Page 1 : TRIBAL SOCIETY

Page 2 : Meaning and Definition :, A tribe is a group of people, usually staying in jungle areas, , In a small locality, , Absolutely illiterate , Poor, , Hardly clad in clothes, , Usually dark fully living within their own community , Whose marriage always takes place among themselves, , Engaged in hunting and searching for roots, , Shoots and fruits as their veg food and roasted animals as non-veg food, , Completely oblivious of the countries political and economic condition, resisting all efforts of development and have a strong dislike for strangers and educated modern community. , The number of such tribal community is very large e.g. Santhals, Kora people, Kol,Naga etc. Most of the projects and efforts for uplifting their health, education and economic condition have failed both for their own unwillingness for change and absolute non cooperation as well as lethargy, dishonesty and corruption of the intermediaries.

Page 4 : Gillin and Gillin has given a very simple definition saying, , “A tribe is a group of local communities which lives in common area, speaks a common dialect and follows a common culture.” , , According to the Imperial Gazetteer of India, , “A tribe is a collection of families bearing a common name, speaking a common dialect, occupying a common territory and not is usually endogamous, though it might have been originally so.”

Page 6 : While the term "Tribe" is an anthropological concept, the term "Scheduled Tribes" is administrative and political. , The tribal populations visible in various Indian states and Union Territories were grouped together as "Scheduled Tribes" under the Constitution of India. Therefore, the word Scheduled Tribes is an used for purposes of dispensing constitutional privileges, security and benefits in independent India. , However, not all the tribes were included in it. In all 698 scheduled tribes with their sub groups exist in India as per census 2001. , , The primary criteria adopted for delimiting Indian backward communities as "Scheduled Tribes" include: Traditional livelihood of a definite geographical area . , Characteristic culture that includes a whole gamut of tribal modes of life, language, customs, traditions, religious beliefs, arts and crafts, etc. Archaic traits portraying occupational pattern, economy, etc.

Page 8 : CRITERIA , T.B Naik has given the following criteria of tribes in Indian context:- ,  A tribe should have least functional interdependence within the community.,  It should be economically backward (i.e. primitive means of exploiting natural resources, tribal economy should be at an underdeveloped stage and it should have multifarious economic pursuits). ,  There should be a comparative geographical isolation of its people. ,  They should have a common dialect.,  Tribes should be traditionally organized and community panchayat should be influential. ,  A tribe should have customary laws.

Page 10 : Classification of Tribes , , There are more than 698 tribes spread all over India. Tribes are well known as socially, economically and culturally homogeneous groups. So it is difficult to classify them on any of such grounds. Nevertheless, thin line of classification can be made on the basis of different grounds. The tribes are classified on the basis of , Ethnicity and , Geographical location., Economic practices etc

Page 14 : CHARACTERISTICS OF SCHEDULED TRIBES , Ethnic characteristics of a tribe: ,  Common definite territory, common dialect, common name, common religion and common culture. ,  They have strong sense of unity and any stranger is attacked with bows and arrows.,  All tribe members are related by blood, have their own political organization which has a chief who exercises authority over all the members, even recommending marriage of young boys with girls whom they have found suitable for marriage. ,  Each tribe is guided by their own religion which is based on totemic, magic and fetishism i.e. believing in god being embedded in a special piece of stone, a special tree or a peculiar strange animal.,  A tribe is an endogamous group, as distinct from a clan which is exogamous, have common name and is engaged in worshipping strange objects, hunting of small animals, and resists entry of any outsiders inside their territory.,  Kinship as an instrument of social bonds. ,  Absence of hierarchy among men and groups. ,  Absence of strong, complex, formal organization. ,  A distinct psychological bent for enjoying life. ,  They possess Seminary character find difficult to mingle with the outsiders

Page 15 : ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF TRIBES ,  Communitarian basis of land holding pervades in most of the tribal communities,  The tribal people follow a very primitive methods of agriculture like shifting cultivation leading to very low yield of crops ,  Most of the tribal's do not have access to an organized market system where they could sell their primary and secondary forest produce. ,  Due to lack of access to market system, most of the tribes from remote areas practice barter system which means exchange goods for goods. ,  They rely on substantial economy and have little value on surplus accumulation on the use of capital and on market trading which prevents them from receiving the best results out of agricultural activities. ,  Tribal people consider forest as their basic right and greatly depend on forest products which constitutes the mainstay of their economic life ,  Tribal land is largely transferred to the non-tribals by improper means and massive displacement takes place for development projects leading to land alienation or loss of agricultural land and eventual tribal conflicts. ,  There are complains of economic exploitation of tribal's by the non-tribal ,  Indebtedness and bonded labours are some of the most common features among the tribal's in India

Page 16 : EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS ,  Tribal people have very less representation in education as compared to their non-tribal counterparts ,  Poor economic condition and family environment hinders them from taking education ,  It is reported that the current formal education prescribed for them has little relevance to their living style ,  They lack interest and awareness of the present education system ,  Medium of instruction or the language is a major set back in their education ,  High rate of drop outs is found among the tribal people.

