Book
Bengali women
University of Chicago Press • Chicago • Published In 1975 • Pages:
By: Roy, Manisha.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a study of upper and upper middle-class urbanized Hindu Bengali women who share similar religious, educational and economic backgrounds. The author, herself a Bengali, discusses childhood and adolescence in the natal family and the romantic fantasies and expectations that develop in these stages which are not necessarily satisfied by the actual roles that women are expected to play in married life. The resulting sexual and emotional frustrations, however, are somewhat mollified through certain familial and extra-familial roles. The first role that promises some degree of satisfaction to women (but sometimes fails) is that of wife and mother; the second as a brother's wife and, later, as a GURU'S disciple.In addition, this source also shows that in the type of joint-family described in the text '…familial roles within the process of the developmental cycle are adjusted to one another in such a way that psychological fulfillment remains only partial. Personality needs are generated and then in part frustrated; but to achieve any level of gratification the full array of joint-family roles is required' (pp. 1-2). Thus, in a system of this nature individual satisfaction, both at the structural and psychological levels, must be sacrificed so that other members of the family, acting in different roles, may be at least partly satisfied. The source provides an abundance of data (at this class level) on marriage, the position of the mature woman in the family, and her changing role with the onset of old age.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Life history materials
- Gender status
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Bengali
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2002
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- South Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypesThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Indigenous Person
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1992
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1950-1959, 1965-1969 [p. xiv]
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Calcutta, West Bengal, India
- NotesAdditional notes
- [by] Manisha Roy
- Includes index. Bibliography: p. [195]-198
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 74033521
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Bengalis