Book

Women and children in a Bengali village

Published for University of Connecticut, University Press of New EnglandHanover, Conn. • Published In 1988 • Pages:

By: Rohner, Ronald Preston, Chaki-Sircar, Manjusri, University Of Connecticut.

Abstract
The material in this work focuses on the role of women as wives and mothers and their relationship to their children (mostly in the six to twelve year old range), in the Brahman-dominated village of Palashpur (a pseudonymn), West Bengal. The source, which is one of the first full-scale ethnographic field studies to test the major postulates of parental acceptance-rejection theory, is divided into two major parts. Part 1 is basically a descriptive ethnography of life in Palashpur, providing an overall portrait of the village, and sex role relationships of women in both high caste and 'untouchable' caste families. This section also deals with intercaste dependencies, caste differences in life-style, and intercaste tensions, and forms the context for the interpretations of the sociometric data presented in part 2. Part 2 '…concentrates on the warmth dimension of parenting (i.e., on perceived maternal acceptance-rejection) and on the effects and determinants of perceived maternal acceptance in the village' (pp. xvii-xviii). This 'warmth dimension' is measured by the field team through a series of self-report questionnaires administered to the research sample (fifty-two children and their parents), and designed to measure the individuals' perception of maternal warmth and their perceptions of their own personality dispositions (p. xx). The statistical analysis of the results of these questionnaires make up the major portion of this section.
Subjects
Behavior processes and personality
Gender status
Castes
Family relationships
Spirits and gods
Organized ceremonial
Child care
Childhood activities
culture
Bengali
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
Feb. 1981-Oct. 1982 (p. xiii-xiv)
Coverage Date
not specified
Coverage Place
'Palashpur', West Bengal, India
Notes
[by] Ronald P. Rohner and Manjusri Chaki-Sircar
Includes index. Bibliography: p. [201]-205.
LCCN
87025463
LCSH
Bengalis