Tamil Women Research Articles

Birth on the Threshold: Childbirth and Modernity in South India (review)

Cecilia Van Hollen. Birth on the Threshold: Childbirth and Modernity in South India. University of California Press, 2003. 272 pp. Bracketed by modernization and discourse, this rich ethnography makes a strong contribution to medical anthropology and the cross-cultural literature on birth practices. Using threshold both literally and as a metaphor for changing locations, practices, and meanings of childbirth, Van Hollen introduces us to the world of pregnancy and birth practices of two low-status, poor communities in and adjacent to Chennai (Madras), in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India. This is also a world of women; in fact, men are rarely mentioned in the ethnography. Unlike the West, India is a society where women dominate the profession of obstetricsas doctors, nurses, midwives, and government multipurpose-health-workers; consequently, Van Hollen notes, there is no significant natural, femalecentered homebirth movement. One of the book's contributions is to challenge Western feminist assumptions about male control of women's bodies as pregnancy and childbirth become increasingly biomedicalized. Another contribution is Van Hollen's insistence that, although the global process of biomedicalizing childbirth is occurring in India, it is not hegemonic. Even poor women have choices. Their major concerns, however, are socio-economic ones: What can they afford and how can they avoid being demeaned by mostly higher-status medical practitioners who have been steeped in the values and discourse of development? Drawing upon a year's (1995) intensive fieldwork during which she collected lengthy interviews with some 70 pregnant and postpartum women, as well as with a variety of medical practitioners, Van Hollen draws the reader into the world of these women by interweaving their voices with her narrative and analysis. Chapters 1 and 2 provide a broad historical context for the ethnographic ones by summarizing the professionalization of obstetrics in colonial and post-colonial India. Chapters 3-6 constitute the ethnographic heart of the book, beginning with an excellent discussion of how pregnant women are viewed as auspicious burdens in this part of India. Even among the poor, a pregnant woman should be provided with costly ceremonies to satisfy her cravings, to celebrate her fertility, and to ensure an easy delivery and birth of a healthy baby. Interestingly, the biomedicalization of birth has been accompanied by the intensification of birth-related ceremonies. This chapter also contains a thoughtful discussion of the concept of sakti and reflections upon Wadley and Egnor's important edited volume, The Powers of Tamil Women (1980). Birth on the Threshold interweaves ethnographic accounts of pregnancy, delivery, and the post-partum period with discussions of the effects of modern technologies, changing consumer patterns, and family planning programs. Issues of and modernization are, therefore, always part of the context. For example, Van Hollen discusses Tamil women's preferences for new drugs that accelerate labor pains rather than analgesics to reduce pain. This is related both to indigenous constructions of femininity-with-standing pain is an expression of a woman's power and strength-and to institutional constraints. The over-crowding of large government hospitals in urban centers has encouraged medical practitioners to use drugs to induce labor so as to shorten the birth process, which has, in turn, become an expectation for pregnant women. More troubling, especially for poor women, is Van Hollen's account of the ways that government hospitals and medical practitioners have been imbued with development goals that affect how new mothers and their babies are treated. Examples are the intolerance for mothers' superstitious dietary restrictions; breast-feeding campaigns that involved requiring all mothers in a maternity ward to express milk, which is collected, mixed together, and then given to all babies in the pediatric ward; campaigns to get mothers to change their bathing and feeding practices of infants, which help to promote the use of expensive baby soaps over traditional bath oils and the acquisition of commercial baby foods; and the forced implantation of IUDs after giving birth. …

CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING AMONG SOUTH ASIAN WOMEN IN CANADA: THE ROLE OF EDUCATION AND ACCULTURATION

Cervical cancer screening by Papanicolaou (Pap) smear lowers the incidence and provides early detection of cervical cancer and is a preventative health care measure that should be available on a regular basis to all women at risk. As the population of ethnic women increases, it is important to assess whether these women are aware of and are utilizing this health service. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 124 South Asian women, aged 18 to 60 years. Sixty-two South Asian students were selected from a university setting and 62 Tamil women were selected from a community center for South Asian women. This study examined the knowledge and use of Pap smears in South Asian women in Canada, and whether their level of acculturation or formal education influenced whether they know about and receive Pap smears. Low level of knowledge about the Pap test and a low prevalence of Pap testing behaviour was significantly correlated ( p < 0.001) with a low level of formal education, education taking place outside of Canada, and a low index of acculturation. South Asian students were significantly more acculturated than Tamil women ( p < 0.001). In conclusion, there was a low level of knowledge and prevalence of cervical cancer screening among South Asian women. This study highlights the need for educational interventions in Canada directed to ethnic women especially from South Asia.

