Session Name: Margins and Marginalities in India: thinking across regions and communities I
1 - How egalitarian are tribal societies?
Thursday, August 1, 2024
09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)
Presentation Abstract Tribal societies are largely considered equal and just societies. It was the anthropological discourse of tribes that established such a view. The horizontal nature of the social organization, the communitarian ethos, and the relative gender equality are often made to present an image of egalitarianism in tribal society. Furthermore, the social organization of tribes around clans and kinship has created a relatively equal society than caste society. In other words, the question of equality in tribal society is largely viewed in comparison with caste society. Such a view tends to perpetuate the image of tribal communities as unchanging and static communities. Beyond this, to view tribal society from the point of egalitarianism only reinforces a romanticized view of tribal society. Whereas there are distinctions and variations among tribes in terms of how they have fared socially, economically, and politically, there are new forms of inequality that are getting entrenched in tribal society. The paper draws upon the emergence of elite in tribal society, both traditional and modern, and how this emergence resulted into new forms of inequality in tribal society.
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