Encyclopedia of
Selected Peaceful Societies
Paliyans
Location. The Paliyans live in the forested hills of 
western Tamil Nadu state in southern India and in villages in the nearby plains.
Economy. Paliyan society consists of approximately 7,000 people, according to the 1981 census of India. Some still subsist by gathering food and other products in the forests, supplemented by wage labor for plantations and farms in the nearby valleys. Many living in the plains have settled into farming near their Tamil neighbors. The economy of the nomadic forest dwellers depends, in part, on bartering forest produce such as honey for manufactured goods such as tools, pots, clothing, and ornaments.
Beliefs that Foster Peacefulness. The Paliyans have a very atomistic, anarchistic society, with each individual making his or her own decisions. They have a strong desire for autonomy, which shows up in their psychological structures. They refrain from forming emotional ties except within their nuclear families. Ties with other relatives will be friendly but not effusive. They emphasize their autonomy through their code of nonviolence—and they will express their belief that one should turn the other cheek if one is struck in the face.
Avoiding and Resolving Conflict. The Paliyans maintain order and resolve conflicts through the use of several control mechanisms.
- Self-restraint. One mechanism is self-restraint, repression of anger, and suppression of hostile feelings. In order to help achieve this, they avoid the consumption of alcohol, which they feel would make them aggressive.
- Dissipation of anger. They also dissipate anger by pressing a plant called sirupani pu, or “laughing flower,” to their foreheads. They sometimes redirect their feelings of aggression through dreams, fantasies, and watching violent films.
- Intervention. Community leaders may sometimes intervene in conflicts and attempt to conciliate through joking or soothing.
- Separation. If other methods fail, the parties to a dispute will separate. Villagers may move away or form new villages to avoid disputes. Normally the injured person or group feels the obligation to withdraw, to avoid the danger of retaliation.
- Supernatural. Another conflict resolution mechanism is the belief in supernatural forces—people fear that conflict might prompt revenge through sorcery. This prompts circumspect behavior.
Gender Relations. Paliyans prefer to be married, frequently with simple ceremonies that involve exchanging vows of fidelity for life. The ceremonies include exchanges of salt and betel leaves. Conflicts, however, cause spouses to terminate their marriages quickly, so while some marriages really are for life, most Paliyans marry one person after another, ending each union when a dispute arises. Neither spouse has authority over the other; they both have equal rights and independence. Nuclear families usually cooperate as social units, though there is no division of labor between the sexes. The Paliyans are so atomistic that some married people, at times, do not even share their food for months, though they continue to cooperate in feeding their children.
Raising Children. Paliyan parents indulge their infants constantly. Babies sleep next to the mothers, who give them their breasts at the slightest whimper. They are not disciplined, restrained, or punished.
- Achieving Emotional Independence. Mothers wean their children when they are between two and two and one half. This is a traumatic period for children since the mothers will start leaving them with relatives in the village in order to go back to work. Also, for the first time, the children may receive their first mild punishments and the mothers will stop responding immediately to their demands. Children become extremely angry and frequently cry for extended periods, though relatives may sometimes comfort them. The tantrums normally last until the children are four or five years old. The emotional independence that results prompts children to adhere to the social rules, to play quietly without fighting, to be reticent, self-confident, and socially skilled.
- Achieving Social Independence. Between eight and ten years of age children achieve social independence and are considered to be too old to be under the authority of their parents, though they usually do not achieve their full economic independence until thirteen or fourteen.
Social Practices. The Paliyans are very quick to flee from a situation—even to abandon their villages—if they perceive that a threatening situation is developing.
- Example 1. When a contractor killed three Paliyans, the remaining villagers immediately left for the forest. Five years later, as they were slowly moving back toward the frontier zone between the mountains and the farmlands, they were quite willing to be interviewed by anthropologist Peter Gardner on other subjects, but they would still not discuss the violent incident.
- Example 2. When Gardner, dressed in khaki clothing, appeared in a Paliyan settlement one day among people he already knew, they quietly began gathering their few belongings and leaving. In 20 minutes everyone was gone. He speculates that his clothing may have reminded them of an incident of police brutality a few weeks before. They didn't return to the area for three months.
Cooperation and Competition. The Paliyans extend their injunction against violence to a prohibition of competition, which arises, they feel, from rivalries and desires for superiority or control. They feel competition leads to social disharmony and threatens self-reliance and egalitarianism. Since they expect to be self-sufficient, individualistic, and socially anarchistic, they also don’t cooperate much. They disapprove of any behavior that appears, to them, to hamper the autonomy of an individual, such as cooperation or competition. Such behavior is disrespectful—or, in their terms, it appears to lower someone’s status.
Strategies for Avoiding Warfare and Violence. In order to avoid, as much as possible, any semblances of conflict or violence in their frontier settlements, the Paliyans maintain a humble, self-effacing manner in their contacts with outsiders.
But How Much Violence Do They Really Experience? The forest-dwelling Paliyans will do almost anything to avoid violence or even conflicts. The ones that have lived in the settled villages and been influenced by the majority Tamil peoples of South India for as much as 150 years do experience occasional violence. Even so, physical violence occurs in very mild forms, such as parents giving an obstreperous child a gentle slap on the buttocks on occasion.
Sources in this Website. Gardner 1991, Gardner 2000
Sources in Print (click on links for complete references). Gardner 1966, 1969, 1972, 1985, 2000a, 2000b, 2004
Sources on the Web. Collective Action for Forest Adivasi in Tamil Nadu (CAFAT)
Photo. Paliyan men at a Murugan temple. Courtesy of Steven Bonta.
Updates: News and Reviews:
Current
February 2, 2012. New Paliyan Blog Post
June 30, 2011. Paliyan Protect Endangered Squirrels
April 28, 2011. Paliyan Medicinal Plants [journal article review]
November 5, 2009. Paliyan Child Marriages [journal article review]
March 12, 2009. Paliyans Continue to Grow Pepper
September 18, 2008. Paliyans Grow Organic Pepper
Older Stories
All stories in this website about the Paliyan are listed in the News and Reviews Subject Listing