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The Izhavas are an ex-untouchable community in the southern Indian
state of Kerala. Politically and economically weak, stigmatised as
'toddy tappers' and 'devil dancers', and considered unapproachable
by clean caste Hindus, a century ago Izhavas were associated with
other manual-labouring untouchable castes. In recent decades they
have sought to improve their position by accumulating economic,
symbolic and cultural capital through employment, religion,
politics, migration, marriage, education and have tried to assert
their right to mobility, often in the face of opposition from their
high status Christian and Nayar neighbours. This study examines how
Izhavas, through repudiation of their nineteenth-century identity
and search for mobility, have come into complex relationships with
modernity, colonialism and globalisation. Filippo Osella and
Caroline Osella highlight the complexities and contradictions of
modern identity, both locally and globally. The authors' approach
builds upon and goes beyond a south Asian focus, showing how the
Izhavas represent the rise of formerly stigmatised groups who
remain at the same time trapped by stereotype and material
disadvantage. Absolute mobility, they argue, has not led to
relative mobility within a society which remains stratified and
prone to new forms of social exclusion.
Men and Masculinities in South India aims to increase understanding
of gender within South Asia and especially South Asian
masculinities, a topic whose analysis and ethnographising in the
region has had a very sketchy beginning and is ripe for more
thorough examination. This is, in short, an almost empty field
dominated so far by short articles and collections and the time is
right for the first full-length ethnographic study of
masculinities. This ground-breaking monograph covers a range of
areas including work, cross-sex relationships, sexuality, men's
friendships, religious practices and leisure. This book is
especially concerned with issues arising from debates which broadly
argue over the differences and merits of approaches to gender and
identity - rooted in essentialism versus performativity. Questions
about the tensions between essentialist and performative theories
of self and gender are therefore highlighted throughout the book
and explored in relation to various bodies of theory and to South
Asian understandings of personhood.
Using a cross-cultural perspective, The Everyday Makings of
Heteronormativity: Cross-Cultural Explorations of Sex, Gender, and
Sexuality examines the conceptual formulation of heteronormativity
and highlights the mundane operations of its construction in
diverse contexts. Heterosexual culture simultaneously
institutionalizes its narrations and normalcies, operating in a way
that preserves its own coherency. Heteronormativity gains its
privileges and coherency through public operations and the
mutuality of the public and private spheres. The contributors to
this edited collection examine this coherency and privilege and
explore in ethnographic detail the operations and making of
heteronormative devices: material, affective, narrative, spatial,
and bodily. This book is recommended for students and scholars of
anthropology, sociology, and gender and sexuality studies.
With a cross-cultural perspective, the essays in The Everyday
Makings of Heteronormativity examine the consistent constructing of
heteronormativity as a way to contribute to the conceptual
formulation of the term, bring forward the mundane operations of it
in diverse contexts, and establish heteronormativity as the focus
of an ethnographic lens. Heterosexual culture simultaneously
institutionalizes its narrations and normalcies, so that it
operates in a way towards preserving its own coherency.
Heteronormativity gains its privileges and coherency through public
operations, and the mutuality of public and private. The chapters
in this volume examine this coherency and privilege, to explore in
ethnographic detail the operations and making of heteronormative
devices: material, affective, narrative, spatial and bodily.
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