Scales of difference: an ethnography of the family dynamics of livelihood transition, affirmative action, cultural objectification and state recognition in Andhra Pradesh, India

Herzmark, Thomas John (2021) Scales of difference: an ethnography of the family dynamics of livelihood transition, affirmative action, cultural objectification and state recognition in Andhra Pradesh, India. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

This thesis investigates indigenous adivasi experiences of livelihood transitions and policies of affirmative action in the Southeast Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork conducted with people from across the Koya adivasi group, this research shows how the benefits of affirmative action policies filter unevenly through communities and households. Koyas are categorised by the Indian government as a Scheduled Tribe (ST), and on this basis are eligible for affirmative action measures such as land protections, subsidised grain, and reserved seats in schools and state employment. Unequal access to such policies, which are broadly intended to integrate adivasis into the regional economy and society, exacerbates class distinctions within the Koya community. Through the process of transition away from small-scale shifting cultivation towards greater dependency on the state, Koyas’ sense of having a “distinctive culture” is reified, as their inclusion is premised on the reiteration of their “backwardness”. The thesis charts an objectification of community identity as the logic of state recognition becomes intertwined with emic understandings of cultural differences and affinities. To investigate these processes the thesis moves through ethnography at various scales of social life: the household, the village, and the wider region. By exploring how interlocutors differentiate themselves from others within these spaces, I show how particular notions of ethnic, gendered and generational difference are produced, experienced and reiterated, through social reproduction, social interactions, and engagement with state discourses. This argument is grounded in fine-grained ethnography of social relations and informed by a historical perspective on entrenched forms of ethnic, and caste/tribe difference in South Asia. The empirical material stretches from the differences in aspirations between siblings and closely related families within a village of shifting cultivators, to the differences felt to be deeply ingrained between caste and tribe communities across the wider region.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2021 Thomas John Herzmark
Library of Congress subject classification:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Sets:	Departments > Anthropology
Supervisor:	Shah, Alpa and James, Deborah
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4414

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