Situating marriage payments
There are very few contextual accounts of bride-price payments among north Indian communities. Despite the paucity of ethnographic data, assumptions regarding transitions in the practice are commonplace. This article discusses marriage payments among the Bedia community within the broader context of their survival upon familial prostitution and focusses upon how they construe bride-price and dowry, both practiced under varied circumstances. I argue that Bedia marriage payments do not neatly fit into the prevailing assumptions regarding transitions from dowry to bride-price and are constructed differently under different conditions. The internal variations and contradictions in these constructions are interpreted in light of the social location and practices of Bedias.
Hindus of the Himalayas;: Ethnography and change,
Prologue: Behind Many Masks, Ethnography and Impression Management 1. The Setting 2. The Economic Context 3. The Religious Context: The Supernatural 4. The Religious Context: Calendrical and Life-Cycle Ceremonies 5. Kin Groups and Kinship 6. Caste 7. Intercaste Relations 8. The Village Community 9. The Outside World: Urban Contacts and Government Programs 10. Conclusion - 1958 Epilogue: Sirkanda ten years later Bibliography Chapter Bibliographies - 1971 Notes, Index
Negotiating the cultural and economic outcomes of sport heritage attractions: the case of the National Baseball Hall of Fame
ABSTRACT Contemporary museums must balance their roles as commercial entities and repositories of various, and often dissonant, heritages and histories. Sports museums in particular often have clear commercial and nostalgic aims, particularly through tourist visitation, though the extent to which they represent more challenging narratives remains unclear. This paper examines how one of the most famous sports museums in the world, the National Baseball Hall of Fame (NBHF) in Cooperstown, New York, balances its dual role as tourist attraction and repository of baseball's sometimes checkered past. It was found that different sections of the museum provide greater or lesser degrees of engagement with more controversial issues, although the commercial outputs and appeal of the museum remains clear throughout. Utlimately, the NBHF demonstrates that balancing veneration and critique in collections can be commercially prosperous, and can provide a template for other sport and popular culture museums who may be wary of incorporating more challenging narratives in their exhibits. Furthermore, the symbiotic relationship between the Hall of Fame and the village of Cooperstown, particularly in creating and maintaining cultural and economic outputs, requires further exploration.