Gifts and affines in north India

Vatuk, Sylvia

doi:10.1177/006996677500900202

Cited by 47 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In contrast, dowry has emerged at the lower end of the class hierarchy in northern Kerala. This experience does not accord with the dominant explanations of dowry either as a mode of devolution of property or pre-mortem inheritance (Tambiah, 1989;Upadhya, 1990) or as an aspect of gift-giving relations that regulated kinship (Raheja, 1995;Vatuk, 1975). Nor does it support the theory that dowry has expanded through the influence of kanyadana as an ideology (in which a girl is conceived of as a gift and given in marriage with other expensive gifts), and the adoption of its forms of marriage as a mode of achieving upward social mobility (Benei, 1995;Kapila, 2004: Parry, 1979van der Veen, 1972).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Gender, Caste and Matchmaking in Kerala: A Rationale for Dowry

Kodoth

2008

Development and Change

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The matrilineal castes of northern Kerala consider dowry demeaning and resort to it only in ‘exceptional’ circumstances. In local discourse, dowry is transacted when women are considered ‘old’ by the standards of the marriage market, where over‐age is a condition reached usually on account of what is considered a deficit of a normative conception of femininity. Dowry is practised openly only by poor and socially vulnerable households, as the relatively affluent could mask dowry with hidden compensations. This article explores the ways in which gender mediates matchmaking and generates a residual category of women for whom dowry is openly negotiated. Open negotiation on the margins of the marriage market expose the terms of exchange in ‘respectable’ society, where matchmaking strategies reveal the emphasis placed on conjugality and on caste in the social construction of women's interests and identity. Up to the mid‐twentieth century, matrilineal women derived their identity from their natal families. The political economy of marriage in Kerala brought a new emphasis to bear on conjugality and on caste, which generated new restrictions on women and produced a rationale for dowry.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Gender, Caste and Matchmaking in Kerala: A Rationale for Dowry

Kodoth

2008

Development and Change

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“…Anthropological literature on the importance of the ritual role of brothers (Agarwal 1995;Vatuk 1975;Wadley 1976) has underlined the considerations that prevent women from taking such a bold step. A number of studies support Basu's findings that many women actually gave up their shares in the natal property to avoid ''angering their brothers and sisters-in-law and to preserve the natal home as a space of emotional wealth contrasting with the quotidian realm of work, duty and abnegation in married life'' (Basu 1999, 227).…”

Section: Jevan Baithen Hain Sār Bahnoiyā Sarvā Ke Cuvein Hain āNsuiyāmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unearthing Gender : Folksongs of North India

Jassal¹

2012

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“…53. See, e.g., Dumont 1986: 237-58, 284-92;Fruzzetti 1990;Raheja 1988;and Vatuk 1975, to cite a handful of examples from a very extensive literature. 54.…”

Section: What Hannahmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of Middle Class Consumption in India and China

Jaffrelot¹,

Veer²

2008

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for their efforts. Special thanks to Angmo Bhotia of the ICS and Mallika Hanif of CSH for taking care of logistical details on the days of the conference. We also thank the India International Centre for the use of their facilities; and Neville Tuli, who, when contacted by Shoma Munshi, very kindly loaned us film posters from his personal collection and Osian's, which adorned the walls of the conference room, adding a touch of glamour and colour. We thank Jairam Ramesh for his incisive talk in opening the conference. Sugata Ghosh at SAGE immediately saw the importance of this project and has been immensely supportive. The conference and the book that has resulted from it are a step in the direction of more scholarly interaction between Europe, India and China. Christophe Jaffrelot Peter van der Veer SEARCHING FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS IN INDIA AND CHINA In India, scholars maintain that there are very few studies on the character of the middle classes. In his seminal work on the subject, B.B. Mishra Introduction 33

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Gifts and affines in north India

Cited by 47 publications

References 21 publications

Gender, Caste and Matchmaking in Kerala: A Rationale for Dowry

Gender, Caste and Matchmaking in Kerala: A Rationale for Dowry

Unearthing Gender : Folksongs of North India

Patterns of Middle Class Consumption in India and China

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