Review of The Gift of a Bride
Nanda, Serena & Joan Young Gregg
2009 The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony, and Murder. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press.Notes: 295 p. ; 23 cm. ISBN: 9780759111493
Reviewed 31 Jan 2013 by:
Sushumna Kannan <sushumnaa@gmail.com>
San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA
Medium:Written Literature
Subject Keywords:East Indians (New York, United States); Anthropology Fiction; Diaspora India; Arranged Marriage; Violence Against Women; Indian Family
ABSTRACT: Set in India and the United States, this provocative and substantive novel provides a serious look at the Indian diaspora and how women are mistreated sometimes violently within patriarchal societies.
This book is located at the cusp of anthropology and gender studies. More interestingly, it does a cross-over act between a textbook and a novel. It incorporates the character of an anthropology professor, Julie, in a fictional university to voice the gender-related concerns of the Indian diaspora in the USA. Through her and her interactions, a comparative view of both American and Indian cultures emerges in a variety of hues. The plot revolves around Anjali, a newly married Indian woman, her move to the U.S. along with her husband, and the challenges she faces as a young bride in a joint family and in a different culture. By the end of the novel, Anjali is murdered at the direction of her mother in-law and other crimes and criminals are revealed. While the experimental nature of this book is praiseworthy, two things need to be understood better—the theoretical beliefs of the authors and believability of the characters in it.Only towards the end of the book do the authors state some of their theoretical beliefs overtly: "We hope that our story will broaden the understanding of all our readers—students, social work and law enforcement personnel, and the professional and volunteer staffs of supportive agencies for women—about the issue of violence against women in all its forms and how it can more effectively be addressed" (p. 293), and we cannot miss their awareness-raising intention. And although the book does offer theories of patriarchy, power, and domestic violence, its consideration of social workers and supportive agencies brings it closer to a practical approach to the problem of violence against women. This approach is close to the spirit of feminists everywhere, including Indian feminists who are, both in their theorizing and ‘doing,’ practice-based.
The major setting of the book—the arranged marriage—is a very worthy subject for exploration since this persisting institution is often severely critiqued and dismissed by the west as embodying choicelessness. The arranged marriage is perhaps a contemporary substitute for a practice like sati and causes the kind of outrage that sati invoked. It is possibly a dominant and current, Orientalist image of cultures like the Indian. By choosing to depict a couple who married through the arranged route, and giving a voice to the bride about why she allowed it, The Gift of a Bride manages to break the hostile response this subject receives. The western reader is introduced to the amount of choice the groom (despite his mother’s reservations) and bride exercise quite realistically, and is shown that marriages are fixed through websites of late. We see the anthropologist, Julie, mulling over how her own views on arranged marriage had changed over the years. She rightly recognizes the huge risks a young couple would bear if they married for love. Such contextualizations provide the reader a checkered picture of life in India and its diaspora. The book rightly records how, in the case of the diaspora, marriages are often arranged with great speed, leading to particular kinds of complications and images in the minds of those involved.
However, the book fails to deconstruct 'choice' in all its complexity and as it would make sense within an Indian family. Choice, in this analysis, it seems, is outside the context itself. For instance, when Julie concludes thus, "Or perhaps marriage as an ideal forces an awful lot of big feet into glass slippers never meant for everyone" (p.67), she is not really attempting to further understand the usefulness of marriage as an institution or the values it represents in some cultures. Choice instead could also be seen as something one makes within the constraints of one’s circumstances and culture. This has been argued by feminists themselves in other discussions. But here, the lead character seems harassed from beginning to end in different sorts of ways and appears more victimized than a well-theorized understanding of choice would allow. Perhaps such a narrative is an extreme result of the changing times all tradition-bound societies are indeed going through.
The 'gift of a bride' (or kanyadaana) is both the title and an image in the book. It is taken to imply that daughters are seen as giftable and that this is unjust for women. However, this could only be a somewhat literal understanding. I say this because the larger context of the self-effacing nature of gift-giver and gift-receiver, and their respective duties in traditional Indian culture of which marriage rituals are a part, is entirely missed. The traditional contexts of self-effacement and gifting have given way to some modern beliefs that often only lead to great confusion. Violence against women, however, is a harsh reality, even if there are no traditionally sanctioned justifications for it. An understanding of violence does not require a source outside women at all. Violence can be identified merely by listening to women’s voices and valuing their experiences. And it is in this context that what the book finally achieves is of importance. It gives a voice to women, different women and invokes scenarios of tradition and modernity that play out in India and adds another dimension by relocating them in yet another culture. Thus, different timeframes and cultural practices meet and allow readers to question, ponder, and get creative.
