Festivals and Social Relations in a Mysore Village-Mechanics of Two Processions

a Mysore Village Mechanics of Two Processions Suzanne Hanchett According to Marcel Mauss, "The aim and principle of sociology is to observe and understand the whole group in its total behaviour.'' Following this method in his study of ritual prestations, he stated that "We are dealing... with something more than ... institutions divisible into legal/ economic, religious and other parts. We are concerned with 'wholes', with systems in their entirety.. .It is only by considering them as wholes that we have been able to see their essence, their operation and their living aspect, and to catch the fleeting moment when the society and its members take emotional stock of themselves and their situation as regards others." In this paper the author has attempted to identify the South Indian village-level festival as one of those "fleeting moments" of social life to which Mauss referred, moments during which the total social Structure is confronted by its members. In particular, the procession of the deity through the village is such an event.