the city, of caste and tribe, of class and community. Villages nestle right in the heart of the capital city of Delhi. Call centres serve European and American clients from different towns of the country. Indian sociology has been far more eclectic in borrowing from both traditions.
Indian sociologists often studied Indian societies that were both part of and not of one’s own culture. It could also be dealing with both complex differentiated societies of urban modern India as well as the study of tribes in a holistic fashion. It had been feared that with the decline of simple societies, social anthropology would lose its specificity and merge with sociology. However there have been fruitful interchanges between the two disciplines and today often methods and techniques are drawn from both.
There have been anthropological studies of the state and globalisation, which are very different from the traditional subject matter of social anthropology. On the other hand, sociology too has been using quantitative and qualitative techniques, macro and micro approaches for studying the complexities of modern societies. As mentioned before we will in a sense carry on this discussion in Chapter . For in India, sociology and social anthropology have had a very close relationship.
Activity ´ Find out where in India did ancestors of the community of Santhal workers who have been working in the tea plantations in Assam come from. ´ When was tea cultivation started in Assam? ´ Did the British drink tea before colonialism? G LOSSARY Capitalism : A system of economic enterprise based on market exchange.
“Capital” refers to any asset, including money, property and machines, which can be used to produce commodities for sale or invested in a market with the hope of achieving a profit. This system rests on the private ownership of assets and the means of production. Dialectic : The existence or action of opposing social forces, for instance, social constraint and individual will. Empirical Investigation : A factual enquiry carried out in any given area of sociological study.
Feminist Theories : A sociological perspective which emphasises the centrality