Women, War and Peace in South Asia: Beyond Victimhood to Agency

Where Are the Women in South Asian Conflicts? - Rita Manchanda Guns and Burqa - Rita Manchanda Women in the Kashmir Conflict Ambivalent Empowerment - Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake The Tragedy of Tamil Women in Conflict Between Two Armed Patriarchies - Paula Banerjee Women in Assam and Nagaland 'They Use Us and Others Abuse Us!' - Anis Haroon Women in the MQM Conflict Where There Are No Men - Amrita Baskota, Shobha Gautam and Rita Manchanda Women in the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal Women's Narratives from the Chittagong Hill Tracts - Meghna Guhathakurta

Influences on Breast Cancer Screening Behaviors in Tamil Immigrant Women 50 Years Old and Over

Objective To investigate, using the Health Belief Model as a theoretical framework, the incentives and barriers to breast cancer screening in a recent immigrant group, older Tamil women from Sri Lanka. Method Tamil women who had had a mammogram and Tamil women who had never had a mammogram were compared on the following variables: socio-demographics, personal risk estimates for breast cancer, risk-reduction expectancies, beliefs and knowledge about breast cancer and screening recommendations, and acculturation. Results Groups differed significantly in terms of education, years living in North America, acculturation, and beliefs/knowledge about breast cancer. When education and acculturation were controlled, perceived barriers to mammography were most predictive of mammography utilization. Discussion Results are discussed with a view to developing culture-appropriate educational campaigns.

Older immigrant Tamil women and their doctors: attitudes toward breast cancer screening.

Cultural beliefs have been hypothesized to be powerful barriers to breast cancer screening in minority women and physician recommendation is consistently reported to be the strongest incentive. This study investigated (1) beliefs regarding breast cancer and (2) the perception of barriers to mammography and clinical breast examination in a sample of immigrant Tamil women, as well as in a sample of primary care physicians. Three focus groups, each consisting of 10 immigrant Tamil women from Sri Lanka aged 50 years or over were conducted and 52 primary care physicians who serve this population completed mailed surveys. The most common barriers to screening reported by the women were (1) lack of understanding of the role of early detection in medical care, (2) religious beliefs and, (3) fear of social stigmatization. Physicians reported the most common barriers to their screening recommendations for this group of women to be (1) women's episodic care, (2) unrelated presenting problems and, (3) women refusing to be screened. Interventions to increase screening in this and other minority groups requires an elaborated understanding of utilization barriers for both women and their doctors.

Naming the Days of the Week: A Cross-Language Study of Lexical Acculturation

Previous articleNext article No AccessReportsNaming the Days of the Week: A Cross-Language Study of Lexical AcculturationCecil H. BrownCecil H. Brown Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 30, Number 4Aug. - Oct., 1989 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/203782 Views: 10Total views on this site Citations: 5Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1989 The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Roy Ellen The cultural cognition of time, (Jun 2016): 125–150.https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.52.07ellHarold Koch Patterns in the diffusion of nomenclature systems, (Jan 2015): 109–132.https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.334.07kocAmali Philips The kinship, marriage and gender experiences of Tamil women in Sri Lanka's tea plantations, Contributions to Indian Sociology 39, no.11 (Feb 2005): 107–142.https://doi.org/10.1177/006996670503900104Eleanor Olds Batchelder, Vit Bubenik, Anthony P. Grant, Joachim Grzega, Joachim Grzega, Masataka Ishikawa, Alan S. Kaye, Alan S. Kaye, Alan S. Kaye, Olga M. Mladenova, M. Lynne Murphy, Charles Peck, Charles Peck, Kanavillil Rajagopalan, Leonard Rolfe, Leonard Rolfe, Edward J. Vajda, Edward J. Vajda, Edward J. Vajda, Edward J. Vajda Reviews, <i>WORD</i> 52, no.22 (May 2015): 263–333.https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.2001.11432516Cecil H. Brown Lexical acculturation, areal diffusion, lingua francas, and bilingualism, Language in Society 25, no.22 (Feb 2009): 261–282.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500020637

Knowers, Knowing, Known: Feminist Theory and Claims of Truth

paper. 1 For general arguments against an excessive philosophical preoccupation with epistemology, see Jacques Derrida, Dissemination (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981); John Gunnell, Between Philosophy and Politics (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986); Mark Krupnick, ed., Displacement (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1983); Paul Kress, "Against Epistemology," Journal of Politics 41, no. 2 (May 1979): 526-42. For specific arguments against foundationalism, see Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979); Richard Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983); Don Herzog, Without Foundations: Justification in Political Theory (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1985). It is worth noting the irony that even those most intent on repudiating epistemology on the grounds that traditional epistemological concerns involve claims altogether beyond the possibilities for human knowledge are themselves advancing epistemological claims.

