‘Why did you send me like this?’: Marriage, Matriliny and the ‘Providing Husband’ in North Kerala, India

Abraham, Janaki

doi:10.1080/12259276.2011.11666107

Cited by 22 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Thus, she describes how as long as the marriage lasted, the husband was obliged to give two or three bags of rice and 20–50 coconuts to his wife’s household annually (1996, p. 172) and saw this as part of a ‘lip service’ to ‘the Islamic conception of a husband’s obligation to maintain his wife and children’ (ibid.). While my work has indicated the strong ideology of the ‘providing husband’ in the case of the Thiyyas, with a norm of virilocality 15 (Abraham, 2011), Gough (1961) observed for the Nayars that there was an expectation to provide even in the case of uxorilocality, 16 indicating that this obligation was not restricted to a context of Islam, and may not have had its roots in Islam.…”

Section: Matriliny and The Gender Questionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Setting Sail for Lakshadweep: Leela Dube and the Study of Matrilineal Kinship

Abraham

2017

Indian Journal of Gender Studies

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In this article I engage with Prof. Leela Dube’s fascinating work on matriliny in Lakshadweep which addressed critical questions in anthropology/sociology and feminist studies. Her discussion about the disjuncture between codified Islamic law and practice in relation to marriage and property devolution, her elaboration on the way law was manipulated strategically, and the image of flexibility in kinship practices are all important for a contemporary understanding of matriliny and kinship in general. Similarly, her discussion of what matriliny meant for women and more broadly the intersections of gender and kinship remain important concerns in the study of kinship. Furthermore, I point to the shifts in her work as she engaged with feminist politics and scholarship.

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Section: Matriliny and The Gender Questionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Setting Sail for Lakshadweep: Leela Dube and the Study of Matrilineal Kinship

Abraham

2017

Indian Journal of Gender Studies

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“…At the end of the 20 th century, the age at which a couple chose to set up neolocal residence had come down considerably as a result of the availability of home loans from government institutions and private banks (see Abraham 2007). Furthermore, the push to fashion one's house, replete with goods from the booming consumer market was strong.…”

Section: Women's Experience Of Virilocality and The Creation Of Nementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, post-marriage virilocality remains a forceful ideology and practice in contemporary marriages. For a discussion of this, seeAbraham (2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

‘Matriliny did not become patriliny!’

Abraham

2017

Contributions to Indian Sociology

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In contrast to a preoccupation with Nayar matriliny, in this article I look at the transformations of matrilineal tharavad houses among the Thiyyas who ranked below the Nayars in the caste hierarchy and were not generally large landowners. Moving away from the more exotic practices of matrilocality and duolocality, I look at matriliny coupled with a strong norm of virilocality in which a woman moved to her husband’s house after marriage. This enables an exploration of the implications of this residence norm for women, and particularly its implications for our understanding of the transformation of matrilineal kinship in Kerala. Paying special attention to the experience of women in tharavad houses and the creation of new houses, coupled with the continuities in the right that a woman retains to residence in her natal house and a right to a share of the property, forces us to question the common sense understanding that matriliny has transformed to patriliny.

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‘For how Long can your Pīharwāle Intervene?’: Accessing natal kin support in rural North India

Chaudhry¹

2019

Mod. Asian Stud.

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Based on ethnographic fieldwork in rural Uttar Pradesh, this article contributes to debates on married women's relations with their natal kin. It compares women in ‘regional’ marriages (which conform to caste and community norms with a relatively small marriage distance) with women in ‘cross-regional’ marriages (those that cross caste, linguistic, and state boundaries, and entail long-distance migration). A focus on cross-regional marriage demonstrates how geographic distance cuts women off from vital structures of support. At the same time, even for regional brides, natal kin support is complicated and relative proximity does not guarantee support. Factors such as caste, class, poverty, the gender of children, notions of honour and shame, and stage in the life-course work together in complex ways to determine the duration and kind of support available. By focusing on marital violence, marital breakdown, and widowhood, the article demonstrates both the presence and the limits of natal kin support. The opportunities to draw on natal kin support vary for women, but its significance must not be understated as it alone provides women with the possibility of leaving their marriages, even if only temporarily. The article focuses on one form of women's agency, one that is constrained and highly dependent on relationships with others (mainly male kin). In such a context of economic and social dependency, natal kin support is an important—and perhaps the only—resource available in situations of marital crisis, and its absence leaves women in a particularly vulnerable position.

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‘Why did you send me like this?’: Marriage, Matriliny and the ‘Providing Husband’ in North Kerala, India

Cited by 22 publications

References 2 publications

Setting Sail for Lakshadweep: Leela Dube and the Study of Matrilineal Kinship

Setting Sail for Lakshadweep: Leela Dube and the Study of Matrilineal Kinship

‘Matriliny did not become patriliny!’

‘For how Long can your Pīharwāle Intervene?’: Accessing natal kin support in rural North India

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