A second theoretical belief in the book, and one that I find to be simplistic, relates to the clarification that Julie offers her class about the Indian goddess Kali. A student raises questions and a believable scenario is painted, in which Julie responds: "one of the important ways we learn about the gender ideology in any society is to look at how men and women are portrayed in mythology, religion, and folktales" (p. 18). This, although not entirely misplaced, is a somewhat problematic statement. It mixes non-historical texts with life in India in a direct way, overlooking the numerous layers of mediation that makes texts, especially those that are mythological and religious. Further, this approach even leads to textualization of cultures, something that also occurs in Orientalist readings. A theoretical belief different from the one in the quote would allow scholars to view texts as not mere witnesses to their cultures but as also embodying one way of thinking within it. In not doing this, the book I think, retains a touch of the old anthropological approach, with its given methods and set ways of reading. And although the authors in their note write that cultures are never static, this understanding it seems is not borne out here.
The book, nevertheless, captures many other aspects of India’s diaspora culture precisely; for instance, the relational nature of the self within India. The relevance of family connections in India is explained well: "without those a couple would be completely dependent on only one other person for personal happiness" (p. 67). Through accurate contextualization, it reveals the kind of power that is wielded by women in specific roles, ages and domains. The mother-in-law, for instance, does wield power because of her seniority. And some women are powerful in the private domain and never can be in the public domain. The multiple mediations of patriarchy are not missed by the book since it addresses the contradictions in Indian society, with female Prime Ministers and Goddess worship, yet relatively very low status for common women.
The book rightly recognizes the role of filial piety within the Indian family. The Indian family usually does put the daughter-in-law in awkward positions since she is always expected to make adjustments for the others in the family. Thus, a craving for the mother’s house where she was once free and relatively equal is a commonly found nostalgia in India. This nostalgia is complicated in Anjali’s case by her residence in the US; she misses her parents and the familiar culture. The book thus deconstructs the rosy picture that many young brides and brides-to-be have of a life in America. In contrast, the plot brings out how "The boys have it so much easier than the girls. That’s why so many boys agree to an arranged marriage, especially with a girl from India" (p. 139).
That Anjali’s parents-in-law hold custody of her jewelry and incessantly expect her loyalty and submission to her new family, amounts to an oppressive atmosphere at home, is subtly brought out. The book brings to light the fact that even when in the West, the Indian community displays conformity to gender roles wherein "men dominate both the household and the community, while women mostly play domestic roles and care for the children" and "Immigrant women, especially, also play a central role in maintaining and transmitting Indian culture to the next generation" (p.32). This arrangement leads to women’s inability to protest effectively against domestic violence. They also face severe criticism by the community if they attempt to leave the husband and are mostly rejected at their parental home. Through Ruma, the social worker, the book asks us to see that "domestic violence destroys not just families but whole communities" (p. 36).
In general, the book speaks to those cultural aspects mystified by the Western eye and offers clarifications. For instance, the difference in styles of dressing and outfits depicted through Anjali’s initial hesitation is remarkable (see p.151). A brief discussion of Hijab much earlier also discusses why women of a minority community tend to dress more traditionally when located in the West. The discussion of Anjali’s dressing in India is also very interesting, since it almost suggests that she had greater freedom with regard to that, in India than she does in the US. This is so, because she has to conform to the American way of dressing, while in India she could have dressed in jeans or churidars with equal comfort.
The book also presents multiples perspectives on each issue and verbalizes the internal logic of the characters from the perspective of that culture. Thus, the "host society’s cultural stereotypes and power structures that also bear on the subject of violence against women, both within and outside the family" (p. 293) are captured well. Equally importantly, the book is sensitive to the recent changes occurring within both Indian society and its diaspora community. It records that second marriages are more easily acceptable, men who earlier never set foot in the Kitchen do so now, and young brides yearn for the intimacy with their husbands that characterized marital affection in the West and so on.
"Although our novel is an informed fiction, it is fiction" (p. 293) write the authors. When assessed as such, The Gift of a Bride, can evoke different impressions in the minds of the readers. Indeed, the writing is sometimes very direct and more text-bookish than would suit such a work. There is not much scope for the imagination of the reader, although there are lengthy descriptive passages. The presence of an anthropologist who interviews people and a social worker made to speak quite literally could be seen as a strong point and a weakness. Seen in another way, academic work passing off as fiction is not unproblematic. It can invoke dangerous assumptions about its method and theory, while its narrative could appear merely politically correct. However, there are also times when the expectations and hopes of the characters are well-presented. But then, this book is designed for a classroom quite explicitly, so should we even apply the criteria for evaluating a good work of fiction here? This is a question that each reader must answer for herself. On a more serious note, we could look at the book as a depiction of theory influencing life, and vice versa, and the thin lines we tread when we speak of society, reality, truth and concepts, and their references.
