MULTIPLE STATUS HIERARCHIES IN NORTHERN INDIA.

The objective of this paper is threefold. First, to take account of the published material to establish what significance should be attached to the status hierarchies of territory and kinship in various regions of northern India. Second, to discuss the nature of the relationship between the hierarchies of caste, kinship and territory in terms of what will be defined as diverse positional viewpoints, and the relevance of such an approach for our understanding of social structure and social change. Finally, to analyze some features of the social organization of a particular north Indian city in terms of multiple status hierarchies and diverse positional viewpoints. This paper suggests that the social organization of much of northern India can be best understood in terms of a complex network of status hierarchies rather than in terms of a single, caste hierarchy. Further, it suggests that there is no single morphology, or structure, which describes the relationship between these hierarchies, but rather that the categories of caste, kinship and territory are the basic building blocks which are molded into structural configurations in relation to diverse positional viewpoints; or to which significance is attached on the basis of a certain limited body of knowledge about one's social universe.