Abstract
In this article I analyse the varied ways mobile phones are integrated into the daily lives of low-income people and the implications for courtship practices, marriage relations and kinship ties. Rather than offer a celebratory analysis of the mobile phone's empowering effects, my ethnographic research reveals a more complex story, one that shows how the presence of the mobile both reinforces and undermines gender roles and institutions of authority. Conceptually, I argue that mobile communication provides insights into north Indian personhood as 'nodal', while also stimulating new practices and ideologies that render this technology central to the struggle for (and over) power and domination.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 414-433 |
Journal | The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2012 |