Anindita Majumdar

Rituals and Kin in Bengal: Structure and Practice in Relationships Anindita Majumdar

How do rites of passage construct interpersonal kin relationships? Are they merely prescriptions and rules that social relations have to follow, or do they mask contradictions and conflicts within their practice? The book looks at the ways in which 'kin' and the 'non-kin' negotiate the idea of kinship through rituals of marriage, birth and death. In the process notions that come to be integral to the idea of kinship such a blood, marriage and distance in ties are examined.