The Social Organization of Tradition Author(s): Robert Redfield Source: The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 15, No.

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The Social Organization Tradition* of

ROBERT REDFIELD

that anthropology which rested on studies of isolated primitive or tribal peoples arose the concept, "a culture." The Andamanese had a the culture,the Trobrianders, Aranda of Australia,and the Zuni. Each culture came to be conceived as an independentand self-sufficient system. Recently words have been foundto make clear this conceptionof an "autonomous culturalsystem."It is "one whichis self-sustaining-that it does not need to be is, maintainedby a complementary, reciprocal, subordinate, otherindispensable or connectionwith a second system." Such units-such culturesas those of the Zuni or the Andamanese-are systemsbecause they have theirown mutually adjusted and interdependent parts, and they are autonomous because they do not require another systemfor their continuedfunctioning.1 The anthropologistmay see in such a systemevidencesofpast communications elements of of cultureto that band or tribefromothers,but, as it now is, he understands that it keeps going by itself;and in describing parts and theirworkings its he need not go outside the little group itself.The exceptions,wherethe band or triberelieson some otherband or tribefora commodity service,are small and or do not seriouslymodifythe fact that that cultureis maintained by the comof munication a heritagethrough generations just thosepeople who make the of up the local community. The cultureofa peasant community, the otherhand,is not autonomous.It on of is an aspect or dimension the civilizationofwhichit is a part. As the peasant so Whenwe study societyis a half-society, the peasant cultureis a half-culture.2 two thingsto be truethat are not truewhenwe studyan such a culturewe find band or tribe.First,we discoverthatto maintainitself isolatedprimitive peasant to of culturerequirescontinualcommunication the local community contentof outside of it. It does require another culturefor its conthoughtoriginating The and oftenthe religious and morallifeofthe tinuedfunctioning. intellectual,
of at The authoris RobertMaynardHutchinsProfessor Anthropology The University Viewof Chicago, and is the author of several books, includingThe Little Community:

OUT OF

* This paper is based on and is partlyan excerptfrom one of fourlecturesdeliveredat Swarthmore College, underthe auspices of the Cooper Foundationin March 1955.It was Society of Anthropological (in part) read at a meeting the CentralSectionofthe American Indiana, in April 1955. at Bloomington, 1 "Acculturation: Exploratory An Formulation,"The Social Science Research Council 1953 (Members:H. G. Barnett,Leonard Broom,BerSeminaron Acculturation, Summer 56.6 nard J. Siegel, Evon Z. Vogt, James B. Watson), AmericanAnthropologist, (Dec. 1954),974. 2 A. L. Kroeber, Anthropology, (New York: Harcourt,Brace, 1948),284. 13

points for the Study of a Human Whole.

