Conversion, Continuity and Change

This book examines the processes of conversion, continuity and change in a Goan Catholic community. The analysis shifts from a focus on the people in Goa to a consideration, through ethnographic material, of present-day patterns and modes of persistence and change in a rural Catholic community.
The author discusses individual and collective ritual modes and issues of caste conflict as manifested in church celebrations. The issues explored include kinship and the implication of Catholicism for rules of marriage, ideas about inheritance and gender, reasons for conversion and the clash of traditions. Overall, this book provides a rich analysis of the interplay between Christianity and colonialism as well as the emerging disharmony of tradition in a new social context. It also explores issues relating to the sociological study of convert communities in India in a comparative perspective.