Gender, Catholicism, and Morality in Brazil

Gender, Catholicism, and Morality in Brazil

Author: M. Mayblin

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2010-03-29

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 0230106234

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Through the ethnography of a Catholic community in Northeast Brazil, Maya Mayblin offers a vivid and provocative rethink of gendered portrayals of Catholic life. For the residents of Santa Lucia, life is conceptualized as a series of moral tradeoffs between the sinful and productive world against an idealized state of innocence, conceived with reference to local Catholic teachings. As marriage marks the beginning of a productive life in the world, it also marks a phase in which moral personhood comes most actively - and poignantly - to the fore. This book offers lucid observations on how men and women as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, negotiate this challenge. As well as making an important contribution to the ethnographic literature on morality, Christianity, and Latin America, the book offers a compelling alternative to received portrayals of gender polarity as symbolically all-encompassing, throughout the Catholic world.


Book Synopsis Gender, Catholicism, and Morality in Brazil by : M. Mayblin

Download or read book Gender, Catholicism, and Morality in Brazil written by M. Mayblin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-03-29 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the ethnography of a Catholic community in Northeast Brazil, Maya Mayblin offers a vivid and provocative rethink of gendered portrayals of Catholic life. For the residents of Santa Lucia, life is conceptualized as a series of moral tradeoffs between the sinful and productive world against an idealized state of innocence, conceived with reference to local Catholic teachings. As marriage marks the beginning of a productive life in the world, it also marks a phase in which moral personhood comes most actively - and poignantly - to the fore. This book offers lucid observations on how men and women as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, negotiate this challenge. As well as making an important contribution to the ethnographic literature on morality, Christianity, and Latin America, the book offers a compelling alternative to received portrayals of gender polarity as symbolically all-encompassing, throughout the Catholic world.


Lifeblood of the Parish

Lifeblood of the Parish

Author: Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2020-12-08

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1479830496

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A New York City ethnography that explores men's unique approaches to Catholic devotion Every Saturday, and sometimes on weekday evenings, a group of men in old clothes can be found in the basement of the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Each year the parish hosts the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and San Paolino di Nola. Its crowning event is the Dance of the Giglio, where the men lift a seventy-foot tall, four-ton tower through the streets, bearing its weight on their shoulders. Drawing on six years of research, Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada reveals the making of this Italian American tower, as the men work year-round to prepare for the Feast. She argues that by paying attention to this behind-the-scenes activity, largely overlooked devotional practices shed new light on how men embody and enact their religiosity in sometimes unexpected ways. Lifeblood of the Parish evocatively and accessibly presents the sensory and material world of Catholicism in Brooklyn, where religion is raucous and playful. Maldonado-Estrada here offers a new lens through which to understand men’s religious practice, showing how men and boys become socialized into their tradition and express devotion through unexpected acts like painting, woodworking, fundraising, and sporting tattoos. These practices, though not usually considered religious, are central to the ways the men she studied embodied their Catholic identity and formed bonds to the church.


Book Synopsis Lifeblood of the Parish by : Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada

Download or read book Lifeblood of the Parish written by Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2020-12-08 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York City ethnography that explores men's unique approaches to Catholic devotion Every Saturday, and sometimes on weekday evenings, a group of men in old clothes can be found in the basement of the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Each year the parish hosts the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and San Paolino di Nola. Its crowning event is the Dance of the Giglio, where the men lift a seventy-foot tall, four-ton tower through the streets, bearing its weight on their shoulders. Drawing on six years of research, Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada reveals the making of this Italian American tower, as the men work year-round to prepare for the Feast. She argues that by paying attention to this behind-the-scenes activity, largely overlooked devotional practices shed new light on how men embody and enact their religiosity in sometimes unexpected ways. Lifeblood of the Parish evocatively and accessibly presents the sensory and material world of Catholicism in Brooklyn, where religion is raucous and playful. Maldonado-Estrada here offers a new lens through which to understand men’s religious practice, showing how men and boys become socialized into their tradition and express devotion through unexpected acts like painting, woodworking, fundraising, and sporting tattoos. These practices, though not usually considered religious, are central to the ways the men she studied embodied their Catholic identity and formed bonds to the church.


