Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines dominant discourses that have shaped popular debates and scholarship on widow inheritance. It describes the ways in which widow inheritance ritualises gendered politics and acts as an avenue to explain and ‘resolve’ emerging tensions in the political terrain. The book explains the themes of location and dislocation, citizenship and perceptions of fixed boundaries that accompany it as established through marital ties and male relatives. It focuses on the construction of visible and invisible boundaries as a route to defining ‘pure nations’. The book examines the organisation of linguistic practices through metaphors and other linguistic devices as a means of constructing and constraining the performances of gender and sexualities. It explores the notion of gendered citizenship, looking at how this is claimed and contested through widow inheritance.