1. What caste is Dadi's family, and what difference does it make to their daily lives? How does caste affect gender relations?
2. What are some of the ways that Dadi's family is typical of patrilineal, patrilocal, extended families?
- a. separation of women and men
- b. gender division of labor
- c. arranged marriages
- d. inheritance through men
- e. preference for sons
- f. tension between M-in-law and D-in-law.
- g. hierarchy by class, sex, and age
3. Do you think Dadi's family is patriarchal? Explain.
4. Why does Dadi want to hold the family together if it is so patriarchal?
5. What kind of family does Rajinder and Kantla represent? Why the changes in family system?
- a. nuclear family
- b. companionate marriages
- c. women and men socialize together
- d. women have more freedom to move into the public sphere
- e. pick your own spouse
5. What are some of the forms of conflict and tensions you observed in Dadi's family? What are the causes of these conflicts and tensions?
- a. extended family v nuclear family
- b. mother-in-law v daughter-in-law
- c. threat of the split of the family between the 3 brothers
- d. highly educated v less educated women
- e. personal shortcomings of one of the husbands
- f. older and newer forms of women's roles
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