Die Haardebatte: Gender, Glatzen und Gewalt der Bondo
Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 122.1997:183-208
The discussion on hair: Gender, bald heads and violence of the Bondo
##Four behavioral aspects of the Bondo obviously deviate from the general tribal culture of middle India. The homicide-rate of males is amongst the highest in the world; Bondo boys marry women who are their seniors by five to six years. Furthermore, Bondo women of any age appear with clean shaven skulls, and wear a mini-skirt as their only dress. These aspects are discussed in the light of theories of symbolic classification dealing with hair-styles. Following Gananath Obeyesekere, the baldness of women is considered as a personal symbol in a marginalized category of people. The argument is based upon field excursions by the author, and ethnographic data from Elwin´s tribal monograph, as well as a structural analysis of Bondo myths.##
Keywords: hair and meaning, violence and marginality, Bondo violence, baldness and culture, women of Bondo, symbolic classification
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