David Rudner | University of California, Los Angeles (original) (raw)

Papers by David Rudner

Research paper thumbnail of Banking in the Bazaar: The Nattukottai Chettiars

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Oct 1, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Re-Exhuming Dravidian Kinship: A Response to Parkin

Contributions to Indian Sociology, Jul 1, 1997

Research paper thumbnail of Banker's Trust and the Culture of Banking among the Nattukottai Chettiars of Colonial South India

Modern Asian Studies, Jul 1, 1989

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and Capitalism in Colonial India

University of California Press eBooks, Dec 31, 1994

Research paper thumbnail of Inquest on Dravidian Kinship: Louis Dumont and the Essence of Marriage Alliance

Contributions to Indian Sociology, Jul 1, 1990

... the Nuer, south Indians exhibit a segmentary organ-isation of descent groups, but unlike theN... more ... the Nuer, south Indians exhibit a segmentary organ-isation of descent groups, but unlike theNuer (or so ... The second complementary principle he calls 'marriage alliance' or 'affinity'. ... to talk of values is interesting insofar as it suggests changes in Dumont's anthropological goals. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and Capitalism in Colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars

The American Historical Review, Dec 1, 1996

... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTO... more ... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: ... VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): xix, 341 p. SUBJECT(S): India; Commerce; History; Nattukottai Chettiars; Caste; Tamil Nadu. DISCIPLINE: No discipline assigned. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Religious Gifting and Inland Commerce in Seventeenth-Century South India

The Journal of Asian Studies, 1987

Most accounts of South Indian commerce in the seventeenth century depend on European documents an... more Most accounts of South Indian commerce in the seventeenth century depend on European documents and focus on Indo-European trade along the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. This paper makes use of indigenous documents to analyze the way a caste of itinerant salt traders combined worship and commerce in the interior of Tamil-speaking South India. The traders referred to themselves as Nakarattars, and even today their descendants call themselves by this name. But since the colonial period, they have been known to outsiders as Nattukottai Chettiars. Initially op-
erating within a small trading territory, they gradually expanded the range and scope of their commercial activities. By the second half of the nineteenth century, they had become the chief merchant-banking caste of South India, with a commercial empire that extended throughout Southeast Asia (Rudner 1985). This paper focuses on Na- karattar activities in the seventeenth century, when their commercial expansion was just getting under way and when the close association of this expansion with rituals of religious gifting was already apparent. The two main purposes of the paper are (1) to illuminate the ritual dimension of commercial activity in precolonial South
India and (2) to enrich current transactional models of the relationship between tem- ples and social groups in South India by incorporating a mercantile perspective.

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and Capitalism in Colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Jun 1, 1996

... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTO... more ... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Rudner, David West. PUBLISHER: University of California Press (Berkeley). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1994. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 0520072367 ). VOLUME/ ...

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and commerce in Indian society : a case study of Nattukottai Chettiars, 1600-1930

Research paper thumbnail of Re-Exhuming Dravidian Kinship: A Response to Parkin

Contrib Indian Sociol, 1997

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and commerce in Indian society : a case study of Nattukottai Chettiars, 1600-1930

Research paper thumbnail of Merchant Castes

Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: A Case Study of West Bengal

The Journal of Asian Studies, 1985

Research paper thumbnail of Religious Gifting and Inland Commerce in Seventeenth-Century South India

The Journal of Asian Studies, 1987

sMost accounts of South Indian commerce in the seventeenth century depend on European documents a... more sMost accounts of South Indian commerce in the seventeenth century depend on European documents and focus on Indo-European trade along the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. This article makes use of indigenous documents to analyze the way a caste of itinerant salt traders, the Nakarattars, combined worship and commerce in the interior of Tamil-speaking South India. It focuses on Nakarattar activities in the seventeenth century before they had achieved power under their better-known name, Nattukottai Chettiars, and at a time when their commercial expansion was just getting under way and when the close association of this expansion with rituals of religious gifting was already apparent. The two main purposes of the article are to illuminate the ritual dimension of commercial activity in precolonial South India and to enrich current transactional models of the relationship between temples and small groups in South India by incorporating a mercantile perspective.

Research paper thumbnail of “Merchant Castes.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism. Edited by Alfred Hiltebeitel. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Discussion and annotated bibliography of literature on merchant castes.

Research paper thumbnail of Alchemies of violence: myths of identity and the life of trade in western India - Lawrence A. Babb

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and Capitalism in Colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars

The American Historical Review, 1996

... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTO... more ... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: ... VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): xix, 341 p. SUBJECT(S): India; Commerce; History; Nattukottai Chettiars; Caste; Tamil Nadu. DISCIPLINE: No discipline assigned. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Banker's Trust and the Culture of Banking among the Nattukottai Chettiars of Colonial South India

Research paper thumbnail of Public Faces, Private Voices: Community and Individuality in South India

Journal of Asian Studies, 1996

... Let me here thank but a few: P. Balasubramaniyam, VR Sondarajan, S. Samban-dam, WR Jayraman, ... more ... Let me here thank but a few: P. Balasubramaniyam, VR Sondarajan, S. Samban-dam, WR Jayraman, J. Gnanaprakasan, T. Ekambaram, A ... in this book and helped me collect the data on temple procession routes, Vijayalakshmi Gouri-shankar, A. Meyyappan, Prakash Kumar, C ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Northern Nadars of Tamil Nadu. An Indian Caste in the Process of Change

