Rising Daugher, Silent Mother and Fading Grandmothers: A study of female sexuality within a North Malabar Nayar Family Structure

Rising Daughter, Silent Mother and Fading Grandmothers narrates the organic research journey of Rekha Govindan Kurup (the author) as a modern-day city-bred daughter of Kerala, India wanting to redefine, reclaim and re-inform her relationship with body and sexuality through the discovery and investigation of Matrilineal Nayar practices. Rekha did not grow up in a traditional Nayar matrilocal joint family, but instead she lived with her father, mother, and sibling in a nuclear home like many women of her generation. Her mother too, did not grow up in a matrilineal family. However, most of her grandmother’s generation was born in matrilineal Kerala and grew up in a matrilocal and matrifocal system. In conversation with her mother and grandmothers, Rekha makes a sincere effort to reconnect with the matrilineal past of Kerala, its history, the lived experience of women within that system, and most importantly, the female-centered rituals practiced within the system that empowered the fruitful blossoming of a young girl into an adult woman.