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FAR EASTERN QUARTERLY

incomplete;the studentneeds also to knowsomepeasant village is perpetually thingof what comesinto the village fromthe mindsof remoteteachers,priests by and perhapsis affected the peasantry. affects whose thinking or philosophers Seen as a "synchronic" system,the peasant culturecannot be fullyunderstood fromwhat goes on in the minds of the villagersalone. Second, the peasant betweenthat comvillage invitesus to attend to the long courseof interaction munityand centersof civilization.The peasant culturehas an evidenthistory; is, and the history again, not local: it is we are called upon to studythat history; a historyof the civilizationof whichthe village cultureis one local expression. of Both points,in recognition both genericaspects of the peasant culture,were clearlymade by George Foster when he reviewedrecentlyhis experiencesin and wrotethat therethe local culture"is contincommunities Latin-American social by ually replenished contact with products of intellectualand scientific betweentruly strata,"3and said also that "One ofthe mostobvious distinctions societiesand folk [peasant]societies is that the latter,over hundreds primitive ofyears,have had constantcontactwiththe centersofintellectualthoughtand development.. ."4 of in working the small community peasants, are we How, as anthropologists that compoundculture, to conceiveand how are we to studythat largersystem, of whichonlyparts appear to us in the village? long present in discussions of I think we might begin with a recognition betweena Great Traditionand a Little Tradition. civilizationsof the difference Chan says "that instead of dividing the Wing-tsit Writingof Chinese religion, called Confucianism, life religious ofthe Chinesepeople intothreecompartments Buddhismand Taoism, it is far moreaccurate to divide it into two levels, the of Writing Islam, G. von level of the masses and the level of the enlightened."5 and Grilnebaum discussestheways in whichthe Great Traditionofthe orthodox the scholaris adjusted to or is requiredto take account of the Little Traditions of such accommodations of the commonpeople in the villages. He distinguishes Great Traditionto Little Tradition,as when a Christiancrosssent by Saladin by to Baghdad was first despised but in the end reverenced even the orthodox, of fromsuch re-interpretations doctrineas are forcedon the Great Traditionby the Little, as when the expoundersof Islam come to justifythe cults of local saints by referring Koranic passages about "familiarsof the Lord."' At this to from top the same the is and humanist, studying historian pointvon Grilnebaum,
8 George M. Foster, "What is Folk Culture?" American Anthropologist,55.2, Part 1 (April-June, 1953), 169. 4 Foster, 164. In quoting this passage I venture to substitute "peasant" for "folk" to make the terminology fit that chosen for these lectures. I think Foster's "folk societies" are much the same as those I here call "peasant societies." 6 Wing-tsit Chan, Religious Trends in Modern China (New York: Columbia University 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 Staat8kult and Volksreligion in China. 6 G. E. von Gruinebaum, "The Problem: Unity in Diversity," in Unity and Variety in Muslim Civilization, ed. by G. E. von Grunebaum (Chicago: University of Chicago Press [forthcoming1955]).

THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF TRADITION

15

studied in Morocco fromthe anthropologist, phenomenawhich Westermarck, V. From India Professor Raghavan8has sent bottom-in the local communities.7 us a seriesof papers about the manykindsof specialistswho in India teach and ago certain to tradition thevillagepeasants. Centuries have taughtthe sanskritic notablythe epics and the Puranas, used popularcompositions, scholars sanskritic expresslyfor the purpose of teachingvedic lore to the people. Parts of these at of "wererecitedto vast congregations people gathered sacrificial compositions Raghavan tracesan unsessionsby certainspecial classes of reciters."Professor broken traditionto the presentday of deliberateprovision,by ruler and by in teacher,of recitations vernacularlanguages,of the ancient Hindu epics into India and acrossto Cambodia. There was and thereis an thevillagesofsouthern organizationof specialistsdevoted to mediatingbetween Great Tradition and of followsthe structure and humanist, Little. So Professor Raghavan, historian throughIndian history, pursues the course of its influences this organization, untilhe comes into the presentday villages of south India where,as he puts it, and "some sweet-voiced, giftedexpounder"sits in templeor in house-front expounds "to hundredsand thousandsthe storyof the dharmathat Rama upheld and the adharmaby whichRavana fell."9 And in the village he findsalready there,having enteredso to speak by the a backdoor,the anthropologist, fellownot verywellpreparedto conceiveand to and of conof this organizationof functionaries study this structure tradition, into whichthe lifeof the village enters and on which the life tent of thought, of the village in part depends. II have Coming fromcultureswhich are autonomoussystems,anthropologists eitherwith societiesin whichthereis no distinctionbetweenGreat experience and Little Traditions,or with societiesin which the upholdersof an incipient and on of members that same small community Great Traditionare themselves of life thewholesharea common withthe othermembers it. Eitherthereis but a singletraditionto study or the specializationof knowledgethat has developed and the within local community we need not the is carriedon through generations go outsideofit to reportand accountforit. on In readingRadcliffe-Brown the Andaman Islands we findnothingat all about any esotericaspect of religionor thought.Apparentlyany older person distriwill be as likelyto knowwhat thereis to knowas any other.This diffuse and beliefmay be characteristic the butionthroughout populationofknowledge societiesof much greaterdevelopmentof the arts of life of verylarge primitive than theAndamaneseenjoyed.Thus, amongtheTiv of Nigeria,a tribeincluding people "there is no technicalvocabulary, because about a millionagricultural thereare no professional beyondthat whichis the classes,and littlespecialization
7Edward Westermarok, Ritual and Belief in Morocco (London: Macmillan, 1926). 8 V. Raghavan, "Adult Education in Ancient India," Memoirs of the Madras Library 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