Journal of Asian Studies, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of Banking in the Bazaar: The Nattukottai Chettiars

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Oct 1, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Re-Exhuming Dravidian Kinship: A Response to Parkin

Contributions to Indian Sociology, Jul 1, 1997

Research paper thumbnail of Banker's Trust and the Culture of Banking among the Nattukottai Chettiars of Colonial South India

Modern Asian Studies, Jul 1, 1989

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and Capitalism in Colonial India

University of California Press eBooks, Dec 31, 1994

Research paper thumbnail of Inquest on Dravidian Kinship: Louis Dumont and the Essence of Marriage Alliance

Contributions to Indian Sociology, Jul 1, 1990

... the Nuer, south Indians exhibit a segmentary organ-isation of descent groups, but unlike theN... more ... the Nuer, south Indians exhibit a segmentary organ-isation of descent groups, but unlike theNuer (or so ... The second complementary principle he calls 'marriage alliance' or 'affinity'. ... to talk of values is interesting insofar as it suggests changes in Dumont's anthropological goals. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and Capitalism in Colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars

The American Historical Review, Dec 1, 1996

... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTO... more ... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: ... VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): xix, 341 p. SUBJECT(S): India; Commerce; History; Nattukottai Chettiars; Caste; Tamil Nadu. DISCIPLINE: No discipline assigned. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Religious Gifting and Inland Commerce in Seventeenth-Century South India

The Journal of Asian Studies, 1987

Most accounts of South Indian commerce in the seventeenth century depend on European documents an... more Most accounts of South Indian commerce in the seventeenth century depend on European documents and focus on Indo-European trade along the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. This paper makes use of indigenous documents to analyze the way a caste of itinerant salt traders combined worship and commerce in the interior of Tamil-speaking South India. The traders referred to themselves as Nakarattars, and even today their descendants call themselves by this name. But since the colonial period, they have been known to outsiders as Nattukottai Chettiars. Initially op-
erating within a small trading territory, they gradually expanded the range and scope of their commercial activities. By the second half of the nineteenth century, they had become the chief merchant-banking caste of South India, with a commercial empire that extended throughout Southeast Asia (Rudner 1985). This paper focuses on Na- karattar activities in the seventeenth century, when their commercial expansion was just getting under way and when the close association of this expansion with rituals of religious gifting was already apparent. The two main purposes of the paper are (1) to illuminate the ritual dimension of commercial activity in precolonial South
India and (2) to enrich current transactional models of the relationship between tem- ples and social groups in South India by incorporating a mercantile perspective.

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and Capitalism in Colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Jun 1, 1996

... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTO... more ... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Rudner, David West. PUBLISHER: University of California Press (Berkeley). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1994. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 0520072367 ). VOLUME/ ...

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and commerce in Indian society : a case study of Nattukottai Chettiars, 1600-1930

Research paper thumbnail of Re-Exhuming Dravidian Kinship: A Response to Parkin

Contrib Indian Sociol, 1997

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and commerce in Indian society : a case study of Nattukottai Chettiars, 1600-1930

Research paper thumbnail of Merchant Castes

Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: A Case Study of West Bengal

The Journal of Asian Studies, 1985

Research paper thumbnail of Religious Gifting and Inland Commerce in Seventeenth-Century South India

The Journal of Asian Studies, 1987

sMost accounts of South Indian commerce in the seventeenth century depend on European documents a... more sMost accounts of South Indian commerce in the seventeenth century depend on European documents and focus on Indo-European trade along the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. This article makes use of indigenous documents to analyze the way a caste of itinerant salt traders, the Nakarattars, combined worship and commerce in the interior of Tamil-speaking South India. It focuses on Nakarattar activities in the seventeenth century before they had achieved power under their better-known name, Nattukottai Chettiars, and at a time when their commercial expansion was just getting under way and when the close association of this expansion with rituals of religious gifting was already apparent. The two main purposes of the article are to illuminate the ritual dimension of commercial activity in precolonial South India and to enrich current transactional models of the relationship between temples and small groups in South India by incorporating a mercantile perspective.

Research paper thumbnail of “Merchant Castes.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism. Edited by Alfred Hiltebeitel. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Discussion and annotated bibliography of literature on merchant castes.

Research paper thumbnail of Alchemies of violence: myths of identity and the life of trade in western India - Lawrence A. Babb

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of Caste and Capitalism in Colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars

The American Historical Review, 1996

... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTO... more ... Caste and capitalism in colonial India: The Nattukottai Chettiars. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: ... VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): xix, 341 p. SUBJECT(S): India; Commerce; History; Nattukottai Chettiars; Caste; Tamil Nadu. DISCIPLINE: No discipline assigned. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Banker's Trust and the Culture of Banking among the Nattukottai Chettiars of Colonial South India

Research paper thumbnail of Public Faces, Private Voices: Community and Individuality in South India

Journal of Asian Studies, 1996

... Let me here thank but a few: P. Balasubramaniyam, VR Sondarajan, S. Samban-dam, WR Jayraman, ... more ... Let me here thank but a few: P. Balasubramaniyam, VR Sondarajan, S. Samban-dam, WR Jayraman, J. Gnanaprakasan, T. Ekambaram, A ... in this book and helped me collect the data on temple procession routes, Vijayalakshmi Gouri-shankar, A. Meyyappan, Prakash Kumar, C ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Northern Nadars of Tamil Nadu. An Indian Caste in the Process of Change

Journal of Asian Studies, 1998