This is an essay for the course in the Anthropology of India Issues: What does Dumont mean by ''hierarchy'', and ''the encompassing'' and ''encompassed''? Why does he insist that there is ''an absolute disjunction'' between status and power in Hindu ideology? How far does Dumont’s theory help in analysing the distinctive features of the Indian caste system? 2 Caste and religion: power and status - others insisted that ritual status was not only an ideology that supported economic relationships based on the division of labour but that the ‘religious’ idea of caste hierarchy enabled these exploitative relationships - caste structures everyday lives though ideas about purity and pollution which enable hierarchy, the superiority of Brahmins, and the asymmetrical relationships between different jatis based on ritual status – NOT on exchange - but rituals status, which is determined by ideas about purity and pollution, that have a strong impact on the collective representation of caste and the everyday lives of those belonging to different jati - set of studies argued that far from being determined by economic transactions and the division of labour, caste was really constituted as a religious mode of social organisation - most important proponent of this view is the French sociologist Louis Dumont (1911-1983), whose book Homo Hierarchicus represents an incredibly detailed study of the way ritual status determines social organisation and economic life and links the minute details of rules regarding all aspects of life, from commensality to marriage, economic exchanges and gifts within a broad picture of Hindu society arranged in an overarching system - rather than focusing on accounts of contemporary anthropologists, Dumont states that we need to develop a theoretical framework within which caste can be analysed, on the basis of indigenous ideology, not as experienced reality - he comes up with a structuralist interpretation of caste, which is based on the notions of pure-impure, which underlie the hierarchical organisation of caste - hierarchy here implies not inequality, but the superiority of those who are considered pure, and things pure over things considered impure and castes and persons who are considered to be impure - Dumont claims that this ideology and the values attached to it unite Hindus everywhere within a framework that is fundamentally different from any European social system, because it is based on the idea of hierarchy and its reproduction - this model does also focus on exchanges, and has a specific interest in the way marriage rules and endogamy reproduce caste, as such practices show how the ideology of purity and pollution is implied in the exchange of women and other ‘gifts’ (dan) - ultimately, he states that power feeds into practices that ultimately reproduce hierarchies based on religious idioms - this exchange of gifts between bride-giver to bride-takers is unilateral and based on the idea of the auspicious gift, just as the king gives to the Brahmin the non-reciprocal dan gift, - thus he claims that Brahmins, who conduct service for the kin are of higher status as their purity makes them ideal recipients of - acording to Dumont – the caste system brings about a civilisation within which required reading: Dumont, L. 1969 Homo Hierarchicus. Chs 1- 3. Dirks, N. 1989 ‘The Original Caste: Power, History and Hierarchy in South Asia’ Contributions to Indian Sociology (ns), vol 23, pp 59-78. Raheja, G. 1988 ‘India: Caste, Kingship and Dominance Reconsidered’ Annual Review of Anthropology, vol 17, pp 497-522.