“Patheetu”, the Distributive Character of Ethnic Societies

Abstract

The people who lived in the five types of land divisions found in ancient Tamil Nadu had a wide variety of customs and cultures. The primordial man who lived in harmony with nature suffered many losses due to the nature that surrounded him. He began to live as a group to protect himself from the loss he had suffered. This collective way of life is called ethnic life. In all the five kinds of lands in ancient Tamil Nadu, the people lived this collective life, the ethnic life. The people who lived in all five types of lands had cultures according to the richness of the land in which they lived. Food was the basic necessity of the people who lived as an ethnic group. The distribution of food and food-based products was the primary activity. They divided food and food-related products. It is examined in the three spheres of the distribution of cattle lifted from enemies, the distribution of hunted material, and the distribution of gifts, and it expressed the quality of 'eating in the public' in the ethnic community.