Patriarchies of the Community: Women and Oral Traditions in Verrier Elwin's The Baiga

Abstract

Debates in environmental and tribal studies have often posited the egalitarian community as a democratic alternative against the modern state. One of the characteristics of these alternatives has been the idea that tribal women enjoy high status and freedom of choice as compared with the women of caste Hindu societies. However, many of these depictions are based on interpretations of earlier anthropological documentation of tribal practices and tradition. Therefore, an evaluation of the status of tribal women within the community requires an interrogation of these texts and the traditions that they record. In this context this essay interrogates Verrier Elwin ‘s The Baiga to analyse the status of Baiga women and the patriarchal processes to which they are subjected. It argues that the oral traditions can themselves act as devices for the legitimating patriarchal power within the community and that the process of recording of such traditions can make the anthropologist a catalyst in this process.