The book’s experimental nature is also testimony to the changes anthropology as a discipline has seen; its methodological self-reflexivity and the way it has questioned itself with great vigor. The shift from informant to interlocutor is duly recorded. The book could also be seen as capturing the erosion of disciplinary boundaries that the more effective analysis of subject matter has prompted.
The murder mystery in the plot is maintained well towards the end, with subtle clues offered every now and then, keeping the reader hooked. It is this that gives life to the book as a work of fiction. Advantages include the careful and slow engagement with a culture, even as the reader finds herself right in the middle of the culture. The anthropologist is made to think aloud, voice her doubts, verify her facts, and even rework her assumptions. In other words, this book shows an anthropologist at work, and in this sense, this is a how-to book. It even takes learning about a culture through stories to a new level. Readers will find it enamoring to read a novel in order to learn about a culture.
Ethnography when presented in the form of fiction also allows for wider speculation by the reader which is the most useful result of the book. The purpose of the book, I think, is defeated if it is used as a textbook that only presents the 'reality' of another culture. It should instead be seen as an account of possible instances of how oppression could occur within a particular set of cultural beliefs. A useful list of sources and "points for discussion" at the end of the book will facilitate lay readers and students alike. This book explains Indians to Americans, by showing what comes to them as culture shocks when they migrate to the west (America’s individualism for one). The book is helpful to Indians as well because it speaks of what the West thinks of 'other' cultures. But with its Western setting, the book is best-suited for the American-student. The book provides a good pretext for an elaborate classroom discussion of a whole host of issues related to culture, gender, violence against women, marriage, and the comparative study of cultures.
To cite this review, the American Anthropological Association recommends the following style:
Kannan, Sushumna. 2013 Review of The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony, and Murder. Anthropology Review Database January 31, 2013. http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=3784, accessed January 31, 2013.
Published in Anthropology Review Database, 31.1.2013
2009 The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony, and Murder. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press.Notes: 295 p. ; 23 cm. ISBN: 9780759111493
Reviewed 31 Jan 2013 by:
Sushumna Kannan <sushumnaa@gmail.com>
San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA
Medium:Written Literature
Subject Keywords:East Indians (New York, United States); Anthropology Fiction; Diaspora India; Arranged Marriage; Violence Against Women; Indian Family
ABSTRACT: Set in India and the United States, this provocative and substantive novel provides a serious look at the Indian diaspora and how women are mistreated sometimes violently within patriarchal societies.
This book is located at the cusp of anthropology and gender studies. More interestingly, it does a cross-over act between a textbook and a novel. It incorporates the character of an anthropology professor, Julie, in a fictional university to voice the gender-related concerns of the Indian diaspora in the USA. Through her and her interactions, a comparative view of both American and Indian cultures emerges in a variety of hues. The plot revolves around Anjali, a newly married Indian woman, her move to the U.S. along with her husband, and the challenges she faces as a young bride in a joint family and in a different culture. By the end of the novel, Anjali is murdered at the direction of her mother in-law and other crimes and criminals are revealed. While the experimental nature of this book is praiseworthy, two things need to be understood better—the theoretical beliefs of the authors and believability of the characters in it.Only towards the end of the book do the authors state some of their theoretical beliefs overtly: "We hope that our story will broaden the understanding of all our readers—students, social work and law enforcement personnel, and the professional and volunteer staffs of supportive agencies for women—about the issue of violence against women in all its forms and how it can more effectively be addressed" (p. 293), and we cannot miss their awareness-raising intention. And although the book does offer theories of patriarchy, power, and domestic violence, its consideration of social workers and supportive agencies brings it closer to a practical approach to the problem of violence against women. This approach is close to the spirit of feminists everywhere, including Indian feminists who are, both in their theorizing and ‘doing,’ practice-based.
