Invisible Barriers: Gender, caste and kinship in a southern Indian village

In Kerala in Southern India the caste system has been legally abolished, but untouchability lives on. Campaigns fought in recent years for social equality resulted in land reforms and new labour laws. The relationships between castes, and between land owners and landless labourers changed - and so too did, unintentionally, the relations between men and women. As women lost many of their rights, their standing in society diminished considerably.

In this book, the stories told by outcaste-women in a village in southern Kerala describe the extent of these changes. Anthropologist Marion den Uyl was able to record these stories in the best tradition of oral anthropology. The women describe how they see their lives, their circumstances and their future. The research distinguishes itself from the viricentrist approach characterizing most anthropological research. Invisible Barriers is not about power and powerlessness, nor is it solely about the economic position of women - typically subjects of masculine research. Marion den Uyl has an eye for the softer powers shaping the lives of women: sexuality, motherhood and self-image.

For students and researchers of gender, poverty, women, cultural anthropology and Asian politics.