Sharika Thiranagama

With Sylvia Yanagisako.

Thiranagama will examine the structure of marriage, mobility, and social networks among Dalit females in agricultural households. She will examine marriage in the context of social capital, networks, aspiration, and mobility. Data on dowry and inheritance at marriage will inform her examination of caste and inherited inequality. Her ethnographic research will be placed in the context of the historical role the 1843 abolition of slavery under the British colonial regime played in relation to low caste communities. She will provide historical context through comparison of the concepts of various types of servitude in Indian and African settings.