Material Culture and Kinship in Poland

Material Culture and Kinship in Poland

Author: Siobhan Magee

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-05-27

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1000185478

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In this ethnography of Krakowian society, Siobhan Magee explores essential questions on the relationship between fur and culture in Poland. How can wearing a fur coat indicate someone's political views in Krakow, beyond their opinion on animal rights? What kinds of associations are given to someone wearing a fur coat in Poland? And what impact does generational difference have on the fur-wearing traditions of modern day Krakowians? Magee looks further into detailed analyses of conversations held relating to fur, including why fur is an apt inheritance for a grandmother to pass on to her granddaughter; what it was like trading fur on 'black markets' during socialism, and why some anti-fur activists link fur to patriarchal power and the Roman Catholic Church. In so doing, it becomes clear how fur is an evocative textile with an uncommonly rich symbolic and historical significance."Magee's research uncovers the symbolic and historic significance that fur evokes in relation to culture in Poland. In her investigations, her ethnography becomes a means for understanding generational difference in Poland. Written with reference to extensive fieldwork, Magee goes on to show how the classification of generation can be a much more accessible indicator and measure of difference than other categories, including sexuality, class and faith. Thus, 'generation' and 'inheritance' are shown to be uniquely powerful idioms with which to discuss power and social change in Poland. A new contribution to material culture and the sensory turn, this will be of interest to scholars of anthropology, ethnography, eastern Europe and material culture and textiles.


Book Synopsis Material Culture and Kinship in Poland by : Siobhan Magee

Download or read book Material Culture and Kinship in Poland written by Siobhan Magee and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-27 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this ethnography of Krakowian society, Siobhan Magee explores essential questions on the relationship between fur and culture in Poland. How can wearing a fur coat indicate someone's political views in Krakow, beyond their opinion on animal rights? What kinds of associations are given to someone wearing a fur coat in Poland? And what impact does generational difference have on the fur-wearing traditions of modern day Krakowians? Magee looks further into detailed analyses of conversations held relating to fur, including why fur is an apt inheritance for a grandmother to pass on to her granddaughter; what it was like trading fur on 'black markets' during socialism, and why some anti-fur activists link fur to patriarchal power and the Roman Catholic Church. In so doing, it becomes clear how fur is an evocative textile with an uncommonly rich symbolic and historical significance."Magee's research uncovers the symbolic and historic significance that fur evokes in relation to culture in Poland. In her investigations, her ethnography becomes a means for understanding generational difference in Poland. Written with reference to extensive fieldwork, Magee goes on to show how the classification of generation can be a much more accessible indicator and measure of difference than other categories, including sexuality, class and faith. Thus, 'generation' and 'inheritance' are shown to be uniquely powerful idioms with which to discuss power and social change in Poland. A new contribution to material culture and the sensory turn, this will be of interest to scholars of anthropology, ethnography, eastern Europe and material culture and textiles.


Vote of Faith

Vote of Faith

Author: Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology Maya Mayblin

Publisher:

Published: 2024-12-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781531509095

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A richly cinematic and compelling look at priest-politicians in Brazil and their religious and secular entanglements. What does desire have to reveal about the nature of power? Through a detailed focus on the lives and loves of Catholic priests as they enter the profane world of party politics, Maya Mayblin explores the complex intersection of democracy, patriarchy, and religiosity in Brazil. For over a hundred years, Catholic priests have been running for government office challenging Brazil's constitutional separation of church and state and its self-image as a modern, secular nation. Priests find themselves walking a tightrope between religious and secular demands in one of Brazil's poorest regions. Vote of Faith is a beautifully crafted ethnography based upon decades of fieldwork that tells the story of the ambiguous and frequently transgressive relationship between Catholicism and state governance, a relationship ultimately mediated by kinship, gender, and sexuality. For the protagonists of Vote of Faith, democracy becomes a sphere in which divine will and human ambition compete with one another, a tension embedded in the vernacular concept of 'faith.' In the Brazilian context, faith signifies a complex set of assumptions about the nature of the world; assumptions derived not just from Christianity, but also from Afro-Brazilian and secular ideas about power, causation, and human agency. In combining ethnographic, theological, and feminist perspectives, Vote of Faith places desiring bodies at the very heart of Catholicism's complex connection to multiple forms of power and offers provocative new angles on the question of the secular. The first work by an anthropologist to explore the unique phenomenon of the mayor-priest, this book offers an essential new angle on emerging debates about secularity as the condition of separation of the religious from the political. Brimming with originality, Vote of Faith is required reading for those interested in the gendered and sexual dimensions of the secular, the plasticity of religion, and the fundamental nature of the world's largest religious institution.


