Conch shell bangles, iron bangles: an analysis of women, marriage, and ritual in Bengal

Fruzzetti, Lina M.

Book

Conch shell bangles, iron bangles: an analysis of women, marriage, and ritual in Bengal

University Microfilms • Ann Arbor, Mich. • Published In 1992 • Pages:

By: Fruzzetti, Lina M..

Abstract
This dissertation is based on the author's four years of fieldwork in the town of Bishnupur, in the District of Bankura, West Bengal, during the period of October 1967 to July 1969, and from December 1971 to June 1973. Basically this source is an analysis of women's activities in Bengali society, with emphasis on the relationships that developed among women through mutual residence in households, membership in kinship groups, and the sharing of various life cycle rituals and beliefs (particularly in reference to marriage and its symbolism). During the early stages of the fieldwork the author studied women's culture and models for action (the indigenous view of women's roles) as it applied in general throughout the town. Later Fruzzetti concentrated '…on the household roles of women, the domain of women's rituals, the role of women in the life cycle rites, BRATAS [a vow or a resolution by a devotee to a deity to perform a specific act], economy and politics' (p. 77). At this point in her analysis, the author attempts to isolate caste and class variables in the network of neighborhood relationships among women of different households. The final phase of the study involved the public roles of women in the town. These included participation in major public rituals and in women's associations. In addition, this portion of the source analyzes the position of women in the society, especially in regard to education, health schemes, and the attitudes of educated women to the maintenance of traditions and the existing traditional views of women. Although this study cuts across the different residential sections of the town, as well as the boundaries of class and caste, emphasis throughout the work is on Hindu women.

Purification and atonement

Organized ceremonial

Bengali

HRAF PubDate

2002