NORTH EAST INDIA STUDIES PROGRAMME
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES-I
‘Gender Strategies’: Marriage Within and Across Borders
Lovitoli Jimo
School of Human Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi
Gender ideology is still deeply entrenched among the Nagas. In marriage alliances and the politics associated to it, it is interesting to see the intersections of different categories of gender, age, class, education, location, tribe, state and race. They make the positionality of women crucial. Though not very common, inter-tribal marriage alliances were practiced among the Nagas earlier. In the contemporary times, the changing socio-economic and political context has tremendously impacted the patterns of marriage alliances. Further, in this shift in marriage alliances and partner choice, globalisation and modern technologies have made the world more accessible to each other and play an important role in bridging the border and redefining it. The border of marriage is becoming wider and flexible and kinship itself is getting redefined, relocated/renegotiated/dislocated and broadened.
This paper will look at identity politics through marriage alliances and patterns across different generations and how the question of identity, kinship relations and networks change with time and space. It will also look at inter-marriage across tribes/regions/states/culture/religion/race and continent and see how deeply gendered marriage alliances are, and how questions of Naga or non-Naga identity are negotiated or played out through marriage alliances. The paper will further identify the transition and change in the definition and meanings of kinship and family placed within the local and global, and the implication it has on the larger Naga identity politics.
DATE: October 27, Friday, 2017
TIME: 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
VENUE: Room no.324, 3rd Floor, SSS-I, JNU
ALL ARE INVITED