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business."'0This is a resultofsex or age. Every aspect oftriballifeis everybody's ". Amongthe Maori, however, . two societywithouta greattradition. primitive aspects of all the superiorclass of mythswere taught. One of these different a was that taughtin the tapu school of learning, versionnever disclosedto the (expertsorpriests) gradeoftohunga bulk ofthepeople but retainedby thehigher and by a few others.The otherwas that importedto the people at large,and nature, more puerileand grotesquethan the this,as a rule,was of an inferior had developedcomplex whereaborigines esotericversion."' And in West Africa, betweenwhat we mightcall a littlerand a greatertradition states,a distinction appears in the controlof elementsof worship,recognized by the people as reconditeand esoteric,by certainpriests.Initiates into these cults are secluded as in forseven monthsof instruction secret.Also, thereare differences between of layman and specialist in the understanding the religion:the priestsof the among deities and their characSkycult in Dahomey see clearly distinctions about whichlaymenare veryvague.'2AmongSudanese peoplesreported teristics of development highly extraordinary Griaule'3thereis, apparently, by Professor specializedthoughtamong certainindividuals. and reflective systematic of This ordering some instancessuggeststhe separationof the two traditions the greatworld civilizations.The contentof in societies that do not represent for comesto be double, one content the layman,anotherforthe hierknowledge of archy.The activitiesand places ofresidenceofthe carriers the greattradition philosophers and primitive mayremaincloseto thoseofthelayman,orthepriests may come to resideand to workapart fromthe commonpeople. Had we been presentat Uaxactun or at Uxmal when Maya civilizationwas doingwellwe shouldhave been in a positionto studyGreat and LittleTraditions in an indigenouscivilization.There the specialists developingthe Great Traditionhad come to live lives notablyseparatefromthose of the villagersand to carryforwardelementsof an indigenouscultureinto a much higherlevel of about writing Pedro Armillas,'4 intellectualand speculativethought.Professor this,tells us to thinkof Maya civilizationas formedof two culturalstrata corand centers of aristocracy the ceremonial to respectively thedominant responding the he farmers; thinks lives ofthesetwo becameincreasingly the hamlet-dwelling distinctand separate. Indeed, I say, what the Old World and New World civilijust zationshad in commonis mostimportantly what it is that makes a civilization anywhere:the separationof cultureinto Great and Little Traditions,the
10 Akiga's Story,tr. and annot. by Rupert East (London: OxfordUniversity Press, 1930),11. 11 Bulletin No. 10, Dominion Museum, Elsdon Best, Maori Religion and Mythology, Printer,1924),31-32. Wellington(N.Z.: W. A. G. Skinner,Government

1938),Vol. II, Ch. 26. Augustin, 13 Marcel Griaule,Dieu D'Eau (Paris: Les Editions du Ch~ne, 1948). 14 Pedro Armillas, "The MesoamericanExperiment,"in "The Ways of Civilizations," Armillas mightnot thinkof the Maya hamleted. by RobertJ. Braidwood,MS. Professor as dwellingfarmers peasants. He regardsthe worldviews of the elite and of the farmers as "sharplydifferent."

12

Melville Herskovits, Dahomey, An Ancient West African Kingdom (New York: J. J.

THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF TRADITION

17

appearance of an elite withsecular and sacred power and includingspecialized cultivatorsof the intellectuallife, and the conversionof tribal peoples into peasantry. But it is in the villages of the old indigenouscivilizations-in China, Indoin nesia, Europe and India-that we anthropologists fact most closelyengage of Great and Little. In Latin Americawe enthe structure compoundtradition, imposed by an invader on a is gage it also, but therethe civilization secondary, In tradition. Maya villages ofthe presentday we village people witha different the one of have to take account ofa double structure tradition, brokenoff, other and changing. continuing In our village studies in Old World civilizationsespecially we shall find,I a to think,that our efforts understand village will moreand morerequire us to and states of mindthat are far away includein our subject matterinstitutions our fromthe village in time or space or both.We shall findourselvesimproving His with the humanist-historian. studies are textual: working communications as textsbut art and architecture part of his textual he studiesnot onlywritten corpus.'5Ours are contextual:we relate some elementof the great traditionor being-to the life sacredbook,story-element, teacher,ceremony supernatural of the ordinarypeople, in the contextof daily life as in the village we see it
happen.'6

