Irawati Karve – Kinship and the family

Irawati Karve – Kinship and the family

Irawati Karve was the first woman anthropologist of India who hailed from Maharashtra. She has contributed to various branches of sociology, anthropology, and literature collecting and interpreting data to add new dimensions to all these areas. Karve’s first major work “Kinship Organization in India”, published in 1953, has become the standard work on family structure in India.

Karve has presented the material on Indian kinship dividing the country into four different cultural zones in accordance with the marriage practices followed in each, i.e., (1) the northern, (2) the central, (3) the southern, and (4) the eastern.

Three things are absolutely necessary for the understanding of any cultural phenomenon in India. These are the configuration of the linguistic regions, the institution of caste and family organization. Each of these three factors is intimately bound up with the other two and the three together give meaning and supply basis to all the other aspects of Indian culture.

1. Configuration of the linguistic regions:

A language area is one in which several languages belonging to one language family are spoken. For example, zones (1) and (2) comprise the language area of the Sanskritic or Indo-European languages; zone (3) is made up of the Dravidian language area while the zone (4) includes the scattered area wherein Austro-Austric languages are spoken.

Each of these language areas is further divided into different linguistic regions. In each of such regions, one language and its dialects are spoken. The linguistic regions possess a certain homogeneity of culture, traits and kinship organization. The common language makes communication easy, sets the limits of marital connections and confines kinship mostly within the language region.

2. Institution of caste:

Karve emphasized that to comprehend any aspect of Indian culture, one must have a thorough understanding of the caste system. A caste is, with very few exceptions, an endogamous group, confined to one linguistic region. Endogamy and distribution over a definite area make caste members related to one another either by ties of blood or by marriage. Therefore, caste can be defined as an extended kin group.

In Indian literature, both old and new, the various words for caste are jãti, jãta or kulum. Many castes having similar status and performing similar functions have names, one part of which may be common. Thus, the castes, engaged in the work of goldsmith, have Sonar (worker in gold) as the common part of their names.

In Maharashtra, for example, there are the following distinct castes doing work in gold: Daivadnya Sonar, Ahir Sonar, Lad Sonar, etc. Each of them is fully endogamous and occupies hereditary occupation within Maharashtra – a region slightly different from the others. Thus, endogamy, distribution over a definite region and a hereditary occupation are the characteristics of a caste. In addition, castes are also ranked in a certain order.

3. Family organization:

Karve discusses the structure of joint families in India, highlighting that they typically consist of three or four generations of males related to a central male figure. However, she does not include the great-grandfather in this count, making it a deeper genealogical structure. She notes the various characteristics of joint families, including shared property and common ancestral seats. Karve also mentions that when these families split, they form smaller units consisting of a man, his wife, sons, daughters, and sometimes younger brothers. According to her approach, these are considered two-generation units, while others may view them as three-generation units.

Thus, the linguistic region, the institution of caste and the family are the three most important aspects of the culture of any group in India. This applies also to what are called the primitive tribes of India. These tribes have lived with the others for thousands of years. According to the Vedas, the difference between the cultural level of the conquering Aryans and the conquered Dasyus (forest dwellers) could not have been very great. Both were illiterate and polytheistic.