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SERICUL TURE AND THE PROCESS OF CHANGE - Institute for ...

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funds, celebration of festivals, etc. The temples in the village are<br />

attached to different castes and the festivals are celebrated at different<br />

times of the year. The other castes, however, participate in the activities<br />

and cultural programmes associated with the festivals. Each major caste<br />

has a common fund which is a matter of prestige <strong>for</strong> the caste. The fund<br />

has been generated through membership contributions and those<br />

contributions that come through fixed marital payments. The monthly<br />

meetings are attended mainly to collect and redistribute the money,<br />

through auctioning, among those who are in need of money <strong>for</strong><br />

immediate requirements, within the caste. At the meetings, the members<br />

also discuss other issues that are of immediate concern. Thus, the village<br />

reflects a mixed pack of traditional and modern living coexisting as the<br />

village is undergoing a period of transition.<br />

Features of Supportive Fields<br />

The present study mainly focuses on the major contours of the<br />

social processes discerned in Seripura in the context of sericulture.<br />

Nevertheless, it also takes a comparative look into some of the other<br />

sericulture villages in Tamil Nadu, wherever necessary. This would help<br />

in getting a realistic and wider picture of the social realities, discussed in<br />

the present study. These villages include the areas where the the present<br />

researcher has carried out long-term fieldwork (about six months each)<br />

as well as those that were visited <strong>for</strong> conversational interviews and quick<br />

studies to understand various developmental issues of sericulture 3 .<br />

3<br />

Some such studies include 'The Adoption of Bivoltine Technology in Tamil<br />

Nadu' (1990-91), . The Women's Training in Sericulture (1992)', 'The role of<br />

NGOs in the Development of Sericulture' (1994), etc., carried out in the<br />

56

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