Written Summary & Analysis

“Family and Kinship in Village India” is an article written by David W. McCurdy in

1997. David W. McCurdy is a Professor Emeritus at Macalester university. His research focuses

on comparative religions in the United States and South Asia. The author briefly compares the

ideas of the social world we live in and the kinship system of the Bhils from the village of

Ratakote in Southern India. Social world includes a non-kin structure such as work place, and

church. It is the social occasions when we spend time meeting with people that are outside our

own family. The article discusses how cash labor can be a potential threat to the kinship

structured India. However, McCurdy believes that kinship shaped societies have used their

family ties to adapt to the emerging cash-labor-oriented modernizing world. He supports this

claim by explaining the importance of kin in arranged marriage and their life in the village.

McCurdy’s article is a field research report. He stayed in the village of Ratakote in

Southern India and spent time living with Bhils over years. McCurdy explains their unbreakable

kinship by elaborating on how kin is involved in their tradition of arranged marriage. He first

explains that Bhils take loyalty to family over personal independence. That’s why everyone in

the village of Ratakote supports the custom of arranged marriage. To them, marriage can affect

their family’s reputation, and family reputation plays a bigger role than their personal love

interests. Social strength and security are the crucial factors of one’s reputation. Kinship centered

culture values reputation based on the quality and the number of a family’s allied kin. McCurdy

uses Kanji, a Bhil he met with in Ratakote and his family as an example. In order for Kanji’s

family to expand their lineages, build alliances and gain reputations, they first need to find a

groom from a family that matches or exceeds their social status. Kanji needs to select few

candidates and discusses with his family. His family needs to know the background information

of all the candidates such as what’re their reputation’s like, and what’s their education. The

groom has to be approved by Kanji’s lineage to marry his daughter. Marriage becomes a greater

role for Kanji’s family than to his daughter’s love interests, and such important decisions should

not be handled by the youngsters but their parents and relatives that have greater experience.

Many years later when McCurdy revisited the village, he noticed that Kanji’s daughter

and son-in-law were missing from home. He was told by Kanji that they moved out of the village

for work. In fact, most men chose to work outside the village because there wasn’t enough space

to farm or produce food to feed the growing population. Though working outside of their

hometown can free their economic dependency from their family, they would have problem with

fulfilling their obligations to their family regularly. However, McCurdy heard from Kanji that his

daughter and his son-in law would visit them regularly. They would also send money to Kanji

and try to attend to their obligations. Though the economic structures have changed, the kinship

in Ratakote for Bhils still remain very strong. In fact, Bhils that move into other countries would

continue to arrange marriages for their children. Living in another places is also an expansion of

their kin. Bhils can benefit from spreading themselves outside their border. An Indian student of

McCurdy’s has found relatives in every American city he has visited.

Kinship is relevant to people that are interested in the topic of this field. Kinship is the

universal connection between different countries. Although many countries such as the United

States are less kin-based than India, kinship is still the foundation of Americans’ culture. In order

to fully understand a culture, it’s fundamental to learn their Kinship system. In Ratakote,

McCurdy understands their social behaviors by learning the tradition of arranged marriage. This

reminds me of the class materials on how different types of kinship-centered culture have shaped

each behavior. Kinship-centered cultures can be very different depending on their lineage groups.

Bhils are unilineal descent group, meaning their lineage passed through the father’s side of the

family. Unilineal descent group has institutionalized behavior. They focus on extended family

rather than nuclear family. That’s the reason why unilineal group has more strict rules against

incest than Bilateral kindred group does. For people that are interested in the topic, I think the

article does a good on embracing a different culture equally. At first, McCurdy feels unrelated

and confused about arranged marriage. It’s important for people to judge before they fully

understand one’s culture. We need to be cultural relativism instead of ethnocentrism. People

should accept cultures, and the entire ways of living. As for an anthropology student, I think the

article can focus more on the women side of the unilineal decent group. McCurdy slightly

touches on the gender inequality in Ratakote when he explains the bride’s price. I would hope to

see more interviews about women’s feelings as they are being treated poorly in their culture.

Although people outside their culture might be offended, women from the village might not hold

any opinions against it but to embrace their custom.