ABSTRACT

Womanhood in the Making is an ethnographic study of Brahman women's ritual practice that focuses on relations between religious practice, class and caste inequalities, and nationalist discourses. Using analyses of both domestic ritual and women's personal narratives, the author investigates the spaces of female agency that ritual practice affords,

part One|36 pages

Introduction

part Two|76 pages

Elite Cultures and Hybrid Modernities

chapter 2|34 pages

Brokering Culture for the Nation

chapter 3|40 pages

The Moral Etiquette of Everyday Hinduism

part Three|64 pages

The World in the Home

chapter 4|26 pages

The Ritualization of Womanhood

chapter 5|34 pages

The Uncertain Subject(s) of Womanhood

part Four|86 pages

The Home in the World

chapter 6|20 pages

Hinduism and the Spaces of Modernity

chapter 7|24 pages

Urban Places and Female Spaces

chapter 8|22 pages

Hindu Culture for an Indian Nation

chapter 9|18 pages

Tradition Revisited