To enhance our understanding of dispute settlement, study of settlement by informal modes of justice as well as by formal courts is needed. A core issue for scientific inquiry is whether the social structure in a village influences the effectiveness of dispute management by informal modes. The research being undertaken by Dr. Vincentnathan, who will be a guest scientist at Annamalai University in India, offers an opportunity to assess the impact of variation in social ideology on dispute processing, while holding constant the cultural and linguistic context in which this variation occurs. Specifically, utilizing ethnographic methods, Dr. Vincentnathan seeks to examine traditional dispute-handling tribunals in two villages with differing caste structures in South India in order to assess the degree to which the handling of disputes serves to maintain a traditional social hierarchy or to which it serves to foster the quest for social equality and integration. By examining disputes in the context of these non-Western villages, the study will expand our knowledge of the forms that disputes may take and of dispute managing methods. The Law and Social Science Program and the United States-India Cooperative Science Program (USICSP), are jointly supporting this project. The source of support from USICSP is provided by U.S.-owned Indian rupees, administered by the National Science Foundation Division of International Programs.
