Socio-Cultural Dimension of Village Community

Introduction: It is not recent that rural sociologists dwell on the study of rural institutions. The
history of the study of rural institutions goes back to the 18th century when British officials-
turned anthropologists studied village communities from the point of view of institutions, and
their specific interest was on the landowning caste. Later on, when village studies became very
popular in the middle of fifties, a number of other village institutions were studied by
sociologists and anthropologists like marriage, family, kinship, caste, etc. We will discuss it one
by one.

 Ecology: Ecology is concerned with the habitat and environment in relation to living
organisms. The human settlement is thus determined by its ecology. Agriculture is the
major source of income and employment for the rural people. It decides the village
pattern, housing design and other such things related to human beings. For instance, the
tribals in India construct their houses in a scattered pattern. They keep their fields in the
neighbourhood of their houses. On the other hand, in the plains, the villages are compact
and the fields are quite away from the habitation.
 Rural family: a. Indian family is clan dominated, for eg. The Bhotias and Rebari have
their families based on clan ties. b. Agriculture based family in which there is some
cattle wealth also as secondary source of income c. Mostly the rural families are
patriarchal and patrilocal in which the male owns the headship. However, in some parts
of India there are matriarchal families too, like in Kerala and Tamilnadu. D. Subsistence
based family in which they practice shifting cultivation for consumption only. E. Closer
degree of primary relations in which there is a common roof, common kitchen, a
generation depth, a common religion, etc. F. Household division of labour in which
rural household is distributed among its members. G. A common lifestyle which
revolves around agricultural activities. H. Family tensions on account of division of
property, women, share of water, etc.
 Kinship: Primitive rural society is based on kinship. Every person must have a
recognized relationship, nearer or more remote, to every other member of the group. The
ties of the blood are primary and hence natural as opposed to other ties with arise in the
process of evolution. All the economic matters related to division of land, marital rules
related to exogamy, i.e. marriage outside one’s own village, and rituals related to
lifecycle like birth, marriage and death, etc. all are decided by the kinship relations.
 Marriage: Marriage is a sacrament and in dissolvable bond in the rural community.
They practice various forms of marriage in various parts of village India like polyandry
in Todas, polygyny among the Muslim and ancient tribes and most modern and popular,
monogamy. Rules of marriage also apply in rural community like exogamy (marriage
outside village and clan), endogamy (marriage within the caste or sub-caste), hypergamy
(marriage of high caste man with lower woman), levirate (marriage with the deceased
 brother’s widow or bhabhi) and sororate (marriage with wife’s sister, Sali). Here
marriage is less expansive in rural society with domination of caste norms.
 Religion: Religion plays a dominant role in rural community because of following
reasons:
a. Economy is dependent on nature and villagers used to perform various rituals and
ceremonies for crop protection, harvesting, rains, etc.
b. The religious outlook of the rural people overwhelmingly dominates their
intellectual, economic and political life. In fact, the history of village settlement
begins with the provision for the worship of a deity.
c. Priestly leadership in rural society which surpasses economic and political authority.
For eg. The supremacy of Brahmin temple priest
d. Religion plays the role of individual sense of belonging and identity with their
knowledge about ultimate survival in the world.
e. Body of rituals and sanskaras to be performed at every cycle of life.
f. Stratification of society is also maintained through religion.
g. Cult war in rural community with various schools of karmakanda

 Caste system: Caste system is inbuilt in the village social system with rigid rules of
social behavior and public practices, like, segmental division of society into higher
and lower social units; a system of hierarchy which is based on the basis of purity and
pollution; restrictions on feeding and social intercourse (kachha food for lower castes
and pakka food for upper castes); various civil and religious disabilities ranging from
use of separate public wells or tanks to ban on temple entry; caste based occupation
which restricts social and occupational mobility and practice of endogamy, i.e.
marriage within the own caste. Any person who breaks these rules would be socially
boycotted and may face brutal cases of honour killing.
 Jajmani system: This was used to be a practice which was very popular in Northern
Indian villages few decades back. This was an economic division of labour based on
caste and hereditary lines. In this practice, there were two categories of people
involved; the serving caste (kameen) and the served caste (Jajman). The kameen has
to serve the Jajman and his family in all economic matters and in return, the Jajman
takes care of kameen’s family. This practice passes from generation to generation in
kameen’s family.