Marrying In South Asia

Marrying in South Asia looks closely at the changing notions and practices of marriage in Bangladeshi, Pakistani and south Indian Muslims, Bhutanese ethnic groups, Nepali widows, the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, south Asian gays and lesbians, middle class and urban, working class communities, and many other groups. With the globalising world as the backdrop, the essays in this volume examine the processes that make a marriage, the implications of marriage, cohabitation and divorce on domesticity and work, and the acknowledgement of multiple sexualities, as well as the contestations and conflicts including in the law courts that are part of the institution. The diverse ethnographic accounts, demographic analyses and economic investigations provide a wider window to marriage than is usually available in a single volume. This volume brings together scholars in sociology, anthropology, economics, demography, development studies, queer theory and gender studies, and historical research from around the world. It is a must-read for students and scholars of sociology, anthropology and South Asia studies.Marrying in South Asia looks closely at the changing notions and practices of marriage in Bangladeshi, Pakistani and south Indian Muslims, Bhutanese ethnic groups, Nepali widows, the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, south Asian gays and lesbians, middle class and urban, working class communities, and many other groups. With the globalising world as the backdrop, the essays in this volume examine the processes that make a marriage, the implications of marriage, cohabitation and divorce on domesticity and work, and the acknowledgement of multiple sexualities, as well as the contestations and conflicts including in the law courts that are part of the institution. The diverse ethnographic accounts, demographic analyses and economic investigations provide a wider window to marriage than is usually available in a single volume. This volume brings together scholars in sociology, anthropology, economics, demography, development studies, queer theory and gender studies, and historical research from around the world. It is a must-read for students and scholars of sociology, anthropology and South Asia studies.Read more

The civil war between the Sri Lankan state and Tamil militants, which ended in 2009, lasted more than three decades and led to mass migration, mainly to India, Canada, England, and continental Europe. In Marrying for a Future, Sidharthan Maunaguru argues that the social institution of marriage has emerged as a critical means of building alliances between dispersed segments of Tamil communities, allowing scattered groups to reunite across national borders. Maunaguru explores how these fragmented communities were rekindled by connections fostered by key participants in and elements of the marriage process, such as wedding photographers, marriage brokers, legal documents, and transit places. Marrying for a Future contributes to transnational and diaspora marriage studies by looking at the temporary spaces through which migrants and refugees travel in addition to their home and host countries. It provides a new conceptual framework for studies on kinship and marriage and addresses a community that has been separated across borders as a result of war.

"(Un)tying the Knot is a collection of essays by scholars and social activists exploring aspects of marriage and divorce in Southeast and East Asia, India and beyond."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Right Spouse is an engaging investigation into Tamil (South Indian) preferential close kin marriages, so-called Dravidian Kinship. This book offers a description and an interpretation of preferential marriages with close kin in South India, as they used to be arranged and experienced in the recent past and as they are increasingly discontinued in the present. Clark-Decès presents readers with a focused anthropology of this waning marriage system: its past, present, and dwindling future. The book takes on the main pillars of Tamil social organization, considers the ways in which Tamil intermarriage establishes kinship and social rank, and argues that past scholars have improperly defined "Dravidian" kinship. Within her critique of past scholarship, Clark-Decès recasts a powerful and vivid image of preferential marriage in Tamil Nadu and how those preferences and marital rules play out in lived reality. What Clark-Decès discovers in her fieldwork are endogamous patterns and familial connections that sometimes result in flawed relationships, contradictory statuses, and confused roles. The book includes a fascinating narration of the complex terrain that Tamil youth currently navigate as they experience the complexities and changing nature of marriage practices and seek to reconcile their established kinship networks to more individually driven marriages and careers.

This Book Deals With The Problem Of Child Marriages In All Saarc Countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan And Sri Lanka. Such Violate Even The Most Basic Human Rights Of A Girl Child And Are An Anachronism In This Enlightened 21St Century Yet They Are Widely Performed Under The Garb Of Cultural Practices And Social Norms Despite The Existence Of Several Laws And International Conventions Prohibiting Them.

While marriage has lost its popularity in many developed countries and is no longer an obligatory path to family formation, it has gained momentum among binational couples as states reinforce their control over human migration. Focusing on the case of Southeast Asian women who have been epitomized on the global marriage market as ‘ideal’ brides and wives, this volume examines these women’s experiences of international marriage, migration, and states' governmentality. Drawing from ethnographic research and policy analyses, this book sheds light on the way many countries in Southeast Asia and beyond have redefined marriage and national belonging through their regime of ‘marital citizenship’ (that is, a legal status granted by a state to a migrant by virtue of his/her marriage to one of its citizens). These regimes influence the familial and social incorporation of Southeast Asian migrant women, notably their access to socio-political and civic rights in their receiving countries. The case studies analysed in this volume highlight these women’s subjectivity and agency as they embrace, resist, and navigate the intricate legal and socio-cultural frameworks of citizenship. As such, it will appeal to sociologists, geographers, socio-legal scholars, and anthropologists with interests in migration, family formation, intimate relations, and gender.

Various forms of partnering – such as officially registered marriages, cohabiting relationships, and other kinds of relatively stable relationships - are crucial in the formation of families throughout the world. Although, today, forms of partnering in the region are not restricted to formal marriage, the norm remains for couples to marry – to establish a new family, and to accept the cultural requirement to have children. This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of partnerships and marriage in the Southeast Asian region using quantitative data alongside qualitative approaches.Through the research of demographers, sociologists and anthropologists, it examines the way trends in the formation and dissolution of marriages are related to changes in the region’s economy and society; illuminating both the broad forces affecting marriage patterns and the way these forces work out at the individual and family level. Presenting the variety of contemporary marriage patterns in the region, with an emphasis on the ways in which marriage issues impinge on the welfare of those concerned, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of Southeast Asia and the sociology of the family.