Social Change in Kattaikkuttu's Professional Practice in the Modernizing and Globalizing Society of Tamil Nadu

Kattaikkuttu is a lively South Indian performance tradition. The tradition forms an important part of a Tamil village culture, which is currently changing due to modernization and globalization processes. The social changes that kattaikkuttu performers had to undergo over the last fifty years have affected their social, cultural, economic, and personal development, as well as their position in the field of cultural production in Tamil Nadu. I relate these social changes to the structuralist theories of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, in order to make sense of the power structures. These changes are then linked to the theory on modernization of development of economist Tariq Banuri, giving perspective on the alterations in kattaikkuttu.