Anthropology Nayar People of India - Research Paper Example

 Anthropology Nayar People of India Introduction The Nayar people of India are found in the Southern part of the country. These people have a culture that is unique and worth mentioning among other cultures in the world. The political, religious, and social organization of the Nayar people is largely based on the female lineage. The woman is the main element in all aspects of the Nayar people’s lives. For instance, the political structure is based on the kin-groups. These kin-groups are usually composed of the woman, her children, her brothers, sisters, and their mother. A unique phenomenon is seen in its social organization. A woman, is allowed to have multiple husbands at the same time (Nowak, 2010) and is often married off before reaching puberty. The woman takes care of all the household responsibilities including those of her children. The man is not allowed to live with her or even support her and her children. The only thing that a man can do is buy her gifts and pay for the midwife fees if he acknowledges he made the woman pregnant (Nowak, 2010). The paper will explore the political, social, and religious organization of the Nayar people. Political Organization Nayar are thought to have weak fraternal interest groups. They have small political subunits, which are kin-based. The kin-based political units are the property owning groups, which are composed of sisters, brothers, and the sisters’ children who live in a common house or household. It is important to note that the Nayar people do not have bride price or an organized patrilineal descent system. In the Nayar society, the traditional definition of marriage is not applicable (Nowak, 2010). Thus, it can be suggested that the tali-tying rites are used as the bargaining tactics through which the feeble Nayar political units try to protect its daughter’s reproductive assets. Therefore, the political unit claims to accomplish authority over the daughter’s offspring (Paige and Paige, 1981). The lack of a traditional marriage eradicates the chronic issue of competing claims by the socially acknowledged husband and his entire kin group. However, it does not avert the assertion of paternity claims by the undesirable males, particularly those from the inferior subcastes or castes. Since a marriage ceremony lacks to demonstrate the paternity rights, the Nayar people must make sure that before the daughter’s sexual maturity arrives that any future children she produces are recognized publicly as the genuine members of the correct lineage sub caste and segment (Paige and Paige, 1981). The level of the community’s participation in the rites can be a mechanism for measuring future public willingness to give support to the efforts of the kin group to stop illicit paternity claims. When the Nayar ceremony is interpreted, it is found that the menarcheal ceremonies are “directly determined by the political strength of a fraternal interest group and only indirectly by economic resource base” (Paige and Paige, 1981, p121). Therefore, it is clearly seen that if the political organization is weak, then the reproductive rituals (for instance, the tali-tying rites) are practiced in valuable economic resources like advanced agriculture (Paige and Paige, 1981). Beliefs and Values Nayars generally attend the Hindu temples. The main temple priests, also known as the pujaris, are Brahmans from South Kanara or Tamil Brahmans. However, in some of the temples there are also Kerala or Nambudiri Brahmans. Kerala has been inventive in offering certification and training for the well-trained lower-caste temple priests. The most crucial ceremonies celebrated in Kerala among the Hindus include Onam, Thiruvathira, and Vishu. In the traditional setup, a visiting husband was anticipated to bring to his wife new clothes during these three ceremonial occasions (JRank, 2013). During the Vishu ceremony, people wear new clothes and the ceremony is regarded as the start of the summer. What an individual sees the first thing in the morning upon arising is argued to influence the person’s life throughout the year. For the Nayar people, it is an important ceremony because of the numerous rituals linked with it. Thiruvathira ceremony is regarded as important for the Nayar females. During this ceremony, the Nayar females take bath in the family tank early in the morning before sunrise, perform a dance, and sing several special songs that are considered beneficial as exercise for the women. Just like other Hindus, the Nayar people have a strong belief in the reincarnation (afterlife) and cremation of the dead (JRank, 2013). Social Organization The Nayar are placed in the fourth level in the martial Hindu caste in Kerala (Kerala is located in South India). The social system of the Nayar was matrilineal until in the mid twentieth century. Before then, the Nayar social system was a humane type in which family affairs were managed by the eldest male. However, a female ancestor through the female line traced the ancestry of the Nayar (Barriteau and Parpart, 2000). It is important to note that before Great Britain took over Southern India in 1972, the Nayar people were a warrior caste. This is because most of the Nayar men worked as soldiers for the surrounding Indian kingdoms, and for most of the time, they were far from their villages and homes. Frequent male absence influence family life and marriage. An important feature of the Nayar people is the lack of nuclear families (that is, a couple and their children sharing responsibilities and living together) (Bailey and Peoples, 2011). The Nayar men were mainly soldiers or supervisors of the highest caste level of Hindu Brahmin Nambudiri. Only men of the second-level caste (Kshatriya) had access to women of Nayar through the Sambandam marriage. The Nayar women took responsibility of childbearing and family domestic affairs. The social organization of the Nayar people permitted the women significant social and material