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ANTHROPOS
111.2016: 69 – 82
Using Theory to Explain
Ethnographic Descriptions of Change
Strain Stress and Identity Systems in a Sri Lankan Village
Victor C. de Munck
Abstract. – It is argued that the relationship between nomothetic ory of “identity and control” worked out by Harri-
theories and ethnography has been neglected to the detriment of son White (1992, 2008) and also with his colleagues
both. Two nomothetic theories are described and synthesized. (White, Godart, and Corona 2007). Both of these the-
One authored by Beals and Siegel on internal strains (e.g., leisure
versus labor; economics versus education) and external stressors ories contend that social dynamics and hence social
(e.g., environment, demographics, epidemics) as they affect so- forces are a product of relational processes between
ciocultural change and increase conflict. The other, by Harrison social forms and the physical environment. Further,
White, describes the coercive force identity forms exert on their both contend that radical sociocultural changes in
members. These two theories are synthesized and applied to un-
derstanding three ethnographic fields of research in a Sri Lankan social forms are caused by changes in the environ-
village: swidden cultivation practices; political leadership struc- ment. Important here is that the unit of analysis is
tures, and the increasing ambivalence locals have towards kin- the social (and material) rather than the individual.
ship, considering it both a burden and a blessing. Nomothetic Nomothetic theory is often missing in ethnogra-
theory is supported by this study and, in turn, is shown to pro-
vide a framework for analyzing the ethnographic materials. [Sri
phy, or perhaps I should say, cultural anthropology.
Lanka, theory, strain stress, identity, socio-cultural change, lead- If it is included, it is usually added ad hoc, presented
ership, swidden cultivation, kinship] in the introduction or at the end, but seldom serves
as the thread that beads the ethnographic materi-
Victor C. de Munck, Professor at the Dept. of Sociology, Vy- als. To put it another way, theory seldom provides
tautus Magnus University (Kaunas, Lithuania), and Professor at the “Aah ha, that’s why they do X” moment for the
the Anthropology Department, New York State University (New
Paltz, USA). – He has conducted fieldwork in Sri Lanka, Lithu- reader of ethnographic texts. Anthropologists, in-
ania, Macedonia, Russia, and the United States. As main area of cluding myself, are primarily ethnographers. One
interest he investigates the meshing of macro-, meso-, and micro- thing that has in many ways remained constant
levels for understanding or representing society and culture. – He through the premodern, modern, postmodern, and
has authored 6 monographs, 4 edited volumes and over 60 arti-
cles. See also References Cited.
post postmodern phases of anthropology is that
most anthropologists still go out to the field (even
if it is at home), come back, and write pretty darn
good ethnography. For recent examples, I am think-
This article introduces a program for investigating ing particularly of Rebecca Lester’s book “Jesus
cultural processes of change in ethnographic set- in Our Wombs” (2005), and more recently Tanya
tings. The theoretical engine for this program com- Luhrmann’s “When God Talks Back” (2012). Both
bines two theories: the first is a strain-stress theory excel as ethnographies, with the theoretical chapters
of change first posed by Alan R. Beals and Ber- feeling like opaque add-ons, providing little added
nard J. Siegel in 1966; the second is a network the- benefit for most readers.
https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2016-1-69
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This is a great problem in anthropology. Our that highlights recent (post-1960) areas of sociocul-
bread-and-butter and what we are good at is ethnog- tural change. The main part of this article presents
raphy, but in order to give added value to the eth- ethnographic data on economic, political, and social
nography beyond its descriptive insight, one needs change and then uses the two theories to explain the
to wend it into a theoretical framework. We can en- warp and woof between change and continuity that
rich our offerings in two distinctive ways: the first is presented in the ethnographic materials. As a re-
uses ethnography to support theory; the second uses sult of the stressors discussed in the ethnographic
theory to guide and glean insight into our ethnog- section of this article, we would expect new identity
raphies. In the first case, the ethnographic material forms to emerge with different “arrays of symbols,”
is systematically collected (i.e., using some reason- consequent “menu of stories,” and hence, modes of
able diverse sample of informants and asking them “control.” We will fully flesh out the comparative
the same questions) and written in such a way that changes in identities and control, and their relations
it can be coded for cross-cultural or comparative to radical sociocultural changes in the discussion
purposes. This procedural method, alas, has gone section of this article.
the way of the passenger pigeon in cultural anthro-
pology. In the second case, the ethnography may be
written in a unique style, rely on a few key infor- 1 Theory
mants, be reflexive and subjectively framed, but the
theory must provide the conceptual tools for (a), de- 1.1 Beals and Siegel’s Stress and Strain Theory
ciding what kinds of data/information to collect and of Sociocultural Change
(b), analyzing (making sense of) the obtained eth-
nographic data. This theory contends that external stressors impact
In this article, my goal is to revive the two afore- on sociocultural systems and lead to radical change.
mentioned theories, synthesize them, and use them, Radical change refers to fundamental and unantici-
albeit in a post hoc fashion, to satisfy goal 2 (b) pated, significant changes in the social structure of
above (analyzing the data). The first goal, collecting a group. This process is expressed through the in-
data amenable for subsequent comparative/cross- tensification of strains systems. Strain systems are
cultural analysis, is satisfied in this study, as I was areas of chronic conflict or logical inconsistencies
trained and conducted the research using systematic in cultural symbol systems. Strain systems lead to
methods for data collection. expected and cyclical forms of conflict, but are not,
The Beals and Siegel theory of strain and stress in themselves, forces for social-structural changes.
