Civilization

The study of social structure is one of the principal interests of anthropologists and geographers. Attempts have been made to elucidate the dimensions of social order, parameters of spatial interaction, and process of change in rural India. The research reported here deals with the distances covered by Indian villagers in completing marriages. The marriage distance, or spatial separation of the husband's and wife's villages, reveals the information field of an individual and the structure of a social network. Such studies augment the meagre store of information concer-ning the ways in which a village is related to the broader social and cultural environ-ment. Related research reported on here deals with the pattern and process of social change which is taking place in rural India as measured by the prevalence and frequency ofthe dowry system. The increasing adoption of the dowry system-a tra-ditional feature of higher castes--by the lower-status castes has been termed the "Sanskritization " of Indian society (Srinivas 1956: 481-496). We have attempted to study this Sanskritization process along with the marriage network in four selecte