"Surplus Woman": Female Sexuality and the Concept of Endogamy. Issue 1 (February 2021)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- "Surplus Woman": Female Sexuality and the Concept of Endogamy. Issue 1 (February 2021)
- Main Title:
- "Surplus Woman": Female Sexuality and the Concept of Endogamy
- Authors:
- Mitra, Durba
- Abstract:
- Abstract : This essay traces the colonial origins of the concept of endogamy and its history as a foundational idea in the modern study of society in South Asia. The history of the concept of endogamy reveals how the control of female sexuality shaped the overlapping fields of Indology and ethnology. The invention and deployment of endogamy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is discussed in the writings of key colonial writers and British administrators, such as J. F. McLennan and H. H. Risley, and Indian intellectuals, including S. V. Ketkar and B. R. Ambedkar. It argues that the modern study of caste naturalized the control of female sexuality through the uncritical use of the concept of endogamy, which Ambedkar diagnosed as the irresolvable problem of the "Surplus Woman" in 1917. The essay reflects on the long life of endogamy and the enduring problem of nonconjugal sexuality in modern social theories of South Asia.
- Is Part Of:
- Journal of Asian studies. Volume 80:Issue 1(2021)
- Journal:
- Journal of Asian studies
- Issue:
- Volume 80:Issue 1(2021)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 80, Issue 1 (2021)
- Year:
- 2021
- Volume:
- 80
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2021-0080-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 3
- Page End:
- 26
- Publication Date:
- 2021-02
- Subjects:
- caste, -- colonialism, -- endogamy, -- ethnology, -- gender, -- Indology, -- sexuality, -- social theory, -- South Asia, -- violence
East Asia -- Periodicals
950.05 - Journal URLs:
- http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=JAS&bVolume=y ↗
http://journals.cambridge.org/jid_JAS ↗
http://www.jstor.org/journals/00219118.html ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1017/S0021911820003666 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0021-9118
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store
- Ingest File:
- 15859.xml