Jonathan P. Parry
Caste and Kinship in Kangra.
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979. International Library of Anthropology. First edition. 071000012X xv/353 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 5.75" x 9", is bound in black cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book is in fine condition, with firm binding, clean and bright interior. Price-clipped dust jacket displays light shelfwear. Jacket is preserved in mylar cover.
"Based on research carried out amongst the Kangra hills in northwest India, this study will be welcomed as a major addition to our understanding of social inequality and the nature of caste and kinship. A full account is given of the social structure of the region, emphasizing the continuity of principles which govern relations between castes and relations within castes. In the course of his analysis, the author shows thatthe boundaries, which mark divisions within the caste,  divisions between castes, between "clean" and "untouchable" castes and between men and gods are not of qualitatively  different kinds, but are different only in the degree of elaboration and emphasis they receive. Whether between members of different castes or between members of the same household, inequality is axiomatic in almost all dyadic relations and this inequality is expressed in the same idiom throughout.
But, as the book goes on to indicate, this hierarchical view of the world is not entirely unqualified. Thus, a rigorous application of hypergamous principles has pragmatic consequences which result in recurrent attempts to undermine the hierarchy within the caste and to make marriages between equals mandatory. This ambivalence is reflected in the notion of "brotherhood" which is at once hierarchical and egalitarian".