Malaipantaram
The Malaipantaram people, also known as the Hill Padaram, are foragers in the forests of South India. According to anthropologist Brian Morris, their society blends individualism, egalitarianism, and communism into a mixture that can be considered "anarchy."[1]
Each individual is encouraged to be self-reliant and autonomous. It's not unusal for someone to go live a solitary existence. There is equality of gender, and there is no hierarchy. Order is kept through diffuse sanctions. Morris calls their society "communistic." There's no private ownership of land. Meat is always shared, and other goods are given reciprocally as gifts.[2]
Although some Malaipantaram have "headmen" today, this role was imposed by the state.[3]
Malaipantaram religion has three categories of deities: ancestral ghosts, mountain spirits, and gods that have been introduced from Hinduism.[4]
- ↑ Brian Morris, "Anarchism, Individualism, and South Indian Foragers: Memories and Reflections" in Brian Morris, Anthropology, Ecology, and Anarchism: A Brian Morris Reader (Oakland: PM Press, 2014).
- ↑ Morris, "Anarchism."
- ↑ Morris, "Anarchism."
- ↑ Brian Morris, "The Hill Pandaram" in eds. Richard Lee and Richard Daly, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers (1999), 495.
