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juthaa in Trinidad: food, pollution, and hierarchy in a Caribbean diaspora community
Author(s) -
KHAN AISHA
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1994.21.2.02a00020
Subject(s) - diaspora , caste , salience (neuroscience) , ideology , sociology , gender studies , hinduism , social stratification , normative , hierarchy , geography , ethnology , social science , political science , politics , biology , theology , philosophy , neuroscience , law
Focusing on the Hindi term juthaa —food and drink that have become “polluted” by being partially consumed—this article explores pollution ideology and its implications for social relations and the construction of identity among Hindu and Muslim East Indians in Trinidad. It suggests that in this overseas community the salience of the concept of juthaa, though caste derived, is indicative of an egalitarian morality at work in concert with hierarchical principles. This, in turn, has implications for the way we understand cultural reproduction and change, ritual, and stratification among diaspora populations. [ pollution ideology, social stratification, South Asian diaspora, transnational identities, Trinidad ]