systems addresses cyclical and radical types of Ethnographic arenas to examine strain systems are
change. Their theory was much praised when it conflicts after elections, corruption, divorce, con-
came out in their co-authored book “Divisiveness flicts regarding family honor, and so on. Strain sys-
and Social Conflict” (1966), but to my knowledge tems are caused by disarticulations between say
was never applied by other researchers.1 White’s economic, political, religious, and social systems.2
network theory focuses on social mechanisms of If uncontrolled the social conflict eventuates either
social control and, hence, resistance to change. The in new sociocultural structures and institutions or
two theories complement each other in that they ad- progressing chaos and violence.3 Stressors range
here to a materialist theoretical orientation and use from technological innovations to climate change;
social units as the basis of their analysis. As a re-
sult of shared suppositions for constructing a theory,
they can be seen as two sides of the same coin, in 2 As a short hand I use system to refer to sociocultural sys-
tems and also to subsystems within a system. A social sys-
that the Beals and Siegel theory of stress and strain tem, to me, is one that focuses on the articulation and flow of
systems provides a way to study change and the information and resources within and between institutions’
White theory provides a way to study continuity. organizations and the roles that serve as the sources and ter-
Both theories are used to illustrate how nomothetic minals for these resources and information. In this regard, a
cultural system is the information and means to identify types
theory can leaven ethnographic data by (a), captur- of resources, while the social structure is the social system
ing that data which is amenable to comparative re- through which these “goods” flow and which both uses and
search, and (b), by making deductive sense of in- creates these resources. Chena (swidden) cultivation is a sub-
ductively constructed sociocultural patterns. system within the larger system of village farming, which is
We begin with a discussion of the two theories, also a subsystem within the larger economic system. To avoid
using subsystem or subsubsystem I simply refer to all sys-
followed by a description of the village of Kutali tems as systems.
3 One can see the convergence of this idea with Bateson’s
1 Obtained via personal communication with Alan Beals. (1936) theory of schismogenesis.
Anthropos 111.2016
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strains refer to expected and known types of conflict its attendant contexts, behavioral repertoires, speech
which, however dramatic or tragic, do not, by them- code, gestures, styles of dress, beliefs, values, tradi-
selves, lead to change in a social system. tions – i.e., habitus (Bourdieu 1977) or social prac-
The key to this theory (elaborated and applied in tices and knowledge.4 For instance, the triadic ideals
the ethnographic sections) is that systems are nev- of individualism, freedom and democracy are, from
er in a state of equilibrium; there are always strains White’s perspective adaptive, post hoc emanations
that, at best, cycle around a dynamic equilibrium. from the infra and structural levels of a social sys-
The strains are a product of natural tensions caused tem that are thematically emphasized in official na-
by the inherent illogical or contradictory “fit” be- tional stories about America and reformulated in the
tween various systems such as the economic, politi- experiences of individual Americans. Those who
cal kinship, and educational systems (or subsystems assert their Americanness, especially in contexts
thereof). These disarticulations and conflicting in- where it is expected, buy into a particular menu of
terests and forces lead to perpetual conditions of stories with specific symbolic expressions that are
strain within the larger sociocultural system. How- presumptively shared by others. Should someone
ever, because these strains are anticipated they are not express their Americanness in an appropriate
not Taleb’s (2010) black swans and can be regulated fashion, others, even the meek among them, may
so they do not cause significant sociocultural disrup- feel compelled to reprimand them. Their confidence
tion, though they may have significant negative im- in actually doing so is enhanced by the implicit joint
pacts on individuals. commitment of the members of that identity (Gil-
Stressors are always external, unanticipated bert 2010a/b, 2011).
sources and forces of change. Stressors are black It is important to note that it is not necessary for
swans in that they are rare and significantly disrupt individuals to believe in the menu of stories, only to
the sociocultural system. An illustrative example is believe that the menu of stories and behaviors that
climate change. express the particular identity they are performing
at the moment are shared by other participants of a
social event or activity. Once it is believed that oth-
1.2 Harrison White’s Network Approach to Identity ers share the precepts and practices of an identity, a
as Control feedback cycle is formed in which all members en-
force the cultural practices that support and express
White’s (1992, 2008) theory of identity and control that identity, at the appropriate time. The beliefs and
is specific to identities and describes how an “array practices are no longer individual but collective and
of symbols” order a “menu of stories” that form the thus radically different than individual beliefs, in
basis of identity practices. Identities, according to that they are perceived as “objective social facts.”
White, are social forms of power and control pre- Scott (1998) and Scott and Arthur (2012), among
cisely because they are social and, as such, we all many others, have described how gossip, play, and
recognize our “joint commitment” to the identity hidden transcripts are means by which members of
and to the symbols that order our behavioral practic- particular identities create spaces outside the cul-
es within that identity (see also Gilbert 1983, 1989, tural compound while also creating an informal cre-
1994, 2001; Tomassello 2008). Identities are post ative identity for and of themselves.
hoc adaptive social forms resulting from structural Identities consist of an array of symbols that can
changes to a social system that have become insti- be ordered in a number of ways depending on con-
tutionalized (see also D’Andrade 2001). text or on personality. Variation and improvisation is
In the parlance of Beals and Siegel, the stabil- relatively unimportant, what matters is that in con-
ity characterized by White refers to a sociocultural texts that trigger the activation of a shared identity
system that has adapted to external stressors so members of the cultural group behave in ways that
that they are no longer apparent or significant. For are perceived to reflect the identity appropriately.
White, power and control are emergent properties Power and control stem from the inherent quality
of social systems for the obvious and simple fact of culture as a shared system and that members of a
that by definition social refers to the synthesis of culture know that other members know it.
individuals into a collectivity. The collectivity may This goes as well for the distributed aspect of
be egalitarian or hierarchical, liberal, or conserva- culture. For instance, the builders of a house –
tive, it does not matter. By virtue of being a collec- plumbers, electricians, carpenters, architects, and so
tivity there, each individual recognizes that all the
other individuals are vis‑à‑vis the collectivity, just 4 This phrasing and insight comes from Kronenfeld (2008: 31–
like them. That is, they share the same identity with 32).
