1st Edition

Chaste Wives and Prostitute Sisters Patriarchy and Prostitution among the Bedias of India

By Anuja Agrawal Copyright 2007
264 Pages
by Routledge India

264 Pages
by Routledge India

264 Pages
by Routledge India

This book is an anthropological study of the unusual coincidence of prostitution and patriarchy among an extremely marginalized group in north India, the Bedias, who are also a de-notified community. It is the first detailed account of the implications of a systematic practice of familial prostitution on the kinship structures and marriage practices of a community. This starkly manifests among... Read more

Introduction  1. Prostitution as ‘Tradition’  2. The Making of a Bedia Prostitute  3. Bedia Women and ‘Love Marriage’  4. Prostitution as Family Economy  5. Prostitution and the Indolence of Bedia Men  6. Prostitution and the Marriage Economy  7. The Morality of the Bedia Economy.  Conclusion: Patriarchy at the Margins

Biography

Anuja Agrawal is Reader at the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. As a commonwealth scholar for the years 2000-01, she was visiting research scholar at the Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research interests have focused on issues of gender identity, marginality and ideologies. She has published several articles in referred journals and is the editor of the book, Migrant Women and Work.