1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996475754503316

Autore

Lamb Sarah

Titolo

Being Single in India : Stories of Gender, Exclusion, and Possibility / / Sarah Lamb

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, CA : , : University of California Press, , [2022]

©2022

ISBN

0-520-38943-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (236 p.)

Collana

Ethnographic Studies in Subjectivity ; ; 15

Disciplina

306.81/53095414

Soggetti

Gender identity - India - West Bengal

Kinship - India - West Bengal

Marriage - India - West Bengal

Single women - India - West Bengal - Social conditions

Single women - India - West Bengal

SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Note on Transliteration -- Introduction: Thinking Outside Marriage -- 1. On Being Single -- 2. Education and Work -- 2. Education and Work -- 4. Who Will Care for Me? -- 5. Sexuality and Love -- 6. Never-Married Single Moms -- 7. Pleasure, Friendships, and Fun -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Today, the majority of the world's population lives in a country with falling marriage rates, a phenomenon with profound impacts on women, gender, and sexuality. In this exceptionally crafted ethnography, Sarah Lamb probes the gendered trend of single women living in India, examining what makes living outside marriage for women increasingly possible and yet incredibly challenging. Featuring the stories of never-married women as young as 35 and as old as 92, the book offers a remarkable portrait of a way of life experienced by women across class and caste divides, from urban professionals and rural day laborers, to those who identify as heterosexual and lesbian, to



others who evaded marriage both by choice and by circumstance. For women in India, complex social-cultural and political-economic contexts are foundational to their lives and decisions, and evading marriage is often an unintended consequence of other pressing life priorities. Arguing that never-married women are able to illuminate their society's broader social-cultural values, Lamb offers a new and startling look at prevailing systems of gender, sexuality, kinship, freedom, and social belonging in India today.