Anthropos 111.2016
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on – do not know the jobs of others but all articulate radical change is unpredictable and un-anticipatable
to form a larger coherent identity that is shared.5 It that we cannot be much more precise.7
is the joint agreement, the articulation with others White’s focus, for our purposes, is on the proper-
to form a “plural subject” that is the glue of social ties of identities as they serve to control behaviors,
organization and the source of power, control and tastes, and establish internally structured identities.
hence, identity (Gilbert 1989, 2010a/b, 2011).6 In White’s property is on the internal constraints or co-
contexts where specific identities are activated, the ercive and normative forces that keep things togeth-
collective knowledge of the array of symbols that er. Though a structural market materialist, White
make up the menu of stories and the collective rec- views identities as cultural formations. It is for him
ognition of behaviors that appropriately index those the requirements of encultured animals to cooper-
stories serve as internal psychological and external ate with one another, otherwise there is no social.
social forces that keep people in line. We now turn to a descriptive sketch of Kutali
For White, the emphasis is on how social iden- village with a focus on general processes of change
tities control themselves by using cultural mecha- and also continuity.
nisms that are both psychological and sociological.
A brief example may be the identity form “hippies”
which emerged from the alternative identity “bohe- 2 Village: Kutali and Some Forces
mian” and was an adaptation to social, political, and of Cultural Change
economic events in the 1960s. Once having been
formed there are an “array of symbols” forming a Kutali 8 is located in the Moneragala District of the
core set of stories that both give form to hippie iden- Uva Bintenne Province, just southeast of the moun-
tity and that control those who adopt this identity tainous vertebra that runs north-south through the
through the directive force of the moral expressed center of Sri Lanka. Along the western edge of
by the stories (e.g., pacifist, non-materialist, close- Kutali lies the Nilgala forest, a protected nature re-
to-nature, communal values, styles of dress, lan- serve inhabited by elephants, sun bears, leopards,
guage codes, etc.). and a few hamlets. In the other cardinal directions
lie the homes and hamlets of Sinhalese Buddhists
farmers. In 1982, 1,000 Muslims lived in Kutali
1.3 Summary of the Two Theories proper, and 100 Sinhalese Buddhists, mostly recent
migrants in search of land, lived on the outskirts of
Beals and Siegel offer a theory of radical sociocul- the village. There resided approximately 1,600 vil-
tural change, while White offers a theory of continu- lagers in Kutali in 2012.
ity. The main cause of change is external stressors In the 1960s, the Sri Lankan government
that exacerbate internal strains and create dysfunc- changed the structure of village governance, and a
tional unanticipated dynamic equilibrium. This idea, new bureaucratic rather than hereditary, local, per-
as noted before, anticipates Taleb’s (2010) black son was assigned to be the village “headman” (gra
swan events. However, Taleb is expressly, and in- ma sevaka).9 In 1981, government agents came to
tentionally, without a theory. Beals and Siegel view assign deeds to land that had previously been culti-
radical change as unanticipated eventful and coming vated without deeds. The village had been without
from outside the sociocultural system. What needs electricity and plumbing or a post office, most vil-
to be determined in their theory is exactly what is lagers had little cash. In the 1980s, villagers began
outside and what is inside, and how does the out- to be employed in Pakistan and the Middle East. In
side affect inside systems, and why do outside forc- the early 1980s, no one owned a car. By the middle
es cause radical change in one case but not in an- 1980s, some villagers had bought motorcycles and
other? The main answer to the last question is that cars; the local economy was becoming increasingly
the social strains that are always there and fuel the meshed with the national and global economies. By
dynamic equilibrium of the larger system converge the mid-1980s, there was already a small but steady
sometimes with the external stressors (when force- stream of women from the Kutali area working in
ful enough) to create conditions that may trigger textile factories in Sri Lanka’s Free Trade Zone
radical sudden sociocultural change. It is because
7 Taleb (2010) is particularly eloquent and obsessively forceful
5 I am indebted to Kronenfeld (2012: 323 f.) for this metaphor. on emphasizing the limits of both inferential and deductive
6 Margaret Gilbert’s work, particularly her vocabulary of “joint knowledge (that is human knowledge).
commitment” and “plural persons” has been co-opted for 8 Kutali is a pseudonym I have used in most of my writings on
elucidating Harrison White’s theory because it works and is this village.
more precise, to me, than the formulations of White. 9 From the village perspective, this would be a stressor.
Anthropos 111.2016
https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2016-1-69
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(FTZ) and going abroad where they worked, mostly the villagers as paranoid “country bumpkins” or the
as maids. This was a general development through- village as sealed off from the outside world would
out Sri Lankan rural communities at this time (see be inaccurate. Male villagers work as seasonal la-
Gamburd 2000: 36–40; Lynch 1999: 18–22). borers and travel on business throughout the island;
Nevertheless, throughout these momentous po- outsiders arrive daily to buy raw resources; Sinhala
litical and economic changes and to the present folk healers are called on to cure illnesses and local
(2013), rain-fed rice paddy and chena (swidden) Sinhala come by to chat or find work.12 Pakistani
cultivation remain the mainstays of the local econ- and Indian importers as well as Sri Lankan busi-
omy. Livestock, hunting, timber, and gathering vari- nessmen come to the village to buy local products,
ous forest resources for trade provide additional eco- particularly beedi leaves, areloo (a nut used for red
nomic outlets. Land holdings are small; at the time dye), areca nut, timber, etc.
of this study no family owned more than 15 acres In 1979 when I first entered the village, it did
of paddy land, and the mean was 1.5 acres per fam- indeed seem as a village that time and the modern
ily. Chena lands were even more uniform in size, world had forgot; no one owned even a bicycle and
with 90% of families cultivating between one and there were no striking observable differences be-
two acres. tween rich and poor from an outsider’s perspective.
