Food, Faith and Gender in South Asia: The Cultural Politics of Women's Food Practices

(Hardback)

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How do women express individual agency when engaging in seemingly prescribed or approved practices such as religious fasting How are sectarian identities played out in the performance of food piety What do food practices tell us about how women negotiate changes in family relationships This collection offers a variety of distinct perspectives on these questions. Organized thematically, areas explored include the subordination of women, the nature of resistance, boundary making and the construction of identity and community. Methodologically, the essays use imaginative reconstructions of womens experiences, particularly where the only accounts available are written by men. The essays focus on Hindus and Muslims in South Asia, Sri Lankan Buddhist women and South Asians in the diaspora in the US and UK. Pioneering new research into food and gender roles in South Asia, this will be of use to students of food studies, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies.

Reviews

The essays in this collection provide illuminating insights into issues of womens agency in the areas of the politics and culture of food. They represent a highly significant intervention in the field of South Asian food studies. * John Thieme, School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing University of East Anglia, UK *

Author Bio

Usha Sanyal is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Political Science at Wingate University, North Carolina, USA. Nita Kumar is Brown Family Professor of South Asian History at Claremont McKenna College in California, USA.