32 Tribes and castes in the Dewey Decimal Classification

One of the topics I’m getting really interested in lately is all about tribes, which is expected to be covered under 301 Sociology and Anthropology, but Dewey also advices to “class social problems and social welfare in 361-365”. This is less than satisfactory, because most works on tribes are usually about their problems in adjusting to the pressures of the modern world, and it would be awkward to have only descriptive works under 301 and analytical works under 361-365. Further, for aspects of society not provided for in 302-307, they want us to push on to the aspect, e.g. general history 900. This results in a substantial dispersion of works on tribals and tribal history into different corners of the library.

Let’s start with a fairly general work on say “The Tribes of India”. There is a number 301.7 Nonliterate societies, but that is not what we are looking for; moreover, with the passage of time, tribes are no longer going to remain solely “non-literate”, or the even more judgemental descriptors “backward” or “primitive” and so on. Indeed use of the number 301.7 for “types of societies” was discontinued in DDC 20. Where then would we class a work on the tribes in general, say on the ethnology of tribes of a region or a specific tribe or community?

The thing is that 302-307 provide for a range of “specific topics in sociology and anthropology”: 302 Social interaction, 303 Social processes, and so on. Obviously, a general work on the tribes would include all these several aspects, which could at best be aspects of the general description of tribes (or of a tribe). We need a separate number for “tribes”, to which these aspects could be attached, but unfortunately there is no provision in DDC for attaching humanities numbers as facets, such as there is for attaching Science subjects 500-599 (which can be attached through the standard subdivision 015).

Possibilities for “Tribals” as a subject suggest themselves under 305 Social groups, 306 Culture and institutions, or 307 Communities. 305 has an instruction “class here culture and institutions of specific groups”, but it would be somewhat inappropriate to have to decide where tribals go as a group. Under 305.512 Principles of stratification, is 305.5122 Caste systems, which is where general works on castes in India (or even castes and tribes) can go. There are classes specified by level: “Upper class”, “Middle class (Bourgeoisie)”, and even “Lower, alienated, excluded classes” under 305.2 onwards. There is a class for 305.565 “Culturally disadvantaged persons”. There is even a class under 305.568 Alienated and excluded classes, for “Dalits” (305.5688), which refers to scheduled castes, but nothing which specifically refers to tribes or indigenous or traditional peoples. 

There is, however, 305.8 Ethnic and national groups, with the ‘class here’ instruction for “indigenous ethnic and national groups [formerly 306.08]”; “ethnology, ethnography”; which is potentially a suitable slot, with 305.8009 provided for Historical, geographic, persons treatment, hence 305.800954 “Tribes of India”. Of course, this would not really be restricted to tribes, since other ethnic groups would also have to be accommodated here. A more specific slot would be provided by 305.805-.89 Specific ethnic and national groups, which takes numbers from Table 5 Ethnic and National Groups, thus providing a separate slot for each indigenous group (tribals) and for larger non-tribal groups. For a large jurisdiction like India, for instance, the population would be split along linguistic and quasi-racial lines: Table 5, -914 South Asians (peoples who speak, or whose ancestors spoke, Indic languages, Indo-Aryans); -948 Dravidians (which includes many tribal groups like Toda, Gond, Kurukh according to the languages spoken), and Scytho-Dravidians (including Mahratha, Sindhi); -95 South Asians who speak, or spoke, languages closely related to East and Southeast Asian languages, with a specific number -9595 Mundas (which would presumably cover speakers of Gadaba, Ho, Mundari, Santhali, etc., constituting the major tribes of central-east India). Then there is Table 5, -9911 Aeta, Andamanese, Semang. This scheme is seen to follow language classes rather than ethnic, and it would therefore cause some ambiguity in the case of tribal or ethnic groups that have adopted another language, e.g. Indo-Aryan dialects in place of the original Dravidian or Munda.