Demographically, Kutali is an atypical village; But new wealth brought in largely through that neb-
90% percent of Moneragala District’s population is ulous process “globalization,” had created signifi-
Buddhist and 2% Muslim (these figures have held cant economic and class differences between mem-
steady from 1981–2012), compared to national av- bers of the village. The new wealth coupled with
erages of 67% and 7%, respectively. Villagers are transnational mobility has led to a re-evaluation of
not only relatively isolated from other Muslim pop- kinship values that underlie kinship identity.
ulations but feel threatened by the growing Sinha-
lese population that surrounds them. Ethnic ten-
sions have been present since the origins of Kutali 3 Ethnographic Materials
when, in the early 1800s, village Muslims were said
to have given the British information that led to the 3.1 Stressors on the chena Cultivation System
capture and execution of Kepitipola, a Sinhalese and the Rise of New Identity Forms
resistance leader. Since the 1980s and through the
civil war in Sri Lanka (1981–2009), Muslims main- In Kutali, chena cultivation is of secondary impor-
tained a stance of “managed neutrality” (Berkwitz tance to rice paddy cultivation. There is quite a bit
2003: 61; De Munck 1998: 112–113). Ethnic ten- of difference between the two kinds of cultivation.
sions are an internal and constant feature of Kutali In brief: chena fields are always in the highlands or
(and for Sri Lanka). Yet, no matter how horrific, the scrub forest around the village, whereas paddy
they are a “strain system” according to Beals and fields are in the lowlands usually near permanent
Siegel. This is so because since interethnic conflict water sources. Chena lands are typically left fallow
is an internal phenomenon that does not, by itself, for at least a year; rice paddies are farmed annual-
alter the social structure.10 ly. Rice is a cash and subsistence crop, chena crops
All of the Sinhalese Buddhists living on the vil- (i.e., “Indian corn,” finger millet, long beans) are
lage periphery are post-1970 immigrants attracted primarily consumed by the household and harvested
by the availability of cheap arable land. The central- a month or so before the rice paddy. Most pertinent-
ity of land in the local economy, its geographical re- ly, paddy lands are almost always deeded and had
move from the West and East coast, and the ethnic permanent borders; chena lands were never deeded
neutrality of “otherness” positions the Muslim vil- traditionally and had no hard borders.
lagers as socio-economically “backward” and cul- Chena lands are usually owned as parcels in
turally liminal relative to the larger Tamil and Sin- large plots farmed by kin. For example, in one large
hala populations of Sri Lanka.11 However, to depict parcel farmed by 19 independent households, only
three were not closely related (see Table 1). Thus,
10 At the end of the war for an independent homeland (Eelam) traditionally the economic and kinship systems ap-
for the Tamils, the Sri Lankan military brutally slaughtered peared to be seamlessly interwoven in the sociocul-
Tamils with at least tacit government approval. Two books to tural system of Kutali.
read on this subject are by Weiss (2011) and Harris (2012),
both UN officials stationed in Sri Lanka at this time.
11 “Backward” is a common colloquialism (the English phrase 12 I use Sinhala and Sinhalese interchangeably when referring
is used) to describe poor farming communities where villag- to the majority ethnic group or language of that group. Sin-
ers are characterized as uneducated and rough in character. halese is the Anglicized form of Sinhala.
Anthropos 111.2016
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Table 1: Relations among Households Cultivating chena Fields on temporary ninety-nine year leases and must re-
in One Tract. main in the family, i.e., given to a son or daughter.
Pa–Child Sibling Distant
This cadastral process was, as James Scott (1998:
Kin 24; 34–36) has so aptly shown, part of a deliberate
process of state control over the communities and
Pa–Da Pa–So Bro–Si Bro–Bro Si–Si people comprising the nation. Traditionally, villag-
3 3 7 3 0 3 Total ers did not need to “regularize” chena lands. Ac-
= 19 cording to villagers, everyone knew where every-
one’s chena lands were located and their boundaries.
With regard to the social forms related to chena There were no problems unless someone intention-
lands three different stressors are discussed: the ally encroached. Due to the effectiveness of imple-
“regularization” of land; population increase partic- menting government policies and the presence of
ularly via the immigration of Sinhalese Buddhists; government agents in the village, there occurred a
and the introduction of cash for labor. We would ex- shift from public recognition of non-titled “histor-
pect that conflict within the village would increase ic” ownership of land to official deeds as legitimate
as a result of these stressors, and that the conflict has proof of ownership. Villagers had been effectively
the potential to be decisive. I introduce the stressors “reduced to enlisted men and women” as power and
and the emergence of new identities within the con- knowledge were transferred from “here and us” to
text of the ethnographic material. “there and them.” 15
Many villagers, realizing the shift that had taken
place, took land through opportunistic means from
a) Stressor 1: The Land kacheri traditional owners. For example, Hakeem had been
(or the “Regularization” of Land) working his father’s chena field when his maama
(uncle) came to tell him to stop working since he
In 1979, the Sri Lankan government passed a law (the maama) now (after the land kacheri) had a per-
prohibiting the clearing of jungle lands without a mit. Hakeem’s maama threatened to go to the po-
permit. This law remained ineffective in remote ar- lice if Hakeem did not leave the land immediately.
eas such as Kutali, but in February 1981, a group of According to Hakeem, his father had the historical
land surveyors and bureaucrats from the Monera- right to the property, but the family was too poor
gala District offices came to Kutali to survey land, and had not bothered to obtain a permit. Hakeem
listen to land claims, and approve or reject villagers’ said, “If the police come, I will definitely have to
applications for land deeds or long-term leases of give it back since we took no steps to apply for a
government lands.13 This organization was referred permit. So, now, how am I going to work a chena”?
