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- Title
Landlessness to Kinlessness: A Case Study of Peasant Joint Families under the Impact of Land Acquisition.
- Authors
Majumder, Arup
- Abstract
In this paper we have discussed a field based study on a group of peasant families among whom the kinship relations have been adversely affected by the fragmentation of joint families caused by the loss of land owing to governmental land acquisition for the establishment of heavy industries, in a rural area of Kharagpur subdivision in Paschim Medinipur district in West Bengal. The case studies revealed that the fragmentation of joint families was one of the most adverse social consequences of land acquisition which disjointed the consanguineal kinship ties among the brothers who were previously united under the joint family organization. The nuclear families formed out of the fragmentation suffered from food insecurity as well as lack of mutual help and co-operation among the members of the family. During this phase of crisis, the members of the nuclear families were found to fall back on their affines (who usually live at distant places under the system of patrilocal post-marital residence) for help and co-operation in the socio-economic sphere. In the second phase of the crisis, the affinal kins of the land losers gradually curtailed the frequency of contact and cooperation towards the latter. This two stage process caused social marginalization of the land loser families in our study area.
- Subjects
WEST Bengal (India); INDIA; PEASANTS; KINSHIP; GOVERNMENT purchasing of real property; RURAL geography; NUCLEAR families; CASE studies
- Publication
Journal of the Indian Anthropological Society, 2011, Vol 46, Issue 2/3, p239
- ISSN
0019-4387
- Publication type
Article