Nature and oral women in India: Reconstituting social knowledge
Titel:
Nature and oral women in India: Reconstituting social knowledge
Auteur:
Rao, Shakuntala
Verschenen in:
Howard journal of communications
Paginering:
Jaargang 4 (1993) nr. 4 pagina's 329-341
Jaar:
1993
Inhoud:
This ethnographic study investigates the relationship between oral women and nature in urban India. Forty-eight oral women from urban slums in Delhi, India, were interviewed during the summer of 1991. The primary question was how these women perceive the relationship between themselves and the natural environment, including trees, mountains, rivers, and forests. This group identified nature as coexisting with women, nature having an innate power of its own and women having a sacred and familial relationship to nature. The study also addresses the question of how this group's perception of nature is different from and in contradiction to literate conceptions of nature, thus creating subordination and exploitation for oral women, especially in the urban context.