7 research outputs found
Death before Birth : Negotiating Reproduction, Female Infanticide and Sex Selective Abortion in Tamil Nadu, South India
This thesis deals with the cultural and political underpinnings of female infanticide
and sex selective abortion in contemporary South India. Based on a fifteen months'
ethnographic fieldwork in western parts of Salem district in Tamil Nadu, I explore
the ideas and practices around deaths of (un)born children - particularly in the
context of issues of gender-selective child survival, use and control over new
reproductive technologies for sex selection, fertility and reproduction. Elucidating
further the ethnographic contexts of state and non-state (primarily NGO)
interventions in these deaths, the thesis examines the new forms of governance on
issues that affect contemporary Tamil women. I discuss three different discourses by
the government, by NGOs, and by the communities on the meaning and context of
these deaths including the ways in which these meanings and ideas are reconceptualised
and re-configured into a changing social and cultural context of birth.
My thesis, therefore, contributes to the anthropology of reproduction.
The underlying questions of the thesis are: Why has female infanticide, which was
claimed to be effectively controlled in nineteenth century colonial India, appeared in
post-colonial (South) India - in the form of both sex selective abortion and female
infanticide - in communities and regions where it was previously claimed to be
unknown? What effects could these social practices have on contemporary women' s
positions and their developments and vice-versa? In answering these questions. the
thesis makes a significant departure from previous anthropological studies on female
infanticide in India in that it does not solely look into one single unit (village/s in this
case), but uses a multi-sited approach, covering a wider geographical area, i.e .. parts
of Salem, Dharmapuri, and Erode districts of Tamil Nadu. The thesis also shifts from
the purely demographic approach to female infanticide in that it does not generate a
new data set on female infanticide. Rather, it engages with the institutional responses
and their rhetoric on female infanticide and sex selective abortion
Telugu Jews: Are the Dalits of coastal Andhra going caste-awry?
In the context of religious conversion movements of low castes in India, many Dalit groups have embraced Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and even Jainism in order to restore egalitarian traditions. However, their conversion to Judaism is relatively unheard of in the academia. This essay throws light on the nature of these conversions by looking at a section of Dalit population in the coastal Andhra, who embraced Judaism two decades ago by declaring their community to be the descendants of the Children of Ephraim – one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel
Telugu Jews: Are the Dalits of coastal Andhra going caste-awry?
In the context of religious conversion movements of low castes in India, many Dalit groups have embraced Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and even Jainism in order to restore egalitarian traditions. However, their conversion to Judaism is relatively unheard of in the academia. This essay throws light on the nature of these conversions by looking at a section of Dalit population in the coastal Andhra, who embraced Judaism two decades ago by declaring their community to be the descendants of the Children of Ephraim – one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.