to by villagers as a “kacheri.” 14 There had been one The new regulations were implemented from
or two earlier land kacheris but they had been limited the outside and contravened traditional modes of
in scope, mainly giving permits to lease government “ownership” based on historical rights and com-
lands for development purposes for nominal fees. mon knowledge. They can be seen from the village
At this land kacheri, said to be the last (antime) perspective as an external stressor since that was a
of its kind, villagers were allowed to claim no more radical reformulation in the way ownership and use
than two acres of lowland and one acre of highland of land was perceived: the traditional method was
for which they paid a nominal fee of two to five via historical and consensual rights; the new method
rupees. The Assistant Government Agent (head ad- was via land deeds and government rights.
ministrator for this region), assisted by the grama se-
vaka and vel vidane (agricultural extension officer)
of the village, listened to the various claims, asked b) Stressor 2: Increasing Population
if there were any objections; if there were none, they
registered the claim. Legally, the land is consigned Between 1971 and 1981, the population of Kutali
had increased 43%, from 767 to 1,100. From my
13 There are twenty-five districts, hence twenty-five kacheris, in own census taking in 1981, there were 100 Sinha-
Sri Lanka.
14 Kacheri is more frequently spelled kachcheri. I am taking a
slight liberty because phonetically as spoken at least in kutali, 15 The statement in the first double quotes comes from a con-
I did not hear two “ch” sounds. Originally, kacheri, a Hindu- versation with Alan Beals; the second quote is my own way
stani word, means collector’s office. In Sri Lanka, a kacheri of emphasizing that power had been transferred both in terms
is equivalent to a district and refers to a tax collector’s and of the people who have it and the place where the people are:
assessor’s office in a district (see Raby 1985: 1; 3). from inside to outside.
Anthropos 111.2016
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lese added to the official census of the village. Thus the land kacheri, together with the internal strain of
43% of that increase (i.e., 100/233) can be account- interethnic conflict, motivated him to use the land
ed for by the arrival of the Sinhalese immigrants. kacheri for his own gain and security against future
The remaining population increase was comprised conflicts with Sinhalese immigrants.
of children under ten years old. This had the effect
of increasing the dependency ratio of adult villag-
ers. The rise in population together with the reduc- c) Stressor 3: Labor Exchange and Cash Labor
tion of available land increased tensions within the
village and between Muslims and Sinhalese Bud- Malleyar (Mountain-Man) offered a vivid portray-
dhist immigrants. al of the problems and tasks that go with farming a
Compared with 1980 there was a rise in conflicts chena field. He said,
in 1981 and 1982 over usufruct rights to chena lands
(see Table 2 below). Many of these conflicts were If you begin too early, before the rains, then the seeds
between Sinhalese and Muslims. One typical exam- will die or you will get weeds and will have to turn them
ple of such an interethnic conflict case is presented up again, doubling the work. If you wait too long, you
can’t burn the vegetation; you will have to wait for a pe-
below.
riod of sunshine. After burning, you weed and then sow
the seeds. For Indian corn, you have to dig small holes,
Table 2: Conflict Types and Frequencies during chena Season.
eight inches apart and put two seeds in each hole. If one
Stray Cattle Theft Land Total seed is bad, the other will germinate. Sometimes the holes
may be attacked by white ants. If the plant is healthy, it
1980 8 8 5 21 will grow six to eight feet in height. On one acre you can
1981 4 9 10 23 plant about five hundred Indian corn seeds, which may
give you a harvest of thirty to forty bushels. Between the
1982 6 15 16 37 Indian corn you broadcast kourakkan (finger millet) and
Total 18 32 31 81 cover the seeds lightly. Kourakkan grows up to two and a
half feet. With an exceptional crop you may harvest 100
bushels. If the ground is bad, the yield will be badly af-
Azam, a Muslim village leader, was involved in a
fected. Neither Indian corn nor kourakkan requires much
chena dispute with a Sinhalese man, Premaratne, a water, and no manure or insecticide is used. Once that
forty-year-old man who, with his family, had moved is over, you can broadcast some gingelly (sesame seed)
to Kutali 1979. In 1982 they had cleared a two-acre which grows to three feet, and for one acre you can har-
chena field adjacent to Azam’s land. According to vest forty to fifty bushels.
Premaratne they had been clearing this land without
a deed, because deeds had not been necessary and There are two ways to recruit labor for these
Azam had never complained. In 1982, Azam wanted tasks: atam waede (reciprocal labor exchange) and
to extend his two acres. Explaining his strategy he daily wage labor. For atam waede, a person will re-
said to me (paraphrasing him) that increasing num- cruit a number of people to help work a chena field.
bers of Sinhalese were moving into the area and, In return, that person will work on each of those
as the government was Sinhalese, he felt he had to people’s fields approximately an equivalent amount
move fast and establish his claims on the land be- of time. Significantly, atam waede does not involve
fore Sinhalese immigrants did so. Azam began to cash and the relations are usually long-term ones,
erect a fence on what Premaratne claimed was his rolling over from task to task, year to year, and from
land. Azam went to the police station and made an chena to paddy cultivation. Regardless of the labor
entry against Premaratne. Approximately one week type used, laborers have to be provided with tea, be-
later, a police officer arrived by bus. According to tel chew, and lunch.