The major setting of the book—the arranged marriage—is a very worthy subject for exploration since this persisting institution is often severely critiqued and dismissed by the west as embodying choicelessness. The arranged marriage is perhaps a contemporary substitute for a practice like sati and causes the kind of outrage that sati invoked. It is possibly a dominant and current, Orientalist image of cultures like the Indian. By choosing to depict a couple who married through the arranged route, and giving a voice to the bride about why she allowed it, The Gift of a Bride manages to break the hostile response this subject receives. The western reader is introduced to the amount of choice the groom (despite his mother’s reservations) and bride exercise quite realistically, and is shown that marriages are fixed through websites of late. We see the anthropologist, Julie, mulling over how her own views on arranged marriage had changed over the years. She rightly recognizes the huge risks a young couple would bear if they married for love. Such contextualizations provide the reader a checkered picture of life in India and its diaspora. The book rightly records how, in the case of the diaspora, marriages are often arranged with great speed, leading to particular kinds of complications and images in the minds of those involved.
However, the book fails to deconstruct 'choice' in all its complexity and as it would make sense within an Indian family. Choice, in this analysis, it seems, is outside the context itself. For instance, when Julie concludes thus, "Or perhaps marriage as an ideal forces an awful lot of big feet into glass slippers never meant for everyone" (p.67), she is not really attempting to further understand the usefulness of marriage as an institution or the values it represents in some cultures. Choice instead could also be seen as something one makes within the constraints of one’s circumstances and culture. This has been argued by feminists themselves in other discussions. But here, the lead character seems harassed from beginning to end in different sorts of ways and appears more victimized than a well-theorized understanding of choice would allow. Perhaps such a narrative is an extreme result of the changing times all tradition-bound societies are indeed going through.
The 'gift of a bride' (or kanyadaana) is both the title and an image in the book. It is taken to imply that daughters are seen as giftable and that this is unjust for women. However, this could only be a somewhat literal understanding. I say this because the larger context of the self-effacing nature of gift-giver and gift-receiver, and their respective duties in traditional Indian culture of which marriage rituals are a part, is entirely missed. The traditional contexts of self-effacement and gifting have given way to some modern beliefs that often only lead to great confusion. Violence against women, however, is a harsh reality, even if there are no traditionally sanctioned justifications for it. An understanding of violence does not require a source outside women at all. Violence can be identified merely by listening to women’s voices and valuing their experiences. And it is in this context that what the book finally achieves is of importance. It gives a voice to women, different women and invokes scenarios of tradition and modernity that play out in India and adds another dimension by relocating them in yet another culture. Thus, different timeframes and cultural practices meet and allow readers to question, ponder, and get creative.
A second theoretical belief in the book, and one that I find to be simplistic, relates to the clarification that Julie offers her class about the Indian goddess Kali. A student raises questions and a believable scenario is painted, in which Julie responds: "one of the important ways we learn about the gender ideology in any society is to look at how men and women are portrayed in mythology, religion, and folktales" (p. 18). This, although not entirely misplaced, is a somewhat problematic statement. It mixes non-historical texts with life in India in a direct way, overlooking the numerous layers of mediation that makes texts, especially those that are mythological and religious. Further, this approach even leads to textualization of cultures, something that also occurs in Orientalist readings. A theoretical belief different from the one in the quote would allow scholars to view texts as not mere witnesses to their cultures but as also embodying one way of thinking within it. In not doing this, the book I think, retains a touch of the old anthropological approach, with its given methods and set ways of reading. And although the authors in their note write that cultures are never static, this understanding it seems is not borne out here.
The book, nevertheless, captures many other aspects of India’s diaspora culture precisely; for instance, the relational nature of the self within India. The relevance of family connections in India is explained well: "without those a couple would be completely dependent on only one other person for personal happiness" (p. 67). Through accurate contextualization, it reveals the kind of power that is wielded by women in specific roles, ages and domains. The mother-in-law, for instance, does wield power because of her seniority. And some women are powerful in the private domain and never can be in the public domain. The multiple mediations of patriarchy are not missed by the book since it addresses the contradictions in Indian society, with female Prime Ministers and Goddess worship, yet relatively very low status for common women.
The book rightly recognizes the role of filial piety within the Indian family. The Indian family usually does put the daughter-in-law in awkward positions since she is always expected to make adjustments for the others in the family. Thus, a craving for the mother’s house where she was once free and relatively equal is a commonly found nostalgia in India. This nostalgia is complicated in Anjali’s case by her residence in the US; she misses her parents and the familiar culture. The book thus deconstructs the rosy picture that many young brides and brides-to-be have of a life in America. In contrast, the plot brings out how "The boys have it so much easier than the girls. That’s why so many boys agree to an arranged marriage, especially with a girl from India" (p. 139).
