Book
Bengali women
University of Chicago Press • Chicago • Published In 1975 • Pages:
By: Roy, Manisha.
Abstract
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.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2002
- Region
- Asia
- Sub Region
- South Asia
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Types
- Ethnologist
- Indigenous Person
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- John Beierle ; 1992
- Field Date
- 1950-1959, 1965-1969 [p. xiv]
- Coverage Date
- not specified
- Coverage Place
- Calcutta, West Bengal, India
- Notes
- [by] Manisha Roy
- Includes index. Bibliography: p. [195]-198
- LCCN
- 74033521
- LCSH
- Bengalis