Premaratne, the policeman said that, unless the As- Of the twenty-four families that I have data for
sistant Government Agent (AGA) settled the matter, sixteen (66.7%) relied exclusively on atam waede,
the land cannot be given to either party. In behalf of five (20.8%) on a mixture of atam waede and wage
the AGA, the grama sevaka arbitrated the dispute. labor, and three (12.5%) used exclusively wage la-
He visited the land, demarcated a boundary with the bor (one person worked the chena field alone). In-
consent of both parties, and the case was decided deed, the traditional labor relations continued, yet
mostly in Azam’s favor. Premaratne had agreed to a significant minority (33.3%) adopted wage labor
the decision because he said he was not a trouble- practices.16
maker and he was afraid that Azam or other Mus-
lims would later claim all of his lands. For Azam 16 Unfortunately, I did not systematically inquire into the rela-
the two external stressors, increasing population and tions between field owners and laborers. I just assumed that
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The sociocultural implications of the difference 3.2 Change and Continuity
between these two recruiting policies are profound. in the Village Leadership Structure
Wage labor offers a contractual definition of the re-
lationship between an employer and employees. In Mahroof (1979) wrote that at the turn of the 19th
the case of wage labor, the rate of pay for a partic- century, Muslim village leadership was entrusted
ular amount of work is precisely specified, where- to mosque administrators called marikars; the head
as in atam waede the exchange of labor for labor marikar was given the title of “Trustee.” Though
is always approximated. However, the formula for nominally an elective post, in practice it tends to
converting the value of labor into a cash value is pass through descent. For example, the Trustee Has-
necessarily arbitrary, as both measures of value are san replaced his elder brother Siddik, who had suc-
independent of one another. Consequently, wage la- ceeded his elder sister’s husband Adam Marikar,
bor and reciprocal labor exchange systems are in- who succeeded the father of Hassan and Siddik.
versely related in terms of what is approximated and The primary functions of the marikars are to ad-
what is precisely measured. With wages the conver- ministrate mosque functions, particularly the col-
sion of values is approximate, but, once determined, lection and management of its funds. Marikars, as
it is measured precisely as is the duration of the re- well as other religious personages, were the socio-
lationship, which terminates upon completion of the moral guardians and political leaders of the village.
work or amount of hours hired. With labor exchange Not only was religious and political leadership he-
the value is precise (work for work), but the mea- reditary but economic status was also hereditary.
sure is approximate and the relationship stretches Thus marikar families had a monopoly on the vil-
both backward in time (as an established relation- lage economy and power structure. Villagers were
ship) and forward in time (to be activated the next indebted, often in servitude to these powerful men.
chena season). In this traditional leadership structure religious, eco-
With atam waede an identity is established nomic, and political leadership was held by a few
through the equality, intimacy, and durability of the powerful marikar families – kinship ruled the social
relationship, each is expected to be honest and trust- order – for all practical purposes.17
worthy, year in and year out. With wage labor that In the 1980s and 1990s, the two most visible and
identity is shattered, as the relationship endures only powerful local leaders have been Azam and Mah-
as long as the contract of labor for wages endures. roof.18 Their power, as described below, seemed a
The laborers are commensurable in the cash econo- hybrid of traditional and new sources. They were
my, why they are in many ways incommensurable in the two village patrons acting as the conduits to
the reciprocal labor exchange since it is difficult to outside funds of political power (the police, courts,
find someone else to exchange labor with if there is politicians, and government administrators) and
a disagreement with one’s traditional partner. economic resources (i.e., jobs and government sub-
Once the value of cash to labor is established, sidies). Their position also depended on kinship and
favoring those landowners with surplus capital to religious-ethnic affiliation in that some of their pow-
spend on wage labor, then the benefits of a land/ er came from their ability to control and marshal vil-
kin-centered culture become dubious and, often, lagers to vote for specific politicians or to work on
avalanched by its attendant costs. People no lon- development projects.
ger just fight with or cooperate with particular kin Mahroof was a leader somewhat in the tradition-
but begin to question the whole enterprise of kin- al style described above. He was the Village Coun-
ship. Further, having access to government agents cil representative and had been the mosque trustee.
becomes the means by which villagers acquire new Mahroof was also one of the largest landowning vil-
forms of power. This shift in the locus and relations lagers with approximately 15 acres of paddy land;
of power is manifested in the local-level structure he owned the longest-running and probably most
of leadership. successful village store, and, through his wife, he
loaned money to villagers. Another important and
new source of Mahroof’s income and clout came
from his capacity to obtain contracts for govern-
17 Even connections to the outside world were accessed through
atam waede relations were established among kin and wage kinship connections to local gatekeepers, to powerful outsid-
labor with non-kin. It was improbable that individuals would ers of all stripes.
actually hire their close relatives for chena work, that would 18 These are real names of villagers, but here fictitiously as-
be both unnecessary and an insult. cribed to real people.
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Table 3: Village Leaders and Their
Attributes.
Name Freq. Cited K R P W HV HM GC SD
1. Adam Marikar 25 10 25 1 0 8 2 3 14
2. Hassan Trustee 21 10 21 0 0 10 0 3 3
3. Azam 19 13 3 7 9 10 7 3 2
4. Mahroof 18 13 7 15 6 5 5 1 2
5. Yassim 14 8 12 0 10 5 7 6 0
Key: K = Kinship; R = Religiosity; P = Politics; W = Wealth; HV = Helps Village; HM = Helps
Me; GC = Good Character; SD = Settles Disputes
ment-sponsored development projects. Villagers level funds of power; they were quick to respond to
also perceived Mahroof as a gatekeeper to outside and use new external political and economic struc-
political agents such as the grama sevaka and vari- tures serving as middlemen for obtaining documen-
ous other political and economic resources. tation and jobs to go abroad for local women.
