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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page paper. The anthropological method to Hinduism is one that follows along the premises found in the anthropology of religion. It becomes an ethnographic approach that considers culture. In other words, the anthropological method is one that is interdisciplinary. This essay discusses how some anthropologists have approached the study of India and caste systems. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: MM12_PGhndu.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
book.] The anthropological method to Hinduism is one that follows along the premises found in the anthropology of religion. It becomes an ethnographic approach that considers culture. In other
words, the anthropological method is one that is interdisciplinary by nature if not by intent that integrates politics, poetry and history (Clifford, 1986). Clifford explains the methods used: "It [ethnography]
poses questions at the boundaries of civilizations, cultures, classes, races and genders. Ethnography decodes and recodes, telling the grounds of collective order and diversity, inclusion and exclusion" (Clifford, 1986). For
anthropologists, the focus of study in Hinduism is then the caste system (Mencher, 1974). The methodologies include reading documents and manuscripts, observing the culture from within, interviewing members of the
culture, writing ones observations, pondering, active participation in the culture or society being studied, studying poetry by and about members of the culture, studying historical documents, studying linguistic processes, considering
the art and politics (Clifford, 1986). Anthropologists of recent times attempt to decode and recode what are considered to be symbols and from that interpretations are made and invented (Clifford,
1986). The term invented relates to the fiction of ethnography but it does not mean falsehood (Clifford, 1986). Instead, Clifford states that it means "partiality of cultural and historical truths"
(1986) because the whole truth cannot be known in anthropological studies (Clifford, 1986). This can also be perceived as the limitation of anthropological studies of Hinduism. Those studying the topic
had limited and restricted documents to review in their study of the anthropological foundations of Hinduism. Mencher comments that the Indian caste system has typically been studied from the
top down and it would be beneficial to look at it from the bottom up (1974). From this vantage point, the caste system, according to Mencher, has two functions: first,
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