security, and sexual freedom. However, British colonization and persistence pressure (particularly from government legislation) transformed most of the matrilineal system (Barriteau and Parpart, 2000). In anthropology, marriage is defined as “a culturally sanctioned union between two or more people that establishes certain rights and obligations between the people, between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws” (Haviland, McBride, Prins, and Walrath, 2010, p212). Such marriage obligations and rights in most cases include but not restricted to labor, property, exchange, status, childbearing, and sex (Haviland, 2010). Based on the definition of marriage, these people can be considered as to not having any marriage at all. Regardless of the definition of marriage, the Nayar people were able to manage all the functions of marriage. Each Nayar village was composed of several kin groups. Most of the children at birth automatically became members of their mother’s kin group. Each group was connected for particular ceremonial purposes to other groups. The groups were linked either to their villages or from other neighboring villages. Nayar men and women who got involved in sexual relations with their own kin group were sentenced to death. This is because such a behavior was regarded as incest. For the Nayar women, the restrictions were very severe, under the ostracism or penalty of death; they had to limit their sexual activity to men of higher or their own caste (Bailey and Peoples, 2011). After a number of years, girls who were nearing puberty from a particular kin group gathered for a huge ceremony. The aim of the ceremony was to ceremonially “marry” the girls to chosen men from the connected kin groups. During the ceremony, every groom secured a gold ornament around the bride’s neck. Then each couple went to an isolated place for three days where at times they had sexual relations. The grooms left the village after the ceremony and none of them had any more responsibilities to his bride. It is important to note that it was not a guarantee that he would see her again. For her, the bride and the offspring she would bear had the responsibility of performing a particular ritual for her ceremonial husband, that is, when he died (Bailey and Peoples, 2011). The ritual (the man tying an ornament to his bride) served the purpose of establishing the girl as an adult and the ability to perform sexual connections with other men as she matured. After the marriage, the girl continued to live with the consanguineous relatives. After reaching puberty, she started to get nighttime male visitors of the other kin groups. Long lasting relationships were established with some of her partners. These partners at times gave her small luxury gifts but they did not live with her. There was no support given to her or her children by the partners apart from the occasional gifts. At times, the partners also made a visit to other women and sired other children. Brothers and other members of the family supplied all the needs (food, clothing, and others) of the woman and her children (Bailey and Peoples, 2011). Therefore, it is crucial to indicate that the Nayar woman’s early marriage and her later sexual partners did not establish a nuclear family, even support her and children. The sexual partners did not even live with her or her offspring. When the woman got pregnant, the partners were only required to do one thing, admit that they made her pregnant, and pay for the midwife fees. If none of the partners did so, the people assumed that the woman has sexual intercourse with an individual from a lower caste. Such a scenario could make the woman and her baby be killed or be ousted from her kin group (Bailey and Peoples, 2011). The traditional Nayar household composition is different from other cultural groups in the universe. Their household is composed of only the mother, her blood relatives, and her children. This type of household is known as the consanguineal kin. Husbands or other individuals related through marriage (also known as affinal kin) are not included. In this formation, sisters and their children all live together her brothers, their brothers, and their mother. Historically, this form of arrangement only served the need of security in a cultural group in instances where war was common. As aforementioned, sexual relations between consanguineal relatives are forbidden among the Nayar, and are only allowed with people who live in other homes (Haviland et al., 2010). Conclusion The political, religious, and social organization of the Nayar people is largely based on the female lineage. Every done among the Nayar people from marriages to political units is based on the woman. The woman is responsible for her household and her children. Support is sourced from other family members and men who sired the children are not permitted to support or even live with her. Not all men can have sexual relations with her, only men of the higher caste are allowed to have sexual relations with her. On the other hand, the kin groups make up the political units and the woman usually leads these kin groups. References Bailey, G. A., & Peoples, J. G. (2011). Humanity: An introduction to cultural anthropology. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Barriteau, E., & Parpart, J. L. (2000). Theoretical perspectives on gender and development. New Delhi, India: International Development Research Centre. Haviland, W. A., McBride, B., Prins, H. E. L., & Walrath, D. (2010). Anthropology: The human challenge. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. JRank. (2013). Nayar – Religion and expressive culture. Available from http://www.everyculture.com/South-Asia/Nayar-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html Nowak B.(2010). Cultural Anthropology. San Diego, CA. Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Paige, J. M., & Paige, K. E. (1981). Politics reprod ritual. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Read More