The kinship, marriage and gender experiences of Tamil women in Sri Lanka's tea plantations

Abstract

The organisation of labour on tea plantations in Sri Lanka is based on a spatial, functional and ideological integration of kinship, marriage and ritual practices within a capitalist system of plantation production. This article foregrounds the household, kinship, and work experiences of women who constitute one half of the community of plantation workers of south Indian origin, to provide a balanced perspective to the discourse on south Indian kinship systems and practices. Its focus is on the reinforcement of kinship and gender inequalities within households and within the plantation labour organisation. In privileging women's experiences of kinship and marriage, this article adds to recent studies on kinship and gender in India that challenge the more traditional accounts based on androcentric perspectives, geographical generalisations, and the essentialisation of women.