Domestic Goddesses: Maternity, Globalization and Middle-class Identity in Contemporary India 1 Reviewhttp://books.google.com/books/about/Domestic_Goddesses.html?id=6wsVrYic9L8C "This book provides the first ethnography of how middle-class women in India understand and experience economic change through transformations of family life. Based on extensive fieldwork in Calcutta, it explores their ideas, practices and experiences of marriage, childbirth, reproductive change and their children's education, addressing the impact that globalization is having on the new middle classes in Asia more generally from a domestic perspective." "By focusing on maternity, the book explores subjective understandings of the way intimate relationships and the family are affected by India's policies of liberalization and the neoliberal ideologies that accompany these, through an analysis of often competing ideologies and multiple practices. The ethnography highlights how 'good mothering' is redefined in accordance with the demands of new job markets, global imagery and consumerist desire, and how middle-class domesticities are reformulated in the process." "Drawing attention to women's agency as wives, mothers and grandmothers within these new frameworks, Domestic Goddesses discusses the experiences of different age groups affected by these changes. Through a careful analysis of women's narratives the domestic sphere is shown to represent the key site for the remaking of Indian middle-class citizens in a global world, highlighting the transformation of mothers from guardians of traditional culture, to critical consumers and specialized workers in the global economy."--Jacket. |
