Listen to the Heron's Words: Reimagining Gender and Kinship in North IndiaIn 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. |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accept appear asked authority become birth bride bring brother called chapter cloth concerning conjugal context course cultural dān dancing daughter describe discourse discussion dominant example experience expressive fact female festival frequently gender genres Ghatiyali gifts girl give given groom Hathchoya Hindi Holi husband identity ideology images important indar jungli rani keśyā kinds king kinship language lives male marriage married meaning moral mother natal kin natal village never North Indian offer one's oral Pahansu particular patrilineal performed persons perspective play position practice purdah queen rājā Rajasthan received recorded refer relations relationships resistance ritual rural sexual Shobhag Kanvar sing sister situation social South speak split story suggests sung tell tions traditions translated understand Uttar Pradesh veil verses voices wedding wife wives woman women women's songs worship wrap writing young