Description
Book SynopsisThe preference for male children transcends many societies and cultures, making it an issue of local and global dimensions. While son preference is not a new phenomenon and has existed historically in many parts of Asia, its contemporary expressions illustrate the gendered outcomes of social power relations as they interact and intersect with culture, economy and technologies. Son Preference brings together key debates on the subject of son preference by assessing existing work in the field and providing new insights through primary research. The book covers a broad range of social science discussions and draws upon textual and ethnographic material from India. Son Preference will be useful to students, scholars, activists and anyone interested in the issues surrounding gender inequity, sex selection and skewed sex ratios.
Trade ReviewAn accessible and stimulating book for students, academics, and anyone interested in this highly sensitive and contentious issue, Son Preference provides a valuable addition to anthropological and sociological analyses and proposes new directions for ethnographic research. Dr Sunil Khanna, Oregon State University
Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroductionMapping Knowledges of Son PreferenceSon Preference in the Colonial and Postcolonial'Figuring out' Son PreferenceAnti-Female Foeticide: Between Activism and OrthodoxyNarratives of Reproductive Choice and Culture in the DiasporaGirl Talk: Cultural Change and Challenge through the Eyes of Young Women in Contemporary PunjabConclusion by way of EpilogueBibliographyIndex
