Matriliny, Merchandise and Islam: A Study of the Keyis in the Coastal Belt of Tellicherry, North Malabar

Abstract

As owners of extensive matrilineal joint households in the Tellicherry Coastal town (North Malabar, South India), Keyis upheld an urban-centred identity in the colonial period. Scattered around the coastal town of Tellicherry in Cannanore, the Keyis today form an economically diverse group. The socio-economic distinction of the Keyis from other Muslim merchants on the Coast, their consolidation of social organisation along the matrilineal line and their economic relations based in landlord –tenant relations are explored here. The nature of the transformation of economic relations and kinship practices among the Keyis in the colonial and post-colonial period puts forth interesting dimensions of their everyday practices as shaped by historic and region-specific socio-economic, legal and political conditions. By undertaking a historical and ethnographic examination of this kinship group, this paper explores Muslim communities and cultures through their pluralities and recommends a methodological shift towards the exploration of kinship practices to inform the current scholarship on the Anthropology of Islam and Kinship Studies.