Azam, I think, obtained his position of leader- To discover the villagers’ perceptions of the lo-
ship more directly through his role as a village gate- cal-level leadership structure, I asked 42 adult male
keeper to outside resources. He has no close genea- villagers to name 5 village leaders and to discuss
logical affiliation with the marikar families and was their selections.19 For the sake of brevity, Table 3
born into a socially and economically average vil- presents only the 5 most frequently named individ-
lage family. He became wealthy mostly through his uals and the leadership qualities attributed to them.
own entrepreneurial abilities. Though he owned far The categories of leadership attributes were derived
less land than Mahroof, Azam also owned a village from the villagers’ responses.
store and earned most of his income by acting as an On the basis of attribute frequencies, the top four
economic middleman, buying local foodstuffs and leaders (Adam, Hassan, Azam, and Mahroof) neatly
goods and selling them to large merchants at near- represent two distinct forms of leadership. Religious
by fairs. Mahroof and Azam were also the respec- reasons were most frequently cited for selecting
tive leaders of the two rural cooperative societies Adam and Hassan, and political clout and wealth
through which government funds were channeled were most frequently cited as reasons for selecting
for local development projects. Azam and Mahroof. Note that Azam and Mahroof
In the 1980s, Azam and Mahroof were the offi- received all but one of the “political” reasons for cit-
cial village representatives for the United Nation- ing them as leaders. Hence, villagers perceive their
al Party (UNP), one of the two major political par- leaders to be due to kinship and politics. The combi-
ties in Sri Lanka. Politicians needed them to deliver nation of kinship and politics suggests that political
the Kutali vote during elections. When politicians leaders and villagers rely on kinship connections for
or government officials came to Kutali, it was usu- mutual interests (more on this below). Note also that
ally Azam who hosted them and acted as the vil- Adam Marikar and Hassan Trustee are the only two
lage spokesman. Azam and Mahroof competed with in this group of five leaders who do not have a single
one another for political resources, but they could citation as leaders due to their wealth. Indeed, both
cooperate against a common foe. For example, the are relatively poor men who are perceived as lead-
grama sevaka confiscated timber valued at 10,000 ers due to their religious roles in the community.
rupees from Mahroof. Mahroof and Azam joined Ingrained in the religious role is kinship since both
forces, visited the region’s UNP Member of Parlia- were marikars and trustees and this is traditionally,
ment (MP) in Colombo to petition for the return of and still in practice, a hereditary status.
the timber. Their petition was successful, the tim- The fifth person cited as a village leader, Yas-
ber was returned and the grama sevaka was shortly sim, was almost invisible in village political and re-
thereafter transferred. ligious life. I had very little knowledge about him.
Azam and Mahroof fit the classical ethnographic Note that two of the most frequent citations for him
descriptions of political middlemen or gatekeepers were in the “Wealth” and “Helps Me” categories.
who bridge and manipulate both local- and national-
level political structures. They were village leaders 19 The informants were recruited independently and I sought to
obtain diversity on gender and age within the sample. How-
relying on both traditional (i.e., internal, local) and ever, in village contexts the ideal plan was trumped by local
modern (i.e., external, national, and global) funds of practices and knowledge and only about five informants were
power. They relied on kinship and access to local- women (I do not have the gender data available).
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Yassim is a businessman who in an interview with grounded in kinship. For the former, kinship is an
him after this survey told me that he purposeful- intrinsic principal of and for leadership, and kinship
ly disengaged himself from village political, eco- is affiliated with religion, thus explicitly establishing
nomic, and social life because villagers would place a twined, DNA-like bond between religion-morality
demands on him for help, and if he refused, they and kinship. For the latter, kinship is intrinsic as a
would speak ill of him. Yassim owned a store in a feature of relations but instrumental as a principal
nearby town and most of his wealth was produced for leadership, therefore splitting these two identi-
outside the village. He possibly represents the emer- ties. The split, however, is not complete and one can
gence of a new sort of streamlined leadership role, observe the relationship between external stressors
one that is specific only to economic interests. This (the political structure of leadership in a nation-
role is emergent rather than established, because vil- state), internal strains (the inherent moral rights
lagers rely on their kinship connections to him to and duties that are knitted into kinship and Mus-
make requests for help. Of interest here is that he lim identities) in the way villagers view the leader-
neither views himself as a village leader nor desires ship system at the local level. Yassim, we may sur-
to be one. Consequently, he is the only village lead- mise, is the Kutali analogue to multinational CEOs;
er who considers kinship to be a mixed blessing and his position of leadership is reduced or concentrat-
does not identify himself with the village through an ed solely on the economic arena of life. This is in-
idiom of kinship. This is an important issue in the tentional, since for Yassim kinship relations would
next section, where I discuss how villagers use the enmesh him in the convoluted, complex, and turbu-
idiom of kinship to establish control through claims lent world of local-level social life, which would re-
of duty and obligation. quire him to adopt a kinship identity as patron to all
Azam and Mahroof represent a different type those who claim kinship with him – and that would
of leadership system and identity than do Adam be everyone in the village (as we see from Fig. 1).
and Hassan. The latter are leaders of the social- This sort of embeddedness in local social life would
religious sphere of village life. In contrast, Azam thwart his economic ambitions; hence his intention-
and Mahroof, like Yassim, respond as instrumental al disengagement from village social life is neces-
rather than moral leaders. Villagers become clients sary for him to succeed, not unlike the rich in the
to Azam and Mahroof for the purpose of gaining modern world.
economic benefits. As patrons Azam and Mahroof
are responsible for getting jobs for them or family
members, giving loans, and helping them in apply- 3.3 Change and Continuity in the Kinship Identity
ing for government aid. Further as clients, villagers and Idiom of Villagers
are required to vote as Azam and Mahroof tell them
to vote and give support to Azam or Mahroof when Figure 1 below shows that in 1982 the village could
requested. The identity created here is one based easily be characterized as kin-based. Each line rep-
on the patron-client relations of factions. Kinship as resents a kinship tie, and one can see those house-
an idiom of affiliation is used instrumentally rather holds are woven together in multiplex kinship ties.