Women and the Hindu Tradition

Previous articleNext article No AccessWomen and Symbolic SystemsWomen and the Hindu TraditionSusan S. WadleySusan S. Wadley Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 3, Number 1Autumn, 1977Women and National Development: The Complexities of Change Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/493444 Views: 181Total views on this site Citations: 24Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1977 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Manpreet Arora Women, Religion and Festivals, (Jul 2022): 133–141.https://doi.org/10.1079/9781789248685.0013Parinitha B., A. Lourdusamy The Evolution of the Female from Suppression to Supremacy in the Select Novels of Postmodern Retellings of the Epic- A Review of Literature, International Journal of Management, Technology, and Social Sciences (Feb 2022): 163–183.https://doi.org/10.47992/IJMTS.2581.6012.0184Bhaswati Pal, Tarun Kumar Mondal Women’s trafficking in twenty-first century India: A quest for regional variations, Asian Journal of Women's Studies 27, no.11 (Mar 2021): 130–151.https://doi.org/10.1080/12259276.2021.1887560Santanu Dey ‘Locating Viṣnupriyā in the Tradition’: Women, Devotion, and Bengali Vaiṣṇavism in Colonial Times, Religions 11, no.1111 (Oct 2020): 555.https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11110555Madeline Chera Country chicken and multiple knowledges: Foucauldian resistance in young Tamil women’s cultural critique of globalized food, Food, Culture & Society 23, no.22 (Nov 2019): 209–228.https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2019.1682900Waseem Ahad, Selma Koç Akgül Female body, femininity and authority in Bollywood: The “new” woman in Dangal and Queen, Asian Journal of Women's Studies 26, no.11 (Mar 2020): 3–21.https://doi.org/10.1080/12259276.2019.1690777Rajeev Kumar Dowry System: Unequalizing Gender Equality, (Dec 2019): 1–12.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_21-1Bhaswati Pal The saga of women’s status in ancient Indian civilization, Miscellanea Geographica 23, no.33 (Jul 2019): 180–184.https://doi.org/10.2478/mgrsd-2019-0012Sidharth Muralidharan, Carrie La Ferle, Sanjukta Pookulangara Studying the impact of religious symbols on domestic violence prevention in India: applying the theory of reasoned action to bystanders' reporting intentions, International Journal of Advertising 37, no.44 (Jun 2017): 609–632.https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2017.1339659Purnima Mehta Bhatt Women’s Leadership in the Developing World: Learning from the Past, Envisioning the Future, (Oct 2016): 143–167.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44758-2_13Chris Bidner, Mukesh Eswaran A gender-based theory of the origin of the caste system of India, Journal of Development Economics 114 (May 2015): 142–158.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.12.006Abbas Rakhshani, Raghuram Nagarathna, Ahalya Sharma, Amit Singh, Hongasandra Ramarao Nagendra A Holistic Antenatal Model Based on Yoga, Ayurveda, and Vedic Guidelines, Health Care for Women International 36, no.33 (Aug 2014): 256–275.https://doi.org/10.1080/07399332.2014.942900Srinivas Goli, Ladumai Maikho Apollo Pou “Landholding-patriarchy hypothesis” and women's autonomy in rural India, International Journal of Social Economics 41, no.33 (Mar 2014): 213–232.https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-09-2012-0166Usha Menon Women, Wellbeing, and the Ethics of Domesticity: An Introduction, (Jan 2013): 1–25.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-0885-3_1Reva Joshee, Karen Sihra Shakti as a Liberatory and Educative Force for Hindu Women, (Aug 2012): 73–82.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5270-2_5Madhavi Mallapragada Desktop deities: Hindu temples, online cultures and the politics of remediation, South Asian Popular Culture 8, no.22 (Jul 2010): 109–121.https://doi.org/10.1080/14746681003797955Pratap Kumar Penumala Sociology of Hinduism, (Mar 2010): 407–430.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444320787.ch18Narasingha P. Sil Saradamani's Holy Motherhood: A Reappraisal, Asian Journal of Women's Studies 4, no.11 (Jan 2016): 33–76.https://doi.org/10.1080/12259276.1998.11666205N. Sudhakar Rao Transformative rituals among Hindu women in the Telugu region, Contributions to Indian Sociology 30, no.11 (Jul 2016): 69–88.https://doi.org/10.1177/006996679603000103Amrita Basu The gendered imagery and women's leadership of Hindu nationalism, Reproductive Health Matters 4, no.88 (Jan 2017): 70–76.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0968-8080(96)90303-1Thalatha Seneviratne, Jan Currie Religion and feminism, Women's Studies International Forum 17, no.66 (Nov 1994): 593–607.https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-5395(94)00066-2Amrita Basu Feminism inverted: The real women and gendered imagery of Hindu nationalism, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 25, no.44 (Jul 2019): 25–37.https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1993.10416136Paulette Moore Hines, Nydia Garcia-Preto, Monica McGoldrick, Rhea Almeida, Susan Weltman Intergenerational Relationships across Cultures, Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services 73, no.66 (Jul 2018): 323–338.https://doi.org/10.1177/104438949207300601Michael Moffatt Deconstructing McKim Marriott's Ethnosociology: An Outcaste's Critique, Contributions to Indian Sociology 24, no.22 (Jul 2016): 215–236.https://doi.org/10.1177/006996690024002005

Tradition and Modernity of Tamil Women Writers

Tradition and Modernity of Tamil Women Writers