Abstract

'Men and Masculinities in South India' aims to increase understanding of gender within South Asia and especially South Asian masculinities, a topic whose analysis and ethnographising in the region has had a very sketchy beginning and is ripe for more thorough examination.

'Men and Masculinities in South India' aims to increase understanding of gender within South Asia and especially South Asian masculinities, a topic whose analysis and ethnographising in the region has had a very sketchy beginning and is ripe for more thorough examination. This is, in short, an almost empty field dominated so far by short articles and collections and the time is right for the first full-length ethnographic study of masculinities. This ground-breaking monograph covers a range of areas including work, cross-sex relationships, sexuality, men's friendships, religious practices and leisure. This book is especially concerned with issues arising from debates which broadly argue over the differences and merits of approaches to gender and identity - rooted in essentialism versus performativity. Questions about the tensions between essentialist and performative theories of self and gender are therefore highlighted throughout the book and explored in relation to various bodies of theory and to South Asian understandings of personhood.

'A terrific book which uses local ethnography by two consummate anthropologists... a splendid addition not only to South Asian Studies but to studies of gender issues everywhere.' —Maila Stivens, Director of Gender Studies, University of Melbourne

'This book forcefully and engagingly demonstrates why we should not take for granted how boys become men.' —Patricia Jeffery, Professor of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh

Caroline Osella lectures in Medical Anthropology at SOAS. Her research interests include Asian migrants in the Persian Gulf, sexuality, consumption and the fashion, clothing and food of South Asia.

Filippo Osella is a senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Sussex. His doctoral research was conducted in rural Kerala, South India, and examined issues of stratification, identity and social mobility among an ex-'untouchable' community.