.