Caste and Personal Rank in an Indian Village: An Extension in Techniques1

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Abstract
Caste is a dominant theme in the Indian status order, but observations of social behavior in a village make it clear that caste alone does not determine fully the status order of the villagers. The hypothesis is offered that within his home village each individual has a personal status that is a combination of his caste status and such noncaste statuses as wealth, power, and office. It is further suggested that vector analysis can offer a useful model for perceiving personal status. To test the hypothesis, Marriott's caste‐ranking technique was used to rank thirty Konduru castes and eighteen individuals. A comparison of the two tests throws light on the relative importance of caste as a determinant in the personal status order and the extent to which a man's influence in the village is determined by non‐caste factors. There are possible implications for the concepts of caste and caste structures.

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