Page 17 : CLAN, Normally, every tribe is divided into a number of units. The inter-relation between these units provides the framework of their social organisation. , , In fact, regulation of marriage is the most important function of these units. Among the Toda of Nilgiri Hills, the tribe is divided into two groups or moieties called Teivaliol and Tartharol.. Sometimes as in the case of the Garo of Meghalaya, two or more clans are combined to form a phratry. , The members of a clan are required to seek marriage alliance outside their own clan. In other words, a clan is described as exogamous, whereas a tribe within which its members are required to marry is described as endogamous. , The members of a clan believe that they are the descendants of a common ancestor and are, therefore, bound by a feeling of unity. The ancestor’s symbolic existence is perceived in an animal or a plant or any other object and it is generally referred to as totem. The attitude of the clan towards totem may differ from tribe to tribe., The names of the clans are derived from the concerned totem. The members of the clan are forbidden to cut down totemic plants or kill totemic animals. They may mourn the death of their totem. Religious ceremonies may be held to pray for the growth and spread of the totemic species.

Page 18 : Marriage , Among the tribal communities, different types of marriages are in vogue. Normally, marriage takes place with the consent of the relatives of the boy and the girl. Such marriages are accompanied by a ceremonial feasting and merry-making. Such parents of girls as cannot afford heavy expenses on marriage allow their daughters to be captured by boys who like to marry them. , This method is generally adopted with the prior knowledge of the relatives of the bride and the groom. In such cases, the capturing of the girl does not lead to any conflict between the two parties. Sometimes, the boy and the girl who love each other, run away from their homes and stay elsewhere till they are accepted back. , A boy who is unable to meet the marriage expenses, including the customary bride price, may serve at the household of his would-be wife and finally succeed in marrying her. Widow marriage is generally practised by all tribal communities. If a widow is married to her deceased husband’s brother, then the practice is called levirate. Sometimes, after the death of a woman, her husband may marry his wife’s sister. Such a practice is described as sororate.

Page 19 : Among most of the tribal communities, a man keeps only one wife (monogamy) at a time. But there are tribes like the Gond, the Baiga, the Naga, etc. , , wherein a person marries more than one woman. This is described as polygyny. The custom of one woman marrying more than one husband is called polyandry. , , It is practised by tribes like the Toda, the Kota, the Bhot and so on.

Page 20 : KINSHIP , Structure The children born to a couple usually have two sets of relatives – one set related through father and the other through mother. Besides, the brothers and sisters born of the same parents are related to each other as siblings. Persons are said to be kin to each other if the relationship can be traced genealogically. But here also, there are two types of kin. In the first type are included the kin who are generally identified as blood relations, i.e., consanguineous kin. These kin can be traced through descent from like father, father’s brother, father’s sister, father’s father, father’s father’s sister or father’s father’s brother, sister, son or daughter, son’s son or son’s daughter, etc. The second category called affinal kin includes those kin who are related through marriage and descent like wife, brother’s wife, sister’s husband, father’s sister’s husband, son’s daughter’s husband, etc.

Page 21 : Family Marriage leads to the formation of a FAMILY. , After the marriage, the husband and wife have to stay together at some place. In majority of cases, the wife stays after marriage with her husband’s parents. , This arrangement is called patrilocal residence. The reverse of this is called matrilocal, whereby the husband moves to stay with his wife, i.e., in the household of her parents., Among the Khasi, the family is usually formed by the woman, her husband, her unmarried children (male and female) and her married daughters and their husbands. In this type of family, the property is inherited through the female line i.e., from mother to daughter, from daughter to grand-daughter, and so on. , This arrangement is called matrilineal inheritance. In the families of partrilocal residence, inheritance is followed through male line, i.e, from father to son, from son to grandson, and so on. , This is known as patrilineal inheritance. The smallest social unit among the tribal's is the nuclear family. It is constituted by a man, his wife and unmarried children. Sometimes, two or three more closely related persons with their spouses and their children live together, thus making the unit an extended family. , In an extended family, like that of the Kurichchan of Kerala, the number of members may exceed more than 50 at a time.