Tribe and caste,Sociology, IAS Mains Exam

Tribe and Caste

It has generally been assumed that the two represent two different forms of social
organizations. Castes have been treated as one regulated by the hereditary division of labour, hierarchy, principle of purity and pollution, civic and religious disabilities, etc. Tribes on the other hand have been seen as one characterized by the absence of features attributed to the caste. The two types of social organizations are also considered as governed by the different set of principles.
Sr.No
Tribe
Caste
1 bonds of kinship govern the tribal society. Each individual is considered to be equal to others. The lineage and clan tend to be the chief unit of ownership as well as of production and consumption. inequality, dependency and subordination is an integral feature of caste society .
2 Tribes in contrast maintain similar forms, practices and behaviour pattern for both function of the religion.
Caste groups tend to maintain different forms, practices and behaviour pattern for each of these two aspects of the religion.
3 Tribes are said to take direct, unalloyed satisfaction in pleasures of the senses whether in food, drink, sex, dance or song.
As against this caste people maintain certain ambivalence about such pleasures.
4 In the ‘jati’ society, the village is expected to be culturally heterogeneous, with each jati following a unique
combination of customary practices.
Tribesmen on the other hand expect their society to be homogeneous or, at least, not necessarily heterogeneous (Mandelbaum )
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