That Anjali’s parents-in-law hold custody of her jewelry and incessantly expect her loyalty and submission to her new family, amounts to an oppressive atmosphere at home, is subtly brought out. The book brings to light the fact that even when in the West, the Indian community displays conformity to gender roles wherein "men dominate both the household and the community, while women mostly play domestic roles and care for the children" and "Immigrant women, especially, also play a central role in maintaining and transmitting Indian culture to the next generation" (p.32). This arrangement leads to women’s inability to protest effectively against domestic violence. They also face severe criticism by the community if they attempt to leave the husband and are mostly rejected at their parental home. Through Ruma, the social worker, the book asks us to see that "domestic violence destroys not just families but whole communities" (p. 36).
In general, the book speaks to those cultural aspects mystified by the Western eye and offers clarifications. For instance, the difference in styles of dressing and outfits depicted through Anjali’s initial hesitation is remarkable (see p.151). A brief discussion of Hijab much earlier also discusses why women of a minority community tend to dress more traditionally when located in the West. The discussion of Anjali’s dressing in India is also very interesting, since it almost suggests that she had greater freedom with regard to that, in India than she does in the US. This is so, because she has to conform to the American way of dressing, while in India she could have dressed in jeans or churidars with equal comfort.
The book also presents multiples perspectives on each issue and verbalizes the internal logic of the characters from the perspective of that culture. Thus, the "host society’s cultural stereotypes and power structures that also bear on the subject of violence against women, both within and outside the family" (p. 293) are captured well. Equally importantly, the book is sensitive to the recent changes occurring within both Indian society and its diaspora community. It records that second marriages are more easily acceptable, men who earlier never set foot in the Kitchen do so now, and young brides yearn for the intimacy with their husbands that characterized marital affection in the West and so on.
"Although our novel is an informed fiction, it is fiction" (p. 293) write the authors. When assessed as such, The Gift of a Bride, can evoke different impressions in the minds of the readers. Indeed, the writing is sometimes very direct and more text-bookish than would suit such a work. There is not much scope for the imagination of the reader, although there are lengthy descriptive passages. The presence of an anthropologist who interviews people and a social worker made to speak quite literally could be seen as a strong point and a weakness. Seen in another way, academic work passing off as fiction is not unproblematic. It can invoke dangerous assumptions about its method and theory, while its narrative could appear merely politically correct. However, there are also times when the expectations and hopes of the characters are well-presented. But then, this book is designed for a classroom quite explicitly, so should we even apply the criteria for evaluating a good work of fiction here? This is a question that each reader must answer for herself. On a more serious note, we could look at the book as a depiction of theory influencing life, and vice versa, and the thin lines we tread when we speak of society, reality, truth and concepts, and their references.
The book’s experimental nature is also testimony to the changes anthropology as a discipline has seen; its methodological self-reflexivity and the way it has questioned itself with great vigor. The shift from informant to interlocutor is duly recorded. The book could also be seen as capturing the erosion of disciplinary boundaries that the more effective analysis of subject matter has prompted.
The murder mystery in the plot is maintained well towards the end, with subtle clues offered every now and then, keeping the reader hooked. It is this that gives life to the book as a work of fiction. Advantages include the careful and slow engagement with a culture, even as the reader finds herself right in the middle of the culture. The anthropologist is made to think aloud, voice her doubts, verify her facts, and even rework her assumptions. In other words, this book shows an anthropologist at work, and in this sense, this is a how-to book. It even takes learning about a culture through stories to a new level. Readers will find it enamoring to read a novel in order to learn about a culture.
Ethnography when presented in the form of fiction also allows for wider speculation by the reader which is the most useful result of the book. The purpose of the book, I think, is defeated if it is used as a textbook that only presents the 'reality' of another culture. It should instead be seen as an account of possible instances of how oppression could occur within a particular set of cultural beliefs. A useful list of sources and "points for discussion" at the end of the book will facilitate lay readers and students alike. This book explains Indians to Americans, by showing what comes to them as culture shocks when they migrate to the west (America’s individualism for one). The book is helpful to Indians as well because it speaks of what the West thinks of 'other' cultures. But with its Western setting, the book is best-suited for the American-student. The book provides a good pretext for an elaborate classroom discussion of a whole host of issues related to culture, gender, violence against women, marriage, and the comparative study of cultures.
To cite this review, the American Anthropological Association recommends the following style:
Kannan, Sushumna. 2013 Review of The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony, and Murder. Anthropology Review Database January 31, 2013. http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=3784, accessed January 31, 2013.
Published in Anthropology Review Database, 31.1.2013
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