Notes on Love in a Tamil Family

Notes on Love in a Tamil Family
by Margaret Trawick

Notes on Love in a Tamil Family
List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $18.00
You Save: $7.95 (31%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.44 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Margaret Trawick
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1992-03-06
ISBN: 0520078942
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: University of California Press

Book Reviews of Notes on Love in a Tamil Family

Book Review: Very interesting book
Summary: 4 Stars

This is a readable, interesting, thought-provoking and emotionally involving book with much valuable and accurate information about Tamil culture. I was particularly intrigued by the author's ideas about the emotional signicance of various family relationships. However, the members of the particular family that the author studied closely seemed very damaged psychologically. It was painful to read about the sadistic and masochistic games they played with each other, and especially with the children. Their life histories suggest that they were affected by poverty, parental loss and abuse, all of which may be common in Tamil Nadu but are not intrinsic to the culture. The author acknowledges the "eccentricity" of the family, but "pathology" might be a more accurate term. My own experience with a Tamil family has been very different.

Summary of Notes on Love in a Tamil Family

Love, as a force in human affairs, is still not given much attention or credency by social scientists. With Notes on Love in a Tamil Family, Margaret Trawick places the notion of love prominently in social scientific discourse. Her unforgettable and profusely illustrated study is a significant contribution to anthropology and to South Asian studies.
Trawick lived for a time in the midst of one large South Indian family and sought to understand the multiple and mutually shared expressions of anpu--what in English we call love. Often enveloping the author herself, changing her as she inevitably changed her hosts, this family performed before the young anthropologist's eyes the meaning of anpu: through poetry and conversation, through the not always gentle raising of children, through the weaving of kinship tapestries, through erotic exchanges among women, among men, and across the great sexual boundary. She communicates with grace and insight what she learned from this Tamil family, and we discover that love is no less universal than selfishness and individualism.

General Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in South Indian & Tamil Titles--No Order to List
Caste in Tamil Culture: The Religious Foundations of Sudra Domination in Tamil Sri Lanka (Foreign and comparative studies) ImageCaste in Tamil Culture: The Religious Foundations of Sudra Domination in Tamil Sri Lanka (Foreign and comparative studies)
by Bryan Pfaffenberger
Syracuse Univ Facs Pubns; Published: 1982-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops: $12.00
The Break-up of Sri Lanka ImageThe Break-up of Sri Lanka
by A.Jeyaratnam Wilson
C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd; Published: 1988-12-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $215.36
Lonely Planet South India ImageLonely Planet South India
by Richard Plunkett, Teresa Cannon, Peter Davis, Paul Greenway, Paul Harding
Lonely Planet Publications; Published: 2001-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.53
Religion Against the Self: An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals ImageReligion Against the Self: An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals
by Isabelle Nabokov
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2000-09-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.40
Price in other shops: $53.00
Tamil culture: Religion, culture, and literature ImageTamil culture: Religion, culture, and literature
by A Kiruttinan
Bharatiya Kala Prakashan; Published: 2000; Unknown Binding; Book
Best price: $56.94
Life of Pi ImageLife of Pi
by Yann Martel
Harvest Books; Published: 2003-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.54
Price in other shops: $15.00
Notes on Love in a Tamil Family ImageNotes on Love in a Tamil Family
by Margaret Trawick
University of California Press; Published: 1992-03-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.00
Price in other shops: $25.95
Caste Consciousness Among Indian Tamils in Malaysia ImageCaste Consciousness Among Indian Tamils in Malaysia
by Rajakrishnan Ramasamy
Pelanduk Publications; Published: 1984; Paperback; Book
The Camphor Flame ImageThe Camphor Flame
by C. J. Fuller
Princeton University Press; Published: 1992-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops: $24.95
Periya Puranam : A Tamil Classic on the Great Saiva Saints of South India ImagePeriya Puranam : A Tamil Classic on the Great Saiva Saints of South India
by Sekkizhaar, G. Vanmikanathan, N Mahalingam
Vedanta Press & Bookshop; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.93
Price in other shops: $13.95
Similar Books and other products
Shamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and its Healing Traditions ImageShamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and its Healing Traditions
by Sudhir Kakar
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 1991-04-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.02
Price in other shops: $26.00
Perfectly Japanese: Making Families in an Era of Upheaval ImagePerfectly Japanese: Making Families in an Era of Upheaval
by Merry Isaacs White
University of California Press; Published: 2002-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.97
Price in other shops: $22.95
Fluid Signs: Being a Person the Tamil Way ImageFluid Signs: Being a Person the Tamil Way
by E. Valentine Daniel
University of California Press; Published: 1987-09-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops: $26.95
Viramma: Life of an Untouchable ImageViramma: Life of an Untouchable
by Viramma
Verso; Published: 1997-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.61
Price in other shops: $26.95
The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative ImageThe Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative
by Robert B. Marks
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.; Published: 2002-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.50
Price in other shops: $21.95
Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage ImageMarriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage
by Stephanie Coontz
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-02-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.93
Price in other shops: $16.00
Daughters of Tunis: Women, Family, and Networks In A Muslim City ImageDaughters of Tunis: Women, Family, and Networks In A Muslim City
by Paula Holmes-Eber
Westview Press; Published: 2002-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $28.31
Price in other shops: $30.00
Life and Words: Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary (Philip E. Lilienthal Books) ImageLife and Words: Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary (Philip E. Lilienthal Books)
by Veena Das
University of California Press; Published: 2006-12-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.04
Price in other shops: $21.95
The Shadow Lines: A Novel ImageThe Shadow Lines: A Novel
by Amitav Ghosh
Mariner Books; Published: 2005-05-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.20
Price in other shops: $14.00
Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India ImageNeither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India
by Serena Nanda
Wadsworth Publishing; Published: 1998-11-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $28.95
Price in other shops: $41.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories