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Eastern Quarterly.
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The Social Organizationof Tradition*
ROBERT REDFIELD
Press, 1953), 141f. See also, W. Eberhard, "Neuere Forschungen zur Religion Chinas,
1920-1932" Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft, 33.3 (1936), 304-344, a discussion of Staat8-
kult and Volksreligion in China.
6 G. E. von Gruinebaum, "The Problem: Unity in Diversity," in Unity and Variety in
Association (1944), 57-65; "Methods of Popular Religious Instruction, South India," MS;
"Variety and Integration in the Pattern of Indian Culture," MS.
9 Raghavan, "Methods of Popular Religious Instruction, South India," MS.
16 FAR EASTERN QUARTERLY
III
These remarksare, I am sure you see, not so much a reportas a forecast.I
thinkthatin pursuingour studiesin the peasant communitiesthat lie withinthe
great civilizationsthe contextualstudies of anthropologistswill go forwardto
meetthetextualstudiesmade by historiansand humanistsofthegreattraditions
of that same civilization.In doing this we shall expand our own contextsand
extendour concepts.We shall findourselvesstudyingaspects ofsmall communi-
ties thatwereabsent or unimportantin autonomousprimitivecommunities.We
shall study the peasant communityin its heteronomousaspects. And we shall
move outside of that communityto studyinstitutionsand groupsthat connect
Little and GreatTraditionsin singlestructuresofseveral distinguishablekinds.
I thinkit likelythatit willbe especiallyin the courseoftheirstudiesofvillage
India that anthropologists will come to develop these newformsof thoughtand
to recognizenew kindsofnaturalsystemsto study.It is in India that Great and
Little Tradition are in constant,various and conspicuousinteractionwith the
life of the local communities.It is therethat the Great Traditionsare in fact
several; therethe preeminentoldertradition,the sanskritic,is itselfa skein of
relatedbut distinguishablethreadsof teachingand institution.It is therethat
the teachingsofreflective and civilizedmindsappear plainlyin the festivalsand
in theideals ofpeasantry.It is in India that a man's ascribedstatus, in theform
ofcaste,is closelyassociatedwiththe claim ofthat caste to greateror lesserpar-
ticipationin theritualsand ideals oflifeas inculcatedin sanskriticteaching.Pro-
16 Stella Kramrisch, The Art of India Through the Ages (London: Phaidon Press), 1954.
16 For this way of contrasting the two kinds of studies, I am indebted to Milton Singer.
18 FAR EASTERN QUARTERLY
don, 1952). See also Bernard S. Cohn, "The Changing Status of a Depressed Caste," in
Village India, ed. by McKim Marriott, (Comparative Studies in Cultures and Civilizations,
ed. by Robert Redfield and Milton Singer) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955).
18 Bernard Cohn, "The Changing Status of a Depressed Caste," in Village India.
Laksmi has entered the great tradition relatively late and from the folk cultures of India.
He quotes Rhys Davids and Renou and Filliozat to this effect. It appears that this deity
was absent fromearly vedic literature, that early statues to her were set in places reserved
for popular deities, and that the Buddhist canon castigates Brahmans for performingnon-
sensical, non-vedic rituals such as those to Sri Devi (Lakami), etc. (Marriott, personal
communication.)
21Marriott says that in "Kishan Garhi" the more learned villager takes, in short, quite
distinguishable positions toward great and little traditions. The latter, which he sees
manifest in the doings of the uneducated villagers, is a matter of practice, is ignorance or
fragmentary knowledge, is confusion or vagueness, and is expressed in concrete physical
or biological images. The great tradition, which he thinks of himself as in larger degree
representing, is theory or pure knowledge, full and satisfying, is order and precision, and
finds for its expression abstractions or symbolic representations.
20 FAR EASTERN QUARTERLY
ers-between the two. They will study the "cultural media," the ceremonies,
songs,dances,dramas,recitationsand discoursesin whichmuchofthiscommuni-
cationis expressed.And theywill attendto the specialists,the kindsofteachers,
reciters,genealogistsand historians,who mediatebetweenLittle Traditionand
Great. So the anthropologistwillat timesleave thevillageto studytheseinstitu-
tions and groups.McKim Marriottand Surajit Sinha have suggestedto me an
anthropologicalstudyofa templeconnectedwithvillagelife.An Indian historian,
K. K. Pillay,22has alreadypublisheda study,fromhis point of view, of such a
temple in Travancore. Also, the anthropologistwill study one of those castes
whosespecial functionis to preserveand cultivatethe historyand the genealogy
ofthat othercaste on whichit depends,or one ofthosecastes ofthosewho singto
theirpatronstraditionalstoriesfromtheRamayanaortheMahabharata.Shamrao
Hivale23has writtena book on onesuch caste and a studyofanotheris underway
underdirectionof ProfessorSrinivas.Such castes are corporategroupsrelating
littleand greattraditionto one another.
Looked at in this way, the interactionof great and little traditionscan be
regardedas a part ofthesocial structureofthepeasant communityin its enlarged
context.We are concernedwiththosepersistingand importantarrangementsof
rolesand statusesappearingin such corporategroupsas castes and sects, or in
teachers,reciters,ritual-leadersof one kind or another,that are concernedwith
the cultivationand inculcationofthegreattradition.The conceptis an extension
or specializationof the conceptof social structureas used by anthropologistsin
the study of morenearlyself-containedsocietiesthan are peasant villages. We
turnnow to consider,forthe compoundpeasant society,a certainkind of the
persistingsocial relations,a certainpart of the social structure.The relations
betweenMuslim teacherand pupil, betweenBrahman priestand layman, be-
tween Chinesescholarand Chinese peasant-all such that are of importancein
bringingabout the communicationof great traditionto the peasant, or that,
perhaps withoutanyone's intention,cause the peasant traditionto affectthe
doctrineofthe learned-constitutethe social structureofthe culture,the struc-
ture of tradition.From this point of view a civilizationis an organizationof
specialists,kindsof role-occupiersin characteristicrelationsto one anotherand
to lay people and performing characteristicfunctionsconcernedwiththe trans-
missionof tradition.
We might,as does Professor Raymond Firth, reserve the phrase "social
organization"24in connectionwith concrete activityat particular times and
places. Social organizationis the way that people put togetherelements of
actionin sucha way as to get donesomethingtheywant done. Social structureis
a persistinggeneralcharacter,a "pattern" of typicalrelationships;social organi-
zationis describedwhenwe accountforthe choicesand resolutionsof difficulties
and conflictsthat actuallywent on or characteristically go on. Accordinglywe
K. K. Pillay, The Sucindram Temple (Madras: Kalakshetra Publications, 1953).
22
Shamrao Hivale, The Pardhans of the Upper Narbada Valley (London: Oxford Uni-
23
mightwithdrawthe titleof thispaper fromits wider use and reserveit for the
way in whichelementsofaction are put togetherin any particularcase of trans-
missionof thetradition.We shall be studyingthesocial organizationoftradition,
then,whenwe investigatetheway in whichthe schoolday is arrangedin the con-
servativeIslamic school,orwhenwe studytheway-as NorvinHein has already
done25-in whichthefestivalofRam Lila is broughtabout in an Indian commu-
nity,the peasants and the literatepaadit cooperatingto the end that the sacred
storiesare acted out to the accompanimentof readingsfromthe sacred text of
thehighertradition.If thereare problemsofadjustmentbetweenwhat the more
learnedman would like to see done and what the lay people ofthe village think
proper,or entertaining, these cases ofsocial organizationoftraditionwill be the
moreinteresting.I rememberlost opportunitiesto studythe social organization
of traditionin my own fieldwork,especially one occasion when the Catholic
parishpriestand the local shamanofthe Maya traditiontook part,successively,
in a ceremonyof purificationin a Guatemalan village. There were then many
pushingsand pullings,manymattersofdoubt,conflictand compromise,whichI
failedto record.In thatcase therewere,ofcourse,two moreesoterictraditions,in
somedegreeof conflictwith each other,and both requiringsome adjustmentto
the expectationsof the villagers.
So we come to develop formsof thoughtappropriateto the wider systems,
the enlargedcontexts,of our anthropologicalwork.In studyinga primitiveso-
ciety,in its characteristicself-containment, its societal and culturalautonomy,
we hardlynoticethe social structureof tradition.It may therebe presentquite
simplyin a fewshamansorpriests,fellowmembersofthesmall community, very
similarto otherswithinit. And in a primitiveand preliteratesocietywe cannot
knowmuchofthe historyofits culture.The structureoftraditionin earlyZuni
is seen as a divisionoffunctionwithinthe tribalcommunityand is seen as some-
thingnow goingon, not as a history.But a civilizationhas both greatregional
scope and greathistoricdepth.It is a greatwhole,in space and in time,by virtue
of the complexityof the organizationwhichmaintainsand cultivatesits tradi-
tionsand communicatesthemfromthe greattraditionto the many and varied
small local societieswithinit. The anthropologistwho studiesone ofthesesmall
societiesfindsit farfromautonomous,and comes to reportand analyze it in its
relations,societal and cultural,to state and to civilization.
25 Norvin Hein, "The Ram Lila," The Illustrated Weekly of India, (Oct. 22, 1950), 18-