It would be interesting to note that the abandoned number “[formerly 306.08]” was used in DDC 20 for “unassimilated indigenous racial, ethnic, national groups”, which actually would have provided a separate location for the groups we recognize as tribal, as against more ‘advanced’ groups that we would probably call ‘castes’. The Manual of DDC 20 accordingly had some explanation of the choice between 306.08 and 305.8: “Use 305.8… for specific racial, ethnic, national groups which interact more or less freely (whether in a dominant, nondominant, or intermediate position) with the rest of society. Use 306.089 only for indigenous groups living in distinct communities or ‘tribal areas’ not fully integrated into the economic and social life of the nation in which they are (often involuntarily) incorporated. …If in doubt, prefer 305.8”. DDC 22 dispenses with this explanation as well as with the bifurcation, which hearkens back to the time when traditional or remote groups with their own culture were considered ‘primitive’. In line with the removal of such seeming stigmas, the two are coalesced into one number, 305.8. We do not have to make the painful judgement of where a group is along the line of ‘development’.

However, because many old libraries would have classified ethnic groups in 306.08 under the older DDC versions, we would have to remember to search in both locations, 305.8 and 306.08 for works on traditional or ethnic communities and tribals. To further complicate matters, however, there is another number expressly for tribals, under 307.7 Specific kinds of communities: this is 307.772 Tribal communities. This carries a note “Class tribal communities considered in context of culture and institutions of indigenous ethnic and national groups in 305.8”. The utility of 307.772, as far as I can make out, is for  works that deal with the generalities of tribal communities. However, it may be used by a library for works on specific tribal communities, such as “Gonds of Andhra Pradesh”, by using suffixes from Table 5 and Table 2. One would have to make a considered choice between 305.8 and 307.772, so that gradually there will be the single location for such works.

A final caution is that works with a historical flavour may be sent to the 900’s, especially works on native American  groups (tribes), where special  numbers are provided for “Ethnic and national groups”, such as 970.004 (with suffixes from Table 5), and 970.1 for North America, 980.004 (with suffixes from Table 5) for South America, and generally with any number under 930-990 History using the (special) standard subdivision 004 Ethic and national groups (with suffix from Table 5 for specific groups). General works on the native Indians are often classed in history with these numbers, rather than under ethnology 305.8. Incidentally, Table 5 for American Indians has further subdivisions by languages from Table 6, and of course geographical subdivisions could also be added, useful where a tribe or Nation has been widely dispersed..

Once again, the bottom line is, where we would like to group our books physically. I would ideally like to have all the volumes on Indian sociology together, which suggests that I should use the location facet 0954 first, and then add ethnic facet from Table 5 (I believe that can be done using two zeroes instead of one after the geographical location subdivision). Scanning my shelves, I find there is a confused jumble: older accessions are generally under 306.08 (which will have to be relocated under DDC 22 to 305.8), general books on tribal culture and affairs tend to be at 307.772, and as I said, books on American Indians are at 970. In the library in my institute, again, books on tribal matters and on individual communities and groups are scattered among all these numbers (and others that may have a few works on, say, marriage customs, or census data, or social change, and so on). In a way, this chaotic condition reflects the considerable ambiguity of the term ‘tribe’ itself: after all, at the bottom, we are all tribals of a sort, but overlaid with cultural and social mechanisms to deal with the fact that we are living in huge conglomerations of diverse types and lineages.

On considering the alternatives, I think I will be standardizing on three locations: 305.5122 for caste system, 305.5688 for works dealing with scheduled castes (dalits) in general; 305.8’00954 for works on general ethnography (e.g. castes and tribes of India; society in India), followed by specific national and ethnic groups using 305.805 to 305.89. If possible, I feel it would be good if accounts of specific castes could follow immediately after 305.5122 and 305.5688, but the Table 5 numbers may be somewhat limited in this respect, being more specific in terms of tribes or indigenous ethnic communities.

Then I would use 307.772 Tribal communities for works to do with the tribal situation and scheduled tribes in general, followed by works on a specific tribe or group of tribes, using finer subdivisions as available with Table 2 (geographical location) and Table 5 (specific ethnic communities). I do feel the sequence would be more logical if castes could follow general accounts of society, i.e. if “dalits” could have come after 305.8. I realize also that a specific caste or tribe should strictly be under 305.8 (the note under 307.772 says “Class tribal communities considered in context of culture and institutions of indigenous ethnic and national groups in 305.8), but I would prefer to separate out so that under 305.8’00954… will come books on the combined population, on castes, and on castes and tribes in general, (INSERTED on 12 December 2018: 305.805 to 305.89 for specific ethnic communities), and under 307.772 would come works on tribal communities where the tribal character is highlighted. I hope the jumble is straightened out somewhat!