Matrilineal Communities, Patriarchal Realities: A Feminist Nirvana Uncovered - Hardcover

Kanchana N. Ruwanpura

9788189013042: Matrilineal Communities, Patriarchal Realities: A Feminist Nirvana Uncovered

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8189013041 ISBN 13: 9788189013042

Publisher: Zubaan Books, 2007

In rejecting falsely homogenizing accounts of women s lives, feminist economists have, in recent years, unlocked the multiple ways in which gendered relations of dominance and subordination are maintained. One of the key differences they have turned their attention to is ethnicity. This study of Muslim, Sinhala and Tamil households in Sri Lanka examines both the commonality of patriarchal structures and economic problems in such households, as well as the differences created by the ethnicities that divide them. The author looks at the nature and reliability of kinship support for female heads and the reciprocal obligations in terms of female propriety and conventional conduct extracted from female heads. She questions development policies premised on the patriarchal household and argues for a recognition of diversity and complexity.

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About the Author:

Kanchana N. Ruwanpura is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges where she teaches courses in Gender, Labour, Political Economy and Development. Her specialization is Feminist Political Economy.

Review:

"Kanchana Ruwanpura provides an astute analysis of patriarchal structures and resistance among female-headed households in eastern Sri Lanka. Her work decisively debunks the conventional wisdom that Sri Lanka is a 'feminist nirvana', that war is the primary reason for growth of female-headed households, and that economists cannot do solid qualitative work. Matrilineal Communities, Patriarchal Realities makes an important contribution to feminist economic analysis of household structures, development, and the importance of ethnic differences." - Randy Albelda, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts-Boston"

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