III are, I am sure you see, not so much a reportas a forecast.I These remarks that lie withinthe thinkthatin pursuing studiesin the peasant communities our will go forward to great civilizationsthe contextualstudies of anthropologists of and meetthetextualstudiesmade by historians humanists thegreattraditions of that same civilization.In doing this we shall expand our own contextsand aspects ofsmall communiextendour concepts.We shall findourselvesstudying in communities. We ties thatwereabsent or unimportant autonomousprimitive in shall study the peasant community its heteronomous aspects. And we shall and groupsthat connect to move outside of that community studyinstitutions of kinds. Little and GreatTraditionsin singlestructures several distinguishable I thinkit likelythatit willbe especiallyin the courseoftheirstudiesofvillage of and will India that anthropologists come to develop these newforms thought to new kindsofnaturalsystems study.It is in India that Great and to recognize with the Little Tradition are in constant,various and conspicuousinteraction It life of the local communities. is therethat the Great Traditionsare in fact is oldertradition,the sanskritic, itselfa skein of several; therethe preeminent relatedbut distinguishable threadsof teachingand institution.It is therethat and and the teachingsofreflective civilizedmindsappear plainlyin the festivals in theideals ofpeasantry.It is in India that a man's ascribedstatus, in theform ofcaste,is closelyassociatedwiththe claim ofthat caste to greateror lesserparin teaching.Proticipation theritualsand ideals oflifeas inculcatedin sanskritic
16

16 For this way of contrasting the two kinds of studies, I am indebted to Milton Singer.

Stella Kramrisch, The Art of India Through the Ages (London: Phaidon Press), 1954.

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FAR EASTERN QUARTERLY

fessorSrinivas,anthropologist, studied the way in which certain villagers has withways of lifesomewhatapart fromthe greatvedic traditionof India, have been takingon, in part quite consciously, elementsof Hindu culture.In recent generations this people, the Coorgs,have come to thinkof themselvesas Kaatriyas, people ofthe warrior caste or varaa and have comeunderthe influence of philosophical Hinduismto thepointthatfourCoorgs,people once largelyoutside the vedic tradition,have become sannyasis, dedicated holy men observing And as the Coorgshave becomeHinduized teachingsoftheIndian hightradition. theirplace in the Indian hierarchy status has risen.'7 of Westernanthropologists began theirstudiesin India, in most cases, withthe study of the tribalpeoples there,but in veryrecentyears many of them have studiedthe peasant villagesthat are partsofHindu, Muslim or moderncivilizations.Some of themhave becomeinterested the way in which sanskriticelein mentsof cultureentervillage life.In a recentpaper Bernard Cohn'8 has told us how in a certainvillage the leather-workers have improvedtheir position by Another adoptingcustomsauthorized the highsanskritic by tradition. American who has considered Indian village lifewith regardto its connecanthropologist tions with the sanskritic traditionis McKim Marriott.'9In Marriott'svillage, Kishan Garhi,the religionconsistsof elementsof local cultureand elementsof the high sanskrittraditionin close adjustmentand integration. finds"eviHe dence of accretionand of transmutation formwithoutapparentreplacement in and without rationalizationof the accumulated and transformed elements." Fifteenof the nineteenfestivalscelebratedin Kishan Garhi are sanctionedin universalsanskrit texts.But some ofthe local festivals have no place in sanskrit teaching; those that do are but a small part of the entire corpus of festivals sanctioned by sanskritliterature;villagersconfuseor choose betweenvarious classical meaningsfortheirfestivals;and even the most sanskriticof the local festivalshave obviouslytaken on elementsof ritual that arose, not out of the greattraditionbut out of the local peasant life. This kind of syncretization familiarto students of paganism and Chrisis tianity,or of Islam in its relationsto local cultsin North Africa. Marriottprobe interaction betweenlittleand greattraditions studied poses that the two-way as two complementary processesto whichhe gives names. For one thing,the littletraditions the folkexercisetheir influence the authorsof the Hindu of on great traditionwho take up some element of beliefor practice and, by incorstatementof Hindu orthodoxy, universalizethat poratingit in theirreflective for element, all who thereafter come underthe influence theirteaching. Marof was indeedan instanceofuniversaliriottcannotquite prove20that thefollowing
17 M. N. Srinivas, Religion and Society Among the Coorgs of South India (Oxford: Clarendon, 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. 19 McKim Marriott, "Little Communities in an Indigenous Civilization," in Village India. 20 Mr. Marriott kindly tells me something of the strong evidence for the conclusion that

THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF TRADITION

19

zation, but he suggeststhat the goddessLakfmiof Hindu orthodoxy derived is from such deitiesas he saw represented his village daubed on walls orfashioned in in images of dung: the naturesand meaningsof the high goddess and the local godlingsare similarand some villagersidentify latterwithLakemr. the The oppositeprocess,which Marriottcalls parochialization, that by which is some sanskritic elementis learned about and then re-formed the villagers by to becomea part oftheirlocal cult. For example: a divine sage of the sanskritic tradition, associatedby theBrahmanelderswiththeplanetVenus,is represented by erectionof a stonein the village. Brides are now taken here to worshipwith theirhusbands. But then the originsof the stone are forgotten; comes to be it regarded the abode ofthe ancestralspiritsofthe Brahmanswho put it there. as Marriott was able to learn something about the interaction great and little of traditions bringing in about the translation substitution meanings or of and connections of rite and beliefbecause he has read some of the sources of Hindu and orthodoxy because in thevillagehe studiedhe foundsomepeople muchmore than others communication in withthosesourcesthemselves. The villageincludes the educated and the ignorant,and the villager himselfis well aware of the A difference. more educated villager calls himself sandtani,a followerof the a orthodoxand traditionalway; a Brahman domesticpriestdistinguishes "doers and knowers";the ordinary villagersays that a certainritualisNarayana, deity, a the inseminating mortar whichthefamily in husksgrain,but an educated man of the same village says that it is a symbolof the creationof the world.2'Where thereare such differences betweenvillagers,the connections as the village has withthe philosopher theologiancan be tracedin part by the anthropologist or in his community study. The analysis then moves outwardand upward to meet such investigations the downward of movement orthodoxy philosophy is of or as studiedby von GrUnebaum Islam and Raghavan for Hinduism. for I Although knownothing India save at secondhand, I thinkI see in whatis of alreadycomingfrom that fieldofworkindications some ofthe kindsof things of that anthropologists be thinking observing theycometo relatevillage will and as lifeto the civilization whichit is a part. They willbe concernedwiththe comof parisonsofreligious and otherbeliefin the village withthe contentofsanskritic and withtheavenues of communication-theteachers, orthodoxy recitsingers,
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 performingnonsensical, 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.

