Mark Liechty's article The Carnal Economies: The Commodification of Food and Sex in Katmandu, focuses on the commercialization of the contemporary evolution in public eating and prostitution. Lietchty argues that over the past few decades, class has come to dominate the new sociocultural patterns in one of the world’s least developed countries, Nepal. On the contrary, caste remains a strong determining and self-orienting culture force in the society of Kathmandu, but has increasingly circumscribed within particular social settings. Furthermore, Liechty’s field research reveals a rising new middle class in Kathmandu, as urban Nepali’s adopt the recent cultural resources of prostitution and consumer goods. These new commodification’s allow the middle class population to pioneer a social distinction between Kathmandu’s elder and privileged elites and its large and growing urban poor residents. Moreover, Liechty discloses that the current increase of public meat and alcohol consumption accompanied by sexual services has established male authority in the local consumer culture. Whereas, that very act “a generation ago might have resulted in outcasting (because of transgressing the boundaries of caste endogamy, commensality, and diet) now help to construct a new sociality of both gender and class relations.” (Liechty, 2005, p. 26) The objective of this response paper is to highlight Liechty evidence pertaining to food and sex and how these commodifications have impacted shifting caste to class relations, establishing a new middle class, increasing public eating and solidifying a gender division. The link between food and sex has not gone unnoticed by cultural anthropologist Mark Liechty. Lietchty has used an ethnographic approach to exa... ... middle of paper ... ...ication of food and sex in the article is convincingly supported by the evidence he has presented. It is surely more than coincidental that “the three perhaps most highly marked (dangerous) transactional acts or substances in a caste society (meat, alcohol, and coitus) are precisely those that have emerged as among the principal commodities of a new male class sociability.” (Lietchty, 2005, p. 26) It has become evident that commercial transactions in both food and sex in Kathmandu are creating changes in the cultural paradigms of the traditional caste. To sum up, “food and sex, when united in the commodity form, seem to harness the dangers of a caste-informed social logic, transforming them into the very stuff of market-based social relations.” (Lietchty, 2005, p. 26) Overall, this change in daring cultural practices tends to influence a shift in cultural power.
...onstrate the nature of the Kathmandu people to always want to remain “in”. Each section has an underlying theme of globalization and the aspiration for connectivity to western ideologies. The most significant and interesting aspects of these readings was the importance consumption has on the well-being of the citizens of Kathmandu. Consumption has to help the economy, but I found it very interesting that Mark Liechty only chose to focus on the deep rooted necessity to stand out but also belong. These readings fail to address in detail how the consumption of the middle class affects the lower and higher groups. I found myself asking; what about the lower and higher classes? The overarching theme threaded together by these chapters is displaying the important role consumption, in relation to social and economic standing, means to the middle-class people of Kathmandu.
Social reproduction is the reproduction of cultural, human, and social capital in society. Therefore languages, traditions, cultural values, education, food security, and social circles are passed down from one generation to the next through Karl Mannheim’s concept of “fresh contact” and through society as a whole. Social reproduction is effective when social structures and equality within society are maintained. Inequality, poverty, and social changes that force society to adapt can impede the process of social reproduction causing what is known as a “crisis in social reproduction” (Wells, 2009). Born into Brothels demonstrates a crisis of social reproduction that negatively impacts the lives of children living in Sonagachi as a result of globalization, neoliberal policies, poverty, lack of adequate education and social structures to pass down capital, and the stigma of prostitution. Additionally, it shows the need for children to make economic contributions to their families that prevent them from leaving the brothel.
Indian society was patriarchal, centered on villages and extended families dominated by males (Connections, Pg. 4). The villages, in which most people lived, were admini...
[Sati] did not occur in England, but many manifestations of the attitudes and anxieties underlying the practice did. Nineteenth-century respectability in both England and India divided women into exalted and degraded classes, not only on basis of actual or imputed sexual behavior, but also on the basis of whether that behavior was at all times controlled and supervised, pref...
Keyes, Charles F. Karma, An Anthropological Inquiry. Los Angeles, CA, USA: University of California Press, 1983
Food Taboos: It's All a Matter Of Taste. (2004, April 19). Daily Nature and Science News and Headlines | National Geographic News. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from http://news.nationalgeographic.com
Owing to India’s diversity, these identities are determined by caste, ancestry, socioeconomic class, religion, sexual orientation and geographic location, and play an important role in determining the social position of an individual (Anne, Callahan & Kang, 2011). Within this diversity, certain identities are privileged over others, due to social hierarchies and inequalities, whose roots are more than a thousand years old. These inequalities have marginalized groups and communities which is evident from their meagre participation in politics, access to health and education services and
Pandey, T.N., 2014. Lecture 1/14/14: Cultures of India: Hierarchy Structure in India. Cultures of India. U.C. Santa Cruz.
Eating behaviour is a complex behaviour that involves a vast array of factors which has a great impact on the way we choose our meals. Food choice, like an other behaviour, is influenced by several interrelated factors. While hunger seems to drive our ways of food consumption, there are things outside of our own bodies that influence our food choices and the way in which we eat. The way we eat is controlled by and is a reflection of our society and cultures. I explore this idea through a food diary I created over a few weeks and the observations made by several anthropologists that I have studied.
In the western world, it is common for a little girl to imagine herself walking down the aisle in a beautiful white gown and her father at her side ready to hand her over into the hands of the man of her dreams. However, in Sub-Saharan African societies like Ghana and Uganda, girls dream of the day when a man, along with his family, will come to her father’s house and propose a bride price to perform the traditional marriage rights. Bride price according to Gita Sen is problematic in that it is defined as a payment made by a prospective husband to the family of a woman he wishes to marry (Sen). From Sen’s definition, it is evident that bride price not only highlights the dominance of patriarchy in African societies but emphasizes the objectification of women as payments are made in exchange of a bride/woman.
India can be considered a masculine society. This is evident visually in the display of success and power, which is best observed in the flaunting of wealth. It is common for one to advertise their success. However as previously mentioned Indian culture is heavily influe...
Siva, Manu. Difference in Cultural Values. India Today (20) 3. 45-48 Retrieved April 03, 2006
For instance, bride service is a type of marriage found in foraging societies. The husband is forced to work for his wife’s family for an expected amount of time in exchange for his right to marry (Nanda, Warms, 2017, p. 228). Another type of marriage is known as bridewealth, where goods are passed back and forth between the groom’s kin and the bride’s kin to solidify the marriage (Nanda, Warms, 2017, p. 228). Although, Dowry is not as popular as bridewealth, there is still an exchange of goods between families (Nanda, Warms, 2017, p.228). Dowry is widely practiced in India and represents a kind of compensation to the groom’s family for the “economic burden” of taking care of his wife (Nanda, Warms, 2017, p. 228). These three examples of marriage correlate with how the economy and financial security play major roles behind the customs that surround the
An important area for the development of a country is definitely the health sector, but in countries like Nepal where the Human Development Index(WHO, 2012) is only 0.463, a lot of people do not even receive any health provisions. The ethnic groups such as Dalit and Janajati in Nepal, are much affected by the unequal access and use of state- provided public health resources, facilities and services. In many cases, even among all these, it is the women and children (especially girls) who suffer the most as they are discriminated based on gender, caste and ethnicity. That being said, through this research I will be focusing on the health issues among the women in Nepal and how various factors such as the gender inequality, caste system, and traditional beliefs contribute to affect their health.
Amanda Hitchcock. 2001. “Rising Number of Dowry Deaths in India.” Annual Editions: Anthropology 11/12, 34th Edition. Elvio Angeloni. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.