Book Synopsis Vote of Faith by : Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology Maya Mayblin

Download or read book Vote of Faith written by Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology Maya Mayblin and published by . This book was released on 2024-12-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A richly cinematic and compelling look at priest-politicians in Brazil and their religious and secular entanglements. What does desire have to reveal about the nature of power? Through a detailed focus on the lives and loves of Catholic priests as they enter the profane world of party politics, Maya Mayblin explores the complex intersection of democracy, patriarchy, and religiosity in Brazil. For over a hundred years, Catholic priests have been running for government office challenging Brazil's constitutional separation of church and state and its self-image as a modern, secular nation. Priests find themselves walking a tightrope between religious and secular demands in one of Brazil's poorest regions. Vote of Faith is a beautifully crafted ethnography based upon decades of fieldwork that tells the story of the ambiguous and frequently transgressive relationship between Catholicism and state governance, a relationship ultimately mediated by kinship, gender, and sexuality. For the protagonists of Vote of Faith, democracy becomes a sphere in which divine will and human ambition compete with one another, a tension embedded in the vernacular concept of 'faith.' In the Brazilian context, faith signifies a complex set of assumptions about the nature of the world; assumptions derived not just from Christianity, but also from Afro-Brazilian and secular ideas about power, causation, and human agency. In combining ethnographic, theological, and feminist perspectives, Vote of Faith places desiring bodies at the very heart of Catholicism's complex connection to multiple forms of power and offers provocative new angles on the question of the secular. The first work by an anthropologist to explore the unique phenomenon of the mayor-priest, this book offers an essential new angle on emerging debates about secularity as the condition of separation of the religious from the political. Brimming with originality, Vote of Faith is required reading for those interested in the gendered and sexual dimensions of the secular, the plasticity of religion, and the fundamental nature of the world's largest religious institution.


Blackness and Social Mobility in Brazil

Blackness and Social Mobility in Brazil

Author: Doreen Joy Gordon

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-03-07

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 3030907651

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This book examines the emergence of the black middle classes in urban Brazil, after 30 years of black mobilization and against the backdrop of deep economic, cultural, and political transformations taking place in recent decades within the country. One of the consequences of such transformations is said to be the restructuring of gender, race, and class relations. Utilizing qualitative research techniques such as ethnography, interviews, life histories, and focus groups among Afro-descendant families in the Northeast region of the country, the book explores contemporary race, class, and gender inequalities and their impact on daily lived experience. It reveals the dynamics underlying upward mobility, the diverse modes and experiences of social ascent into the middle classes, and the everyday negotiations involved in establishing one's status in the socio-racial hierarchy, which are not captured by other, more "macro" lenses. While some of these patterns are not peculiar to black people, this book argues that "race" shaped the contours and possibilities of social mobility in particular ways. This book is critical reading for specialists in the fields of inequality and race, class, and gender relations.


Book Synopsis Blackness and Social Mobility in Brazil by : Doreen Joy Gordon

Download or read book Blackness and Social Mobility in Brazil written by Doreen Joy Gordon and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-03-07 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the emergence of the black middle classes in urban Brazil, after 30 years of black mobilization and against the backdrop of deep economic, cultural, and political transformations taking place in recent decades within the country. One of the consequences of such transformations is said to be the restructuring of gender, race, and class relations. Utilizing qualitative research techniques such as ethnography, interviews, life histories, and focus groups among Afro-descendant families in the Northeast region of the country, the book explores contemporary race, class, and gender inequalities and their impact on daily lived experience. It reveals the dynamics underlying upward mobility, the diverse modes and experiences of social ascent into the middle classes, and the everyday negotiations involved in establishing one's status in the socio-racial hierarchy, which are not captured by other, more "macro" lenses. While some of these patterns are not peculiar to black people, this book argues that "race" shaped the contours and possibilities of social mobility in particular ways. This book is critical reading for specialists in the fields of inequality and race, class, and gender relations.


Handbook of Contemporary Religions in Brazil

Handbook of Contemporary Religions in Brazil

Author: Bettina Schmidt

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2016-09-19

Total Pages: 566

ISBN-13: 9004322132

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The Brill Handbook of Contemporary Religions in Brazil provides an unprecedented overview of Brazil’s religious landscape. It offers a full, balanced and contextualized portrait of contemporary religions in Brazil, bringing together leading scholars from both Brazil and abroad, drawing on both fieldwork and detailed reviews of the literatures. For the first time a single volume offers overviews by leading scholars of the full range of Brazilian religions, alongside more theoretically oriented discