In Kerala in Southern India the caste system has been legally abolished, but untouchability lives on. Campaigns fought in recent years for social equality resulted in land reforms and new labour laws. The relationships between castes, and between land owners and landless labourers changed - and so too did, unintentionally, the relations between men and women. As women lost many of their rights, their standing in society diminished considerably.

In this book, the stories told by outcaste-women in a village in southern Kerala describe the extent of these changes. Anthropologist Marion den Uyl was able to record these stories in the best tradition of oral anthropology. The women describe how they see their lives, their circumstances and their future. The research distinguishes itself from the viricentrist approach characterizing most anthropological research. Invisible Barriers is not about power and powerlessness, nor is it solely about the economic position of women - typically subjects of masculine research. Marion den Uyl has an eye for the softer powers shaping the lives of women: sexuality, motherhood and self-image.

For students and researchers of gender, poverty, women, cultural anthropology and Asian politics.

Girlhood, interdisciplinary and global in source, scope, and methodology, examines the centrality of girlhood in shaping women's lives. Scholars study how age and gender, along with a multitude of other identities, work together to influence the historical experience. Spanning a broad time frame from 1750 to the present, essays illuminate the various continuities and differences in girls' lives across culture and region girls on all continents except Antarctica are represented. Case studies and essays are arranged thematically to encourage comparisons between girls' experiences in diverse locales, and to assess how girls were affected by historical developments such as colonialism, political repression, war, modernisation, shifts in labour markets, migrations, and the rise of consumer culture.