Invitations to Love: Literacy, Love Letters, and Social Change in NepalUniversity of Michigan Press, 2001 - 295 pages Invitations to Love provides a close examination of the dramatic shift away from arranged marriage and capture marriage toward elopement in the village of Junigau, Nepal. Laura M. Ahearn shows that young Nepalese people are applying their newly acquired literacy skills to love-letter writing, fostering a transition that involves not only a shift in marriage rituals, but also a change in how villagers conceive of their own ability to act and attribute responsibility for events. These developments have potential ramifications that extend far beyond the realm of marriage and well past the Himalayas. The love-letter correspondences examined by Ahearn also provide a deeper understanding of the social effects of literacy. While the acquisition of literary skills may open up new opportunities for some individuals, such skills can also impose new constraints, expectations, and disappointments. The increase in female literacy rates in Junigau in the 1990s made possible the emergence of new courtship practices and facilitated self-initiated marriages, but it also reinforced certain gender ideologies and undercut some avenues to social power, especially for women. Scholars, and students in such fields as anthropology, women's studies, linguistics, development studies, and South Asian studies will find this book ethnographically rich and theoretically insightful. Laura M. Ahearn is Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University. |
Contents
Invitations to Love | 3 |
Juggling Roles Daughter Development Worker and Anthropologist | 27 |
Key Concepts and Their Application | 45 |
Gender and Marriage over Time in Junigau | 67 |
Narratives of Marriage | 88 |
Meeting by Way of a Letter Shila Devi and Vajra Bahadurs Courtship | 119 |
Developing Love Sources of Development Discourse in Nepali Love Letters | 149 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abduction Agati agency angry arranged marriage asked become Bir Bahadur Brahman bride capture marriage ceremony chapter consent courtship cross-cousins cultural daughter development discourse Didi elopement English ethnography excerpt fate female literacy film friends gender girls groom guidebooks heart/mind high school Hindi Hindu husband Indian Jhili Juni Junigau love letters Junigau residents Junigau villagers Junigau women Junigau's central ward Kathmandu literacy practices literacy skills lives love letters love truly Magars magazines male marriage practices married māyā meanings meet Menuka Mirgun Dev mother Narendra narratives of marriage Nepali never occurred okay older Pabi Sara Palpa District parents Peace Corps Plate readers red powder relationship riage Rita Sara ritual romantic love Sarita Sarita's father Shila and Vajra Shila Devi structures of feeling talk Tansen textbooks Thapa tion told Vajra Bahadur Vishnu wedding wife woman words written पनि मा
References to this book
All Book Search results »