Gender, Kinship and Property Rights: Nagarattar Womanhood in South India

Based on intensive fieldwork, this book is an ethnography of a prominent mercantile caste–the Nagarattar–in Tamil Nadu, South India. It provides a contemporary, gendered perspective to a subject of long-standing scrutiny. The Nagarattars are one of the most fascinating communities in India, notable for both their entrepreneurial success in the modern world and their adherence to traditional family and ritual values. Nishimura describes how the status of married women is protected by women's property rights and the kinship-oriented system based on cross-cousin marriage. An eminently readable book, Gender, Kinship and Property Rights serves as a good introduction to South Indian kinship in a contemporary context.