Suchergebnisse

A study of the system of political stratification and the pattern of political alliances in rural Western Maharashtra. Based on fieldwork in a large village, a nearby market town and taluka headquarters, and political institutions in the surrounding countryside, the first half of the book is a full examination of the phenomenon of regional dominance originally described by Adrian Mayer. The second part is a detailed study of the pattern of political alliances from village to district level. Dr Carter's central concern is with the manner in which the pattern of political alliances is shaped by political stratification. Tracing the relationships between these alliances and such factors as political stratification, political arenas, caste, class, and kinship, Dr Carter demonstrates that much Indian political behaviour which has been regarded as irrational or as a sign of an immature, tradition-bound and unstable system may be understood more usefully as a rational response to the conditions of political action in rural India

Anthropological Demography: Toward. New Synthesis. David I. Kertzer and Tom Fricke. eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. 294 pp.

Using materials from India, this paper explores some of the implica tions of stochastic demographic variation for theories of household management and fertility. The sex composition of Indian families is highly variable. Such variation may have a negative impact on household viability. Householders sometimes try to control it, therefore, through behaviors that influence mortality differentials by sex. Analyses of birth intervals and reproductive periods in rela tion to sex of prior offspring show that householders also try to control variation in family composition through fertility behaviors, even though they use little con traception. Such findings call into question contributions to demographic transi tion theory which assume that "extended family" households are characterized by persistently high fertility because they are managed according to kinship morality and tradition, severely constraining the rational adjustment of means to ends. At the same time, thesefindings call attention to the importance of the task- oriented character of the domestic group.

How do people come to think of themselves as part of a nation? Dramas of Nationhood identifies a fantastic cultural form that binds together the Egyptian nation-television serials. These melodramatic programs-like soap operas but more closely tied to political and social issues than their Western counterparts-have been shown on television in Egypt for more than thirty years. In this book, Lila Abu-Lughod examines the shifting politics of these serials and the way their contents both reflect and seek to direct the changing course of Islam, gender relations, and everyday life in this Middle Eastern nation. Representing a decade's worth of research, Dramas of Nationhood makes a case for the importance of studying television to answer larger questions about culture, power, and modern self-fashionings. Abu-Lughod explores the elements of developmentalist ideology and the visions of national progress that once dominated Egyptian television-now experiencing a crisis. She discusses the broadcasts in rich detail, from the generic emotional qualities of TV serials and the depictions of authentic national culture, to the debates inflamed by their deliberate strategies for combating religious extremism.