Hindu caste society: origins and composition

Authors

  • Елена Николаевна Успенская Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, 3, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation

Abstract

The current theories of caste abound in difficult questions. Two of them are discussed here. Theory and practice of Brachmanical acculturation, namely, Sanskritization, was an effective social method invented by Brahmans. Throughout Indian history, ethnic contacts were minimized and inter-group communication was converted into a kind of hierarchical social stratification. The so-called savage tribes were encapsulated and transformed into cooperative social units by means of Hindu religion. This was the way of Sanskritization for the God-created human beings, or Jatis. Ethnic jatis and professional jatis are now the basic constituent units of the Hindu society.

Keywords:

India, ethnography, social organisation, traditional society, caste

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Published

2010-09-20

How to Cite

Успенская, Е. Н. (2010). Hindu caste society: origins and composition. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, (3), 68–76. Retrieved from https://aasjournal.spbu.ru/article/view/1968

Issue

No. 3 (2010): Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Series 13. Asian Studies. African Studies

Section

Geocultural spaces and codes of the cultures of Asia and Africa

License

Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.