Listen to the Heron's Words: Reimagining Gender and Kinship in North India

Abstract

This book examines the expressive genres used by women living in rural communities in north India to resist and criticize pervasive ideologies of gender and kinship that subordinate women. Translations of songs and of personal narratives reveal the profound cultural dissent embedded in womens speech genres. The ethnographic analyses 1) comment on current attempts to redefine use of the term culture by the social sciences 2) explore the hidden transcripts implicit in womens expressions 3) spark a reconsideration of standard anthropological conceptualizations of marriage and patrilineality in South Asia and 4) relate this consideration of womens speech genres to the broader relationship between language and gender. The book opens with a preface that describes the field work the degree and type of social acceptance offered to the women and the challenges posed to American women attempting to describe and analyze the lives of women from an alien culture. The introductory chapter considers gender representation and the problem of language and resistance in India. Chapter 2 looks at sexuality fertility and erotic imagery in the songs of Rajasthani women. The third chapter examines the uses of irony and ambiguity to shift perspectives on patriliny and ties to natal kin. Chapter 4 analyzes songs that challenge the devaluation of women as wives and present different perspectives on conjugal kinship relations. The fifth chapter discusses how the story of a jungle queen provides insights into how female identity can be perceived of as split (from her natal family for example) and yet remain whole throughout her life. Chapter 6 provides a narrative about a storytellers life to reexamine womens perceptions of purdah and power. The concluding chapter reflects on the potency of narrative and on the politics of womens expressive traditions.