48 SOCIAL SCIENTIST households. These in turn are related to the form and notions of patriliny, in which the nature of patrilineal property and patri-virilocal residence are central, defining women's rights and women's place. The dynamics of intra-household consumption and financial management are analysed in this context. Underlying the discussion (which takes the form Geertz has termed 'thick description') are the distinctions between and mutual determinations of firstly the household and family ideology and secondly of intra-household and extra-household kinship. The issues raised in this paper are discussed in the context of Panchwas1 village in Sikar district. Field work was conducted in the anthropological mode of participant observation, during a year's residence in the village between February 1980-1981. Brief visits to other villages and secondary and historical sources provided additional material. Panchwas village lay about 12 Km. from the district headquarters, along a kaccha road. At the end of 1980 it had a population of 1,901, and a sex ratio of 991, both well above the district average. If the 306 migrants who were absent from the village for six months or more in the year were excluded, the sex ratio was 1071, indicating the male bias in work-related migration. In early 1981, there were 272 households in the village, and the composition of around 62% was other than simple (or elementary), indicating the significance of complex household living. There were 14 Hindu and Muslim castes in the village, covering the range of the caste hierarchy (Table 1). Jats formed 53% of the village population, Balais (Chamars) and Naiks over 14% and Muslims nearly 15%. ECONOMIC PROCESSES AND CHANGE Sikar District lies to the north-east of the state of Rajasthan, at the edge of the Thar Desert, such that semi-arid conditions prevail over a substantial part of it. Sikar thikana was one of the largest semi-autonomous feudal estates within the principality of Jaipur. The Jat/peasant movements of the 1930s and forties, subsequent land reforms,, the discontinuance of feudal cesses and jagirdari abolition in the fifties and e^rly sixties meant changes in the rural set-up. Many ex-landlords lost control of vast tracts of land and of tenants, facing drastic alterations in their way of life. Others were able to retain enough land which along with money compensations, loans and concessions ensured them a renewed viability. For some, this viability was in fact an ongoing dominance in rural society. Land reform did away with the more severe forms of landlordism, but not with severe differentiation in landownership. The broad congruence between land distribution and caste ranking, especially at the lower levels, meant a continual sustenance to caste ideology and caste idioms. In Panchwas most of the ex-landlord households, the