Arranged Marriage


The Politics of Tradition, Resistance, and Change


Edited by Péter Berta


Published by Rutgers University Press


Contributions by Asha L. AbeyasekeraMarian AguiarPéter BertaShalini GroverChristina JuliosSerena PetrellaNoorfarah MeraliRaksha PandeYafa ShanneikSchirin VahlePan WangSima Zalcberg BlockHelena Zeweri

About this volume: 

Arranged Marriage: The Politics of Tradition, Resistance, and Change shows how arranged marriage practices have been undergoing transformation as a result of global and other processes such as the revolution of digital technology, democratization of transnational mobility, or shifting significance of patriarchal power structures. The ethnographically informed chapters not only highlight how the gendered and intergenerational politics of agency, autonomy, choice, consent, and intimacy work in the contexts of partner choice and management of marriage, but also point out that arranged marriages are increasingly varied and they can be reshaped, reinvented, and reinterpreted flexibly in response to individual, family, religious, class, ethnic and other desires, needs, and constraints. The authors convincingly demonstrate that a nuanced investigation of the reasons, complex dynamics, and consequences of arranged marriages offers a refreshing analytical lens that can significantly contribute to a deeper understanding of other phenomena such as globalization, modernization, international migration as well as patriarchal value regimes, intergenerational power imbalances, and gendered subordination and vulnerability of women. 

254 pages, 3 color illustrations, 4 tables, 6.12 x 9.25

Paperback,March 17, 2023,$44.95 

https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/arranged-marriage/9781978822825

Disciplines: Asian StudiesWomen's StudiesGender StudiesSociologyAnthropology

Politics of Marriage and Gender: Global Issues in Local Contexts

TABLE OF CONTENTS


List of Illustrations and Tables
Acknowledgements
Series Foreword by Péter Berta
 
Introduction: Conceptualizing Arranged Marriage – From Binary Oppositions to Hybridity, Processuality, and Contextual Dependency
Péter Berta
 
Part I. Regulating Arranged Marriage
 
Chapter 1. Nothing “Celestial” About It: Trafficking Underage Brides between Canada and the US for the Purposes of Arranged Marriage
Serena Petrella

Chapter 2. From Family Safety Net to the Worldwide Web of Immigration Fraudsters: The Evolution of Arranged Marriages among South Asian Canadians
Noorfarah Merali
 
Part II. (Re)conceptualizing Arranged Marriage
 
Chapter 3. Arranged Marriage as a Process: From Premarital Normalization of Arranged Marriage to Arranged Divorce and Arranged Remarriage
Péter Berta

Chapter 4. Configuring Arranged Marriage as a Foil to Forced Marriage in Multicultural Australia
Helena Zeweri

Chapter 5. Forced Marriage and ‘Honour’-based Violence in Britain: Issues, Debates, and the Question of Consent
Christina Julios
 
Part III. Revitalizing and Reinventing Arranged Marriage
 
Chapter 6. Revisiting Transnational Arranged Marriages among Syrian Refugees in Germany: A Relational Approach
Yafa Shanneik and Schirin Vahle

Chapter 7. From Patriarchal Call to Digital Hunt: Transforming ‘Arranged Marriages’ in China
Pan Wang
 
Part IV. Modernizing Arranged Marriage
 
Chapter 8. Family-arranged Marriages in Globalizing India: Shifting Scripts of Desire, Infidelity, and Emotional Compatibility
Shalini Grover

Chapter 9. Progressive Traditions, Repressive Victorians, and the Modern Present: Arranged Marriage and Gender in Sri Lanka
Asha L. Abeyasekera

Chapter 10. “I Wanted to Choose for Myself.” Changing Marriage Patterns in the Ultra-Orthodox Society in Israel
Sima Zalcberg Block
 
Part V. Diasporizing Arranged Marriage
 
Chapter 11. Wedded to Tradition? Continuity and Change in Arranged Marriage Practices among British-Indians
Raksha Pande

Chapter 12. The Changing Face of Arranged Marriage in the South Asian Diaspora in Chicago
Farha Ternikar

Afterword  Marian Aguiar


Notes on Contributors
Index

Using Format