Gender Bargaining Within Matriliny in Kerala

This article presents ethnographic evidence to illustrate how Nayar women in Kerala from three different generations encounter the interplay of changed gender and property relations and seek to balance their relationships, expectations and entitlements within their natal and affinal families. Directly experiencing the dynamic intersection of property, gender and culture as well as legal and socio-cultural change, these women are seen to bargain, often quite consciously, over power and resources, including property, within patterns of matriliny that exist in a wider society influenced by dominant patriarchal norms. The article suggests that this is not as unique to Kerala as is often claimed. It makes a case, therefore, for further research on how South Asian women in the twenty-first century remain torn between matriliny and patriliny, the natal family and the husband’s family, and have to engage in multiple balancing acts to secure their rights.