The aim of this paper is to question the paradigm—which is also central to Parry's theory of the 'Indian gift'-of the unilaterality of the gift structure among wife-givers and wife-takers in north India on the occasion of marriage and other samskara. On the basis of detailed ethnography, it will be shown that the gift giving system (bartan) of the urban Khatri in Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) does not substantiate this theory of unilaterality. In Mandi there is definitely an asymmetric, but not a clear-cut unilateral, structure. Even with regard to kanyadan, reciprocation seems to be more complex than the soteriological argument of Trautmann and Parry suggests. It will be further argued that, with regard to Mandi, proportional, asymmetric reciprocation is central to the system of bartan, which implies a gift exchange in Mauss' categories. Bartan is conditioned by the content and structure of the rites de passage, by the general hierarchical social order, by the kin structure, and by asymmetry of giving, receiving and returning of gifts within the life cycle and over the generations.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Appadurai, Arjun.1986. Introduction: Commodities and the politics of value. In A. Appadurai, ed., The social life of things. Commodities in cultural perspectiveCambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2.
Carter, A.T.1973. A comparative analysis of systems of kinship and marriage in South Asia. Proceedings of the royal anthropological institute of Great Britain and Ireland, pp. 29-54.
3.
Cheals, David.1988. The gift economy. London: Routledge.
4.
Dumont, Louis.1962. Le vocabulaire de parenté dans l'Inde du nord. L'Homme2: 5-48.
5.
—. 1966. Marriage in India: The present state of the question. 3. North India in relation to south India. Contributions to Indian sociology9: 90-114.
6.
—. 1975. Terminology and prestations revisited. Contributions to Indian sociology (n.s.) 9, 2: 197-215.
7.
—. 1988 (1980). Homo hierarchicus. The caste system and its implications. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
8.
Eglar, Zekiye.1960. A Punjabi village in Pakistan. New York: Columbia University Press.
9.
Fruzzetti, Lina M.1982. The gift of a virgin. Women, marriage, and ritual in a Bengali society. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
10.
Fruzzetti, Lina, and Akos Östör.1976. Is there a structure to north Indian kinship terminology ? Contributions to Indian sociology10, 1: 63-95.
11.
Gregory, C.A.1982. Gifts and commodities. London : Academic Press.
12.
Hazlehurst, Leighton W.1966. Entrepreneurship and the merchant castes in a Punjabi city. Durham: Duke University Commonwealth Studies Center, Monograph and Occasional Paper Series, Monograph No. 1.
Hesse, Klaus. Forthcoming. Die Khatri und der Bazar von Mandi—Händler, Landbesitzer und Staatsdiener. Munster: LIT-Verlag (forthcoming in 1996).
15.
HUMPHREY, CAROLINE. and Stephen Hugh-Jones, eds. 1992. Barter, exchange and value. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
16.
Jamous, Raymond.1992. The brother-married-sister relationship and marriage ceremonies as sacrificial rites: A case study from northern India. In Daniel De Coppet, ed., Understanding rituals , pp. 52-73. London, New York : Routledge .
17.
Krader, Lawrence.1975. The Asiatic mode of production. Assen : Van Gorcum.
18.
—. 1979. A treatise of social labor. Assen: Van Gorcum.
19.
Leach, Edmund.1978. Kultur und Kommunikation. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
20.
Lewis, Oscar.1958. Village life in northern India. New York: Vintage Books.
21.
Ma, G.1976. Reciprocity. Man (n.s.) 2: 89-103.
22.
Madan, T.N.1965. Family and kinship. A study of the Pandits of rural KashmirBombay: Asia Publishing House.
23.
—. 1975. Structural implications of marriage in north India: Wife-givers and wife-takers among the Pandits of Kashmir. Contributions to Indian sociology (n.s.) 9, 2: 217-44.
24.
Madan, T.N.1991. Auspiciousness and purity: Some reconsiderations . Contributions to Indian sociology (n.s.) 25, 2: 287-94.
25.
Malinowski, Bronislaw.1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
26.
Mauss, Marcel.1968 (1923/24). Die Gabe. Form und Funktion des Austauschs in archaischen Gesellschaften. Frankfurt a.M. : Suhrkamp.
27.
Mayer, Adrian C.1973. Caste and kinship in central India. Berkeley: SAGE Publications. First published in 1960.
28.
Pandey, Raj Bali.1969. Hindu samskaras. Socio-religious study of the Hindu sacrament . Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass .
29.
Parry, Jonathan.1979. Caste and kinship in Kangra. London : Routledge and Kegan Paul.
30.
—. 1980. Ghosts, greed and sin: The occupational identity of the Benares funeral priests. Man15: 88-111.
31.
—. 1982. Sacrificial death and the necrophagous ascetic . In M. Bloch and J. Parry eds., Death and the regeneration of life, pp. 75-110. New York: Cambridge University Press.
32.
—. 1986. The gift, the Indian gift and the 'Indian gift' . Man (n.s.) 21: 453-73.
33.
—. 1989. On the moral perils of exchange. In Jonathan Parry and Maurice Bloch, eds., Money and the morality of exchange, pp. 64-93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
34.
—. 1991. The Hindu lexicographer? A note on auspiciousness and purity. Contributions to Indian sociology 25, 2: 267-85.
35.
Raheja, Gloria Goodwin.1988. The poison in the gift. Ritual, prestation and the dominant caste in a north Indian village. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press .
36.
Rose, H.A.1978 (1919). A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Provinces. 3 vols. Delhi: Amar Prakashan.
37.
Sahlins, Marshall.1972. Stone age economics. London : Tavistock.
38.
Scheffler, Harold W.1980. Kin classification and social structure in north India . Contributions to Indian sociology14: 131-68.
39.
Tambiah, Stanley J.1973. Dowry and bridewealth and the property rights of women in South Asia. In J. Goody and S.J. Tambiah, eds., Bridewealth and dowry , pp. 59-169. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
40.
Thapar, Romila.1978. Dana and dakshina as forms of exchange. In Romila Thapar.Ancient Indian social history , pp. 105-21. New Delhi: Orient Longman.
41.
Trautmann, Thomas R.1995. Dravidian kinship. New Delhi : Vistaar. First published in 1981 by Cambridge University Press.
42.
Turner, James.1975. A formal semantic analysis of a Hindi kinship terminology . Contributions to Indian sociology (n.s.) 9, 2: 263-92.
43.
Van Gennep, Arnold.1986. Ubergangsriten. Les rites de passage. Frankfurt: Campus. First published in 1909.
44.
Vatuk, Sylvia.1969. A structural analysis of the Hindi kinship terminology . Contributions to Indian sociology (n.s.) 3: 93-115.
45.
—. 1971. Trends in north Indian urban kinship: The 'matrilateral asymmetry' hypothesis. Southwestern journal of anthropology27: 287-307.
46.
—. 1975. Gifts and affines in north India. Contributions to Indian sociology (n.s.) 9: 155-96.
47.
Weiner, Annette B.1980. Reproduction: A replacement for reciprocity. American ethnologist7: 71-85.
48.
—. 1992. Inalienable possessions: The paradox of keeping while giving. Berkeley: SAGE Publications.
49.
Werbner, Pnina.1986. The virgin and the clown: Ritual elaboration in Pakistani migrants' weddings. Man (n.s.) 21: 227-50.
50.
—. 1990. Economic rationality and hierarchical gift economics: Value ranking among British Pakistanis. Man2: 266-85.
