Men, Capital and Hegemony: Male-Male Axis of Mappila Muslim Masculinities

Abstract

This article explores how different forms of capital act in configuring power relations among differently positioned Mappila Muslim men. As such forms of capital as education and family status are influential in these relations, I consider ulama (religious scholars) and umara (community leaders) masculinities as analytical categories. While the former opens up access to non-hegemonic men to a rather hegemonic position upon accumulating religious knowledge, the latter restricts ascendancy to men from high-status families. Nevertheless, emergence of new elite men from non-hegemonic locations in the contemporary context of their upward social mobility challenges their hegemony, urging them to embody new forms of capital valued in the changing contexts.