Gender, Exchange and Person in a Fishing Community in Kerala, South India Cecilia Jane Busby Thesis Submitted for the PhD in Social Anthropology London School of Economics and Political Science University of London 1995 1 UMI Number: U615400 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615400 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ( V r e % a s F 7222 , I IUt+2 Abstract This thesis sets out to explore the nature of gender relations in a fishing community in South India. Among the Mukkuvar of Kerala, sea fishing in small artisanal craft is carried out by men, while women take responsibility for selling fish in the markets, and control household finances. Women are particularly prominent in dealing with credit, essential to a fishing economy where incomes fluctuate daily, and are also involved in day to day exchanges of fish, money, childcare and small gifts which link households, especially those related through women, in a web of interdependency. The thesis looks at how transactions and exchange between people are understood in terms of gender. The strict sexual division of labour within this fishing economy leads to a series of gendered exchanges within the household between husband and wife, of fish, money, food, labour and sex. There is here an unusual emphasis on the husband wife relationship, which is an important site of demonstration and constitution of gender difference, but which is also the site of merging of the different potentialities represented by women and men into one productive and reproductive unit. Gendered opposition is seen as leading to interdependence and complementarity, an understanding vividly expressed in the idea that husband and wife are said to be two halves of the whole, and to become "one body". This idea of gender opposition and complementarity seen in exchange is found also in the understanding of relatedness which I argue underlies the kinship system. Here people are related through both women and men, but differently, so that the difference gender makes in tracing relatedness can be seen to give rise to the Dravidian kinship terminology and the associated practice of cross cousin marriage. At the heart of Mukkuvar ideas of both exchange and relatedness lies an understanding of gender difference which is categorical, and focused on ideas of substance and bodily difference, which in turn is seen to give rise to different potentials for transaction and performance. 2 Contents Page Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 9 The Sea Fishing Community in Kerala: Politics and Economics...................................................................................................... 9 An Introduction to Kerala's Politics................................................. 11 Political Mobilisation Among Kerala's Fishworkers............... 12 Map of Kerala State, Showing Trivandrum District.................. 15 Map of Trivandrum District, Showing Main Fishing Villages ................................................................................... 16 Marianad ........................................................................................................... 17 Fieldwork in Marianad ........................................................................... 18 Theoretical Background............................................................................. 23 Persons and Exchange in India ............................................................. 23 How Fluid is the Person Really?........................................................ 25 Are Some Persons More Fluid Than Others?............................... 28 Thesis Outline................................................................................................ 31 Chapter 1: Marriage, Men and Women 35 Residence and Household Structure in Marianad ........................ 37 Table I: Household Structures in Marianad................................... 37 Table II: Average Ages of the Primary Couple Within these Households...................................................................................... 38 Women and Men: Before and After Marriage................................ 42 Losing one Family, Gaining Another............................................. 42 From Daughter to Wife........................................................................... 45 Keeping Daughters, Losing Sons....................................................... 46 Marriage Negotiations and Strategies................................................. 48 A Good Family.......................................................................................... 48 The Price of a Groom............................................................................. 52 Marriage Payments ....................................................................................... 55 The North: The Gift Along With the Virgin................................ 56 The South: Closeness of Kin and Equality of Gifts.................... 57 Dowry in the Trivandrum Fishing Community.......................... 58 Dowry as Women's Inheritance.......................................................... 58 Dowry as Women's Wealth.................................................................... 60 Mulukudi Panam: The Groom Price................................................. 62 Conclusion........................................................................................................ 64 3 Contents Page Chapter 2: Gender, Kinship and the Tracing of Relatedness 6 6 Mukkuvar Kinship Terminology............................................................ 66 Figure 1: The Categories of Dravidian Kinship......................... 67 Figure 2: Mukkuvar Kinship Terminology................................... 68 Terminology and Relatedness ................................................................. 69 The Importance of Gender................................................................... 69 Relatedness: Metaphors And Metonyms ......................................... 70 Mothers and Daughters, Fathers and Sons.................................... 72 Modelling the System .............................................................................. 74 Figure 3: The Inheritance of Male and Female Links 74 Theories of Dravidian Kinship............................................................... 76 Affinity as a Value .................................................................................. 77 Classes and Kin ......................................................................................... 78 Affines and Kin, Gender and Crossness ......................................... 79 Love in a Tamil Family.......................................................................... 82 Ethnosociological Approaches............................................................. 84 Theoretical and Practical Knowledge.............................................. 87 Gender and the Dravidian System ....................................................... 89 Conclusion........................................................................................................ 91 Chapter 3: Men and Boys: the Lives of the Fishermen 9 2 Days and Nights, Fair Weather and Foul ....................................... 93 Fishermen's Natures.................................................................................... 96 Learning the Trade .................................................................................. 96 Crews: Mythology and Practice .......................................................... 98 All at Sea: Competition and Quarrels.............................................. 100 Knowledge and Skills .............................................................................. 103 Fishermen's Tales..................................................................................... 106 Themes.......................................................................................................... 109 Religion............................................................................................................ 110 Jesus Christ, the Fishermen's God, and Kadalamma, the Sea Mother.................................................................................................. 110 Black Magic ................................................................................................ I l l Fishermen's Identities ................................................................................. 112 Village Identity .......................................................................................... 112 Southerners and Northerners, Plywood and Kattumaram.. 114 When Men Were Men............................................................................. 115 Trawler Workers Can't Swim...................... 116 Conclusion....................................................................................................... 117 4 Contents Page Chapter 4: Women, Selling and Money 119 Fish Vending
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