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ers-between the two. They will study the "cultural media," the ceremonies, in and songs,dances,dramas,recitations discourses whichmuchofthiscommunithe And theywill attendto the specialists, kindsofteachers, cationis expressed. who mediatebetweenLittle Traditionand and historians, genealogists reciters, will Great. So the anthropologist at timesleave thevillageto studytheseinstitutions and groups.McKim Marriottand Surajit Sinha have suggestedto me an An withvillagelife. Indian historian, studyofa templeconnected anthropological has K. K. Pillay,22 alreadypublisheda study,fromhis point of view, of such a will study one of those castes temple in Travancore. Also, the anthropologist and the genealogy and cultivatethe history is whosespecial function to preserve ofthat othercaste on whichit depends,or one ofthosecastes ofthosewho singto Shamrao from RamayanaortheMahabharata. the stories their patronstraditional a has Hivale23 written book on onesuch caste and a studyofanotheris underway Srinivas.Such castes are corporategroupsrelating underdirectionof Professor to littleand greattradition one another. Looked at in this way, the interactionof great and little traditionscan be in of as regarded a part ofthesocial structure thepeasant community its enlarged of arrangements and important withthosepersisting context.We are concerned rolesand statusesappearingin such corporategroupsas castes and sects, or in with of ritual-leaders one kind or another,that are concerned teachers,reciters, The conceptis an extension of and inculcation thegreattradition. the cultivation in as or specializationof the conceptof social structure used by anthropologists societiesthan are peasant villages. We the study of morenearlyself-contained for turnnow to consider, the compoundpeasant society,a certainkind of the The relations social relations,a certainpart of the social structure. persisting betweenMuslim teacherand pupil, betweenBrahman priestand layman, bein tween Chinesescholarand Chinese peasant-all such that are of importance of bringingabout the communication great traditionto the peasant, or that, cause the peasant traditionto affectthe perhaps withoutanyone's intention, the of doctrineofthe learned-constitutethe social structure the culture, structure of tradition.From this point of view a civilizationis an organizationof relationsto one anotherand in specialists,kindsof role-occupiers characteristic withthe transconcerned functions characteristic to lay people and performing missionof tradition. We might,as does Professor Raymond Firth, reserve the phrase "social in organization"24 connectionwith concrete activityat particular times and places. Social organizationis the way that people put togetherelements of is theywant done. Social structure actionin sucha way as to get donesomething social organia a persisting generalcharacter, "pattern" of typicalrelationships; of whenwe accountforthe choicesand resolutions difficulties zationis described we go that actuallywent on or characteristically on. Accordingly and conflicts
K. K. Pillay, The Sucindram Temple (Madras: Kalakshetra Publications, 1953). Shamrao Hivale, The Pardhans of the Upper Narbada Valley (London: Oxford University Press, 1946). 24 Raymond Firth, Elements of Social Organization (London: Watts, 1951), Ch. 2, 35f.
22 23

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21

its the mightwithdraw titleof thispaper from wider use and reserveit for the case of transin of way in whichelements action are put together any particular of the We missionof thetradition. shall be studying social organization tradition, the then,whenwe investigate way in whichthe schoolday is arrangedin the conservativeIslamic school,orwhenwe studytheway-as NorvinHein has already about in an Indian commudone25-in whichthefestivalofRam Lila is brought to nity,the peasants and the literatepaadit cooperating the end that the sacred of storiesare acted out to the accompaniment readingsfromthe sacred text of of If tradition. thereare problems adjustmentbetweenwhat the more thehigher learnedman would like to see done and what the lay people ofthe village think will be the of these cases ofsocial organization tradition proper,or entertaining, to lost opportunities studythe social organization I moreinteresting. remember of traditionin my own fieldwork,especially one occasion when the Catholic took part,successively, parishpriestand the local shamanofthe Maya tradition in of in a ceremony purification a Guatemalan village. There were then many whichI and compromise, and pullings, manymattersofdoubt,conflict pushings in traditions, failedto record.In thatcase therewere,ofcourse,two moreesoteric some adjustmentto with each other,and both requiring somedegreeof conflict the expectationsof the villagers. So we come to develop formsof thoughtappropriateto the wider systems, sowork.In studyinga primitive the enlargedcontexts,of our anthropological its self-containment, societal and culturalautonomy, ciety,in its characteristic of we hardlynoticethe social structure tradition.It may therebe presentquite very of fellowmembers thesmall community, in simply a fewshamansorpriests, and preliterate societywe cannot similarto otherswithinit. And in a primitive in of of knowmuchofthe history its culture.The structure tradition earlyZuni and withinthe tribalcommunity is seen as someis seen as a divisionoffunction But a civilizationhas both greatregional thingnow goingon, not as a history. depth.It is a greatwhole,in space and in time,by virtue scope and greathistoric whichmaintainsand cultivatesits tradiof of the complexity the organization themfromthe greattraditionto the many and varied tionsand communicates who studiesone ofthesesmall it. small local societieswithin The anthropologist it autonomous,and comes to reportand analyze it in its societiesfinds farfrom societal and cultural,to state and to civilization. relations,
25 Norvin Hein, "The Ram Lila," The Illustrated Weekly of India, (Oct. 22, 1950), 1819 (provided by McKim Marriott).