than morally in this case. In this sense, the instru- The diagram is a visual, concrete manifestation of
mental facet without its attendant moral facet re- Durkheim’s concept of mechanical solidarity. The
duces and creates an ambivalence about kinship that dense linkages show that kinship must be part of the
will be examined in the next section. web of meaning that tangles all persons in the vil-
However, because Azam and Mahroof use kin- lage and serves as the foundation of all local-level
ship (part of the strain system of the traditional sociocultural systems.
political structure) in a new way – to deliver vote It is perhaps worth looking at this diagram care-
banks in exchange for favors from politicians – this fully and then drawing or considering what such a
ambiguity is likely to endure as long as faction lead- kinship schematic for a Western community would
ers can maintain their gatekeeper role to modern re- look like. The diagram makes clear that the idiom
sources. There have always been economic-political of kinship underlies and structures all social identi-
gatekeepers in villages such as Kutali, but the role ties within the village. For Kutali villagers the so-
played by Azam and Mahroof has become more im- cial coordinates for situating individuals in their rel-
portant than in the past, as “high modern” forms of evant social world are kinship and ethnicity. Indeed,
statehood discussed by Scott (1998) become more during festivals and celebrations such as weddings
effective in monitoring and regulating the lives of younger villagers will march/dance down the main
Sri Lankan villagers. Power for both the two tra- street chanting “we are one” in Tamil (nām oṉṟu)
ditional and the two modern village leaders is still and sometimes in Sinhala (apee ekay). In the sense
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Fig. 1: The socio-spatial distribution of kinship ties in Kutali (drawn by A. A. Salaam).
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that kinship underlies local identity formations, in- All people are faced with this problem: let’s say the fa-
cluding that of being a Muslim, any stressor that ther or elder brother went out of the village on business
symbolically opposes this identity should lead to or to work a job. When he comes home on vacation he
ambivalence and create new types of strains within will have to bring home all sorts of gifts and eatables. As
the local identity forms. Expressions of this should soon as he steps off the bus, people will crowd around him
and all the children will demand candies. He will have to
be found in the weakening of the control factors of
give them all something otherwise the parents of the chil-
an identity. dren will find out and gossip about his spendthrift ways,
New sociocultural systems emerge as responses this will cause uneasiness among all relations. When he
to powerful national and global (i.e., external) forc- steps off the bus he will end up completely embarrassed
es. Thiessen (2013) uses the term “tangential” to re- because there is no way to satisfy everyone. He will have
fer to – as we have noted – these forces, referred to to buy presents for his wife and children, and also for his
as stressors are in a tangential relation with kinship sisters and his wife’s sisters. His brothers and cousins will
identities. Thiessen (2013) refers to the citizens of think he is rich and ask for loans. Instead of cooking one
Macedonia as “tangential” to Europeans in terms of measure of rice for meals, his wife will have to cook two
their inclusion into a European identity. She writes, or three measures, just to feed the people who will come
“… tangentiality refers to all things that are perpen- by for meals. Relations will come by to borrow something
from him and he will have to give it to them, otherwise
dicular to unity. Perpendicularity creates a 90° an-
they will be offended and all sorts of trouble will start.
gle to a given plane. People [meaning Macedonians]
understood very early on that they were not in ‘di-
rect alignment’ with the West” (2013: 48). The new The source of tension in this account is the con-
modes of social, economic, and political relation- sideration of the accumulation of money and goods
ship, that is the new menu of stories by which peo- obtained from outside the community. Explicit is
ple construct shared identities, were tangential to the the theme that actions, particularly entrepreneurial
more traditional forms. The move from “traditional” activities that occur outside the village, serve to dif-
to “modern,” however, cannot be said, at least, not at ferentiate one from the other villagers. Gift-giving
the time of this study nor in 2013, to be linear nor is restores social equilibrium by signaling the return-
it a quantum jump to another stage. Rather kinship ees reentry into the web of kin relations. Kin iden-
and community networks become even more impor- tity is reaffirmed through this control effort, the tra-
tant for individuals, particularly local gatekeepers, ditional notion of kinship identity and its reciprocal
to establish position and power in the national and obligations and right is preserved, but it is not left
global worlds with which they are engaged. without a nick. Enough nicks and the above villag-
Kinship has always been a central part of the er as well as others will start acting on an emergent
larger strain system, since there is an inherent logi- and robust egocentric-contractual identity rather
cal strain or contradiction between the web of kin- than the socio-centric identity that has been charac-
ship obligations and rights and self-interest, particu- teristic of South Asia.20
larly as it becomes clearer that the former can be a
millstone for entrepreneurial ambitions. The control
mechanisms of kinship identities require that one at- 4 Discussion
tends to the moral injunctions of “owe and ought”
that are part and parcel of kin relations. In the past, Kinship divides in two ways: one, when we contest
excising these meant that one is ostracized, un- the propriety of behavior, second, when we contest
moored from all social docks and left as flotsam. In the privilege of kinship. In the first we have dis-
the present, if one has the wherewithal, one can take putes between kin with one or both parties, claim-
the option of Yassim or the hybrid options of Assam ing that the other is not behaving “like a brother
and Mahroof. There is no either/or, no dichotomy, should.” This leads to what Beals and Siegel (1966)
but a rather complicated middle ground with enough call “normative disputes” and does not threaten the
niches for people to maneuver and find their niche. structure itself. The second leads to questions about
A new identity (one presumably more suited to a the structure and power of kinship as being privi-
Western capitalist mode of living) has not yet been leged over other social identities, as in the phrase
formed, but there is evidence of its emergence, not “blood is thicker than water.” Such conflicts lead (or
only in the vast amount of social science and popu- may lead) to a radical change in social forms and
lar writing on globalization and modernization, but
also in the responses and attitudes of villagers to 20 Bharati (1985); Inden and Nicholas (1977); Marriott (1990);
each other. A villager crystallizes his own ambiva- McHugh (1989, 2001); Mines (1988, 1994); Shweder and
lence towards kin as follows: Bourne (1984).
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