Critically examine the attributional approach to the study of caste.
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Answers
The attributional approach for studying caste system is that the people can understand the root and features of the entire caste system by this approach.
The caste system is generally based on a hierarchy in India.
The hierarchy is created on verifying the birth, traditions and customs followed by the people in the society.
The attributional approach describes the qualities of the caste system.
Max Weber and Bougle had developed what has come to be known as the attributional approach. Attributional approach elucidates principally the important features of the caste system and what differentiates it from other forms of the social stratification
EXPLANATION:
Attributes are intrinsic inalienable qualities associated with the caste system As such, each caste should be involved in these attributes essentially. In the 1930s Ghurye wrote and thought, that each caste was hierarchically separated from the other. This order was legally derived from attributes of a caste. These were
- Segmental Division: Membership in a caste group is acquired by birth and is in the rank in contrast to other castes.
- Hierarchy: From the above, high rank orders or superiority or inferiority relations were arranged. While Brahms were acknowledged as high, untouchables were in the very bottom of the hierarchy
- Caste Restrictions: These were imposed on every caste that allowed its members to associate with specific groups of people only. It included their clothing, their voice, their customs, their rituals, and their food. The system was designed to maintain the purity of the members of the group, therefore of the caste.
- Caste Pollution: In this idea, a caste made every effort to prevent pollution caused by polluting objects (those that were unclean or lowest caste). This pollution shielding is reflected in the caste group's residential separation . Traditional Occupation: Ghurye thought that every caste was held historically by clean castes, whereas the unclean and unclean caste had depilatory castes.
- Endogamy: This feature of the castes was very distinct and necessary to retain it as a group with a distinctive character. Basically it maintained that only in one's own caste could one marry..
Ghurye tried to describe the mechanism by which a caste community preserved its caste identity through 6 attributes. The caste community retained its own separate identity, which it tried to preserve over the years by retaining the various characteristics of segment separation, hierarchy, caste constraints, caste contaminants, traditional occupation and marriage in a particular caste circle.
Another important feature of the caste system as seen by Hutton was the taboo on taking cooked food from any caste but one's own. Such restrictions raise questions in themselves:
The food is cooked by whom?
What type of vessel was the food cooked in'?
Is the food (cooked in water) that is kaccha/uncooked or pakka (fried in oil).
Food is hierarchy and vegetarian food is ranked above non-vegetarian food. Brahmin are typically vegetarian, how Bengali and Kashmiri Brahmins eat non-vegetarian food as well.
The process of forming the caste identity reflects these restrictions. We represent the distinction between the caste groups and hierarchy. Therefore, the failure to accept food represents rank superiority or rank dominance. The belief that' pureness' is preserved and' pollution' is minimized also permeates these experiences. For example, in areas of South India the fear of pollution is transformed into a physical distance between the upper and lower castes. Again, low-ranking castes must avoid the temples of the village and keep a physical distance from higher caste members. Hutton thus explains caste interactions with the concept of caste attributes, primarily in terms of purity, impurity, restrictions, and endogamy on commensality.
In the case of Srinivas in the 50's we see that, on the basis of these characteristics, he chooses to research the structure of relations between castes. Though he presents an extremely forceful dynamic aspect of caste identity. Through Srinivas ' work on spatial mobility, called the' Sanskritisation, this dimension becomes more apparent. Sanskritisation is a process in which a caste tries, by adopting in practice the caste attributes or the castes above them, to raise its ranking within the hierarchy of castes. In other words, the' low' attributes are slowly eliminated, and the castes above them are imitated in the' high' attributes. It includes vegetarianism, pure jobs, etc. Closely connected is the concept of dominant caste. The dominant caste in a village is conspicuous by its ownership of land, sizeable numerical presence, and political power. A dominant caste thus has both numerical and economic and political significance. Interestingly, the dominant caste shouldn't be the highest caste ranking in the hierarchy of the village caste. All the other castes are dominated by the dominant caste.
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CRITICALLY EXAMINE THE ATTRIBUTIONAL APPROACH TO STUDY OF CASTE.
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Critically examine the attributional approach to the study of caste
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