1The research for this paper was conducted under the auspices of the following grants: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1964-1966, 1974-1975, 1986-1987, 1994, 1995 American Philosophical Society, September-November, 1985. In addition, I also visited the village in 1984, 1991, 1998,1999, 2000, 2001, and 2003. The comments of Mariam Cohen, M.D.,Edward F. Foulks, M.D., Ph.D. and Joan Koss, Ph.D. have enriched this paper. I appreciate their assistance. I am responsible for any shortcomings in this paper.

My data collection method has been primarily participant observation in the South India state, Karnataka. The research site is a small village approximately 200 miles northwest of the state capitol, Bangalore. The village, which I call Totagadde (a pseudonym), is a multi-caste village with a population of eight hundred to a thousand. Havik Brahmins comprise the social, economic, political, and religious elite in the village.

Lilith can be seen as the image of evil, of prohibited, incestuous, aggressive, destructive and oedipal wishes. Lilith's insistance on control threatened patriarchy. Eve also transgressed God's boundaries when she persuaded Adam to eat the apple of knowledge, with the result that God expelled both Adam and Eve from Eden. Perhaps in patriarchy a woman's assertiveness without male sanction results in her becoming an object of discrimination.