Transformation of intimate spheres in India: Emotions and experiences of love, marriage and family

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K01238
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 04030:Cultural anthropology and folklore-related
• Research Institution: National Museum of Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Tokita-Tanabe Yumiko 国立民族学博物館, グローバル現象研究部, 外来研究員 (30452444)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: インド / 女性 / 親密圏 / 家族 / 親族 / 情動 / 経験

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this study was to identify the transformation of the intimate sphere in post-independence India over the past 70 years or so. Focusing on the chronological changes from the postcolonial period from 1947 to 1990 to the global period after economic liberalisation in 1991, I examined how intimate networks around women have adapted to socio-economic dynamics, and how emotions and experiences around love, marriage and family have changed in this context. By paying attention to women’s agency, this study has attempted to describe the process by which people in changing times have creatively restructured the intimate sphere in order to secure the necessary care and mutual support relationships while broadening the mobility of their lives, and to analyse the changes in emotions and experiences of intimacy.

Free Research Field

人類学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

１）社会経済的モビリティを支える親密圏。本研究は、現代インドの親密ネットワークが、村落、都市、海外という多様な場所をリンクし、社会経済的モビリティの基盤となっていることに着目。２）インドの親密圏が内包する柔軟さと異種混淆性への視点。家族・親族が、ダイナミズムを可能にする個人性・自律性と、ケアを可能にする共同性・相互扶助という双方の側面をもっていることに着目。３）恋愛・婚姻・家族をめぐる女性の行為主体性および情動、経験、価値の変遷への着目。現代インドの女性たちが、公共圏に参加しようとすると同時に、自己をめぐる親密圏の再編をつうじて自らの生の充実あるいは自己実現を図ろうとしてきたことに着目。