Cart
Free US shipping over $10
Proud to be B-Corp

Listen to the Heron's Words Gloria Goodwin Raheja

Listen to the Heron's Words By Gloria Goodwin Raheja

Listen to the Heron's Words by Gloria Goodwin Raheja


$4.39
Condition - Good
Only 1 left

Summary

In many South Asian oral traditions, women are viewed as fragmented identities, dangerously split between virtue and virtuosity. This ethnographical study of women in certain North Indian villages criticizes local ideologies of gender and kinship that place women in subordinate positions.

Faster Shipping

Get this product faster from our US warehouse

Listen to the Heron's Words Summary

Listen to the Heron's Words: Reimagining Gender and Kinship in North India by Gloria Goodwin Raheja

In many South Asian oral traditions, herons are viewed as duplicitous and conniving. These traditions tend also to view women as fragmented identities, dangerously split between virtue and virtuosity, between loyalties to their own families and those of their husbands. In women's songs, however, symbolic herons speak, telling of alternative moral perspectives shaped by women. The heron's words--and women's expressive genres more generally--criticize pervasive North Indian ideologies of gender and kinship that place women in subordinate positions. By inviting readers to listen to the heron's words, the authors convey this shift in moral perspective and suggest that these spoken truths are compelling and consequential for the women in North India. The songs and narratives bear witness to a provocative cultural dissonance embedded in women's speech. This book reveals the power of these critical commentaries and the fluid and permeable boundaries between spoken words and the lives of ordinary village women.

About Gloria Goodwin Raheja

Gloria Goodwin Raheja is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota and author of The Poison in the Gift: Ritual, Prestation and the Dominant Caste in a North Indian Village (1988). Ann Grodzins Gold is Assistant Professor of Religion at Syracuse University. She is the author of Fruitful Journeys: The Ways of Rajasthani Pilgrims (California, 1988) and A Carnival of Parting: The Tales of King Bharthari and King Gopi Chand (California, 1992).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Note on Transcription and Transliteration
Note on Kinship Terms
Preface: Listening to Women in Rural North
India (AGG and GGR)

1. Introduction: Gender Representation and the
Problem of Language and Resistance in India
(GGR)

2. Sexuality, Fertility, and Erotic Imagination in
Rajasthani Women's Songs (AGG)

3* On the Uses of Irony and Ambiguity: Shifting
Perspectives on Patriliny and Women's Ties to
Natal Kin (GGR)

4* On the Uses of Subversion: Redefining
Conjugality (GGR)

5* Devotional Power or Dangerous Magic? The
Jungli Rani's Case (AGG)

6. Purdah Is As Purdah's Kept: A Storyteller's Story
(AGG)

7* Conclusion: Some Reflections on Narrative
Potency and the Politics of Women's
Expressive Traditions (GGR with AGG)

Appendix: Rajasthani and Hindi Song Texts
Glossary of Hindi and Rajasthani Words
Bibliography
Index

Additional information

CIN0520083717G
9780520083714
0520083717
Listen to the Heron's Words: Reimagining Gender and Kinship in North India by Gloria Goodwin Raheja
Used - Good
Paperback
University of California Press
19940429
288
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Listen to the Heron's Words