Honour and Honour Groups in Pre-Modern India in the 12th-14th and 16th-18th Centuries: An Indological Study of Honour and Emotions Based on Tamil Texts

该项目的核心概念在于这样一个工作假设，即两个社会群体--Velala人和Maravar-Kallar人--的荣誉模式从根本上说是不同的，在这两个群体中，荣誉起着特别重要的作用。这项研究将集中在印度的泰米尔语地区，时间框架为12-14世纪和16-18世纪。如果一个人认为荣誉是一种交流形式和人类文化的一种元素，它总是与特定的时代和背景捆绑在一起，因此可能会发生变化。因此，该项目的主要任务之一是调查以下问题：在不同的历史时期，所涉群体持有何种荣誉模式？这些模型与哪些问题和情绪群有关？那么，职级或性别扮演了什么角色呢？通过这种方式，该项目为前现代印度未来的荣誉研究引入了一个新的方向。因此，该项目的价值不在于对荣誉定义的贡献，而在于它以不同体裁和形式的小说和非小说文本为基础的新颖尝试，从共时和历时的角度确定两个社会群体中荣誉和荣誉引发的情感在语义上的差异、连续性和/或变化。这种类型的调查揭示了社会和文化模式发生变化的时间点，从而为我们目前对前现代印度的理解提供了大量新的输入。工作计划包括三个阶段：1.第一步将确定所选文本中如何描述荣誉情况。将根据情绪群组和交流过程对情景部分进行上下文分析。2.第二步将涉及在确定的时间跨度内对两个社会群体在荣誉方面的做法进行比较分析。为了找出主要的不同之处，我们将检查文本材料中有关荣誉概念、情感强调和实践的典型模式。3.最后，将研究荣誉模式中的常量和语义变化，以及它们各自的社会和文化-历史背景，目的是发现模式变化的社会文化和特定群体条件。这项考证研究将首次全面概述荣誉模式及其与南印度泰米尔地区的历史、社会和文化因素的互动。通过为当代研究提供一面历史的镜子，研究成果也将为我们对当今印度荣誉概念和冲突的基本理解奠定基础并做出贡献。此外，这些发现将有助于非欧洲人关于荣誉和情感的历史，并将被证明对情感社区的比较研究和理论讨论都有价值。

The central concept of this project lies in the working hypothesis that the models of honour of two social groups (jatis)--the Velala and the Maravar-Kallar--in which honour plays a particularly important role are fundamentally different. The research will focus on the Tamil-speaking region of India, with a temporal framework of the 12th-14th and 16th-18th centuries.If one considers honour as a form of communication and an element of human culture, it is always tied to specific times and contexts and is thus subject to change. One of the main tasks of the project is therefore to investigate the following questions: What models of honour were held in different historical periods by the groups in question? To which issues and emotion clusters were these models linked? And, what roles did rank or gender play? In this way, the project introduces a new direction for future research on honour in pre-modern India. The merit of the project lies thus not in a contribution to the definition of honour, but in its novel attempt, based on fiction and non-fiction texts of different genres and forms, to identify--from synchronic and diachronic perspectives--differences, continuities, and/or changes in the semantics of honour and honour-induced emotions in two social groups. An investigation of this type reveals points in time when social and cultural patterns changed, and so provides substantial new input to our current understanding of pre-modern India.The work plan involves three phases: 1. The first step will be to ascertain how honour situations are depicted in the selected texts. The situational components will be contextually analysed with regard to emotion clusters and communication processes. 2. The second step will involve a comparative analysis, over the defined time span, of the two social groups' practices regarding honour. In order to identify the main differences, the textual material will be examined for typical patterns of honour concepts, emotional accentuation, and practices. 3. Finally, the constants and semantic shifts in the honour models will be studied, along with their respective social and cultural-historical contextualisation, with the goal of discovering socio-cultural and group-specific conditions for changes in the models. This textual research will present the first comprehensive overview of honour models and their interaction with historical, social, and cultural factors in the South Indian Tamil context. By holding up a historical mirror to contemporary investigations, the research results will also lay a foundation for and contribute to our basic understanding of honour conceptions and conflicts in India today. In addition, the findings will contribute to the non-European history of honour and emotion, and will prove valuable for both comparative studies and theoretical discussions on emotional communities.