176 Part III: South Asia
rights similar to labor unions; in many villages, for example, a rich landowner
could not cut his own hair because that was the barber’s right. The barber’s
wife was entitled to aid the landlord’s and the Brahman’s wives in childbirth. In
exchange for these services there were customary benefits: a bit of land to
work, a small share of the landowner’s harvest, hand-me-down clothes, meals.
These exchanges of services and benefits were crucial for survival and the basis
of the nonmonetized village economy. Yet, not everyone today will actually
engage in this occupation, even though there is believed to be a natural affinity
toward that kind of work among people born into that caste.
It is in India’s 640,000 villages, where 68 percent of Indians live (according
to the 2011 census), that the caste system is most evident. In the mid-twentieth
century, when American anthropologists began doing research in India, it was
to the villages they headed. In India they were keenly aware that one village
cannot stand for a whole civilization, yet what went on in those villages was a
natural starting point, and anthropological methods could best be applied.
Other scholars would have to study urban centers, the state, the texts, and his-
tory. As a result, early anthropology in India emphasized the caste system that
so deeply organized village life.This young man is a member of the potter (Kumhar) caste in a north Indian town. His
caste has a monopoly on making pottery of all kinds (here he is making roof tiles). He is
married to a girl of the same caste. Occupational specialization was a key characteristic
of the caste system and its local economy for centuries, although it is now possible for
people to leave these hereditary occupations for new ones.