Kings and Untouchables: A Study of the Caste System in Western India

In this book Rosa Maria Perez presents fieldwork done on the Vankar, a caste of Untouchable weavers in Gujurat. The ethnographic data, collected over two visits spanning over four years, has led her to a re-evaluation of the traditional approach that focused on the singularity and also the rigidity of caste in Indian society. Louis Dumont's Homo Hierarchicus has had a significant impact on anthropological theory. The author confronts this Western perception of untouchability with the notion of reversibility, and a fresh translation of social norms.