Status and sacredness: a general theory of status relations and an analysis of Indian culture

Abstract

Intro -- Contents -- A Note on Foreign Words -- 1. Introduction -- Contemporary Social Theory -- A Theoretical Strategy -- Types of Resources and Types of Social Structures -- Symbolic Capital -- Status, Legitimacy, and Sacredness -- The Analytical Strategy -- Imagining India -- Status, Sacredness, and the Modern World -- 2. Theoretical Concepts -- Symbols, Agency, Contingency, and Structure -- Social Formations -- Types of Power and Types of Social Formations -- Variations in the Importance of Resources -- 3. A Theory of Status Relationships: Key Elements -- The Characteristics of Status as a Resource -- The Sources of Status -- Summary -- 4. Key Features of Indian Society: What Is to Be Explained -- Hinduism: A Brief Sketch -- Caste and the Social Structure -- Economic and Political Power: Control of Land and Labor -- Cultural Ideologies and Codes -- What Is to Be Explained -- 5. Explaining the Key Features of Caste -- Status and Power in India -- What Is to Be Explained -- Stability and Inalienability -- Mobility and Inexpansibility -- Conformity and the Elaboration of Norms and Rituals -- Associations and the Regulation of Marriage and Eating -- Gifts: Articulating Status and Material Resources -- 6. The Social Categories of Traditional India -- The Problem Defined -- What Is to Be Explained -- Relationships Between the Different Types of Power -- Types of Elites and Their Antagonists: A General Model -- Applying the Model to India -- The Genius of the Brahmans -- Kshatriyas and Sudras -- Missing Categories -- Ambiguous Categories -- The Prominence of Certain Categories -- The Presence and Absence of Varnas -- Elaboration: Asramas and Yugas -- Conclusion -- 7. The Articulation of Status and Material Resources: Political and Economic Legitimacy -- The Analytical Problem -- What Is to Be Explained -- The Concept of Legitimacy.