CHAPTER XXIII
SOCIAL ORGANISATION
In this chapter I propose to bring together a number of matters connected with the social organisation; to consider the various sections into which the clan is divided for social or ceremonial purposes, the method of government, the laws concerning property and inheritance, and the position of women.
We have already seen that the primary fact in the social organisation of the Todas is the existence of two divisions, the Tartharol and the Teivaliol,[1] and the last chapter has shown that these divisions form endogamous groups, each of which is divided into a number of exogamous septs or clans. In some respects the clan is a definite unit in the social organisation with a certain amount of power in regulating its own affairs, owning property and having in many cases social or religious usages peculiar to itself.
The Clan
The clan system is territorial, and I could discover no trace of its ever having been totemic. The clan owns a number of villages and takes its name from the chief of these, the etudmad. The connexion of the clan with the village is so generally recognised that in some cases in which the etudmad of the clan has disappeared, or is rarely visited, there is a tendency to name the clan after the chief village [[541]]still in use. Thus the people of Pirspurs have now become the Pämol and the Kusharfol are often named after Umgas, a village in more frequent use than Kusharf. In general the villages belonging to a clan are situated in the same part of the hills, but a clan often possesses outlying villages at a considerable distance from the chief group. Sometimes these outlying villages are of comparatively recent origin, and in other cases they have been established on account of grazing necessities; thus several clans which have their chief seats near Ootacamund have villages in the Kundahs or in the district near Makurti Peak, which are visited in the dry season.