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
Performance simulation of a transform domain communication system for multiple access applications
A previously proposed interference-avoiding transform domain communication system (TDCS) is shown capable of operating successfully in a multiple access environment (MAE). The TDCS uses phase coding (mapping) generated from a linear feedback shift register (LFSR) configured to output a maximal-length binary pseudorandom sequence (m-sequence). Quasi-orthogonal basis functions (BFs) are used in a code division multiple access (CDMA) scheme to provide private communication channels to independent user pairs in the MAE. An existing single channel TDCS model is augmented to simulate MAE interference effects on bit error performance (P/sub B/) The proposed TDCS system is simulated using MATLAB for system capacities up to eight channels and E/sub b//N/sub 0/ values ranging from 0 to 9 dB. Simulated MAE TDCS bit error performance closely approximates estimated results; the error for eight channels has a mean value less than 1.7/spl times/10/sup -3/ and a standard deviation less than 1.3/spl times/10/sup -3/. The analysis of acquisition-related performance metrics and bit error performance through computer simulation provides a good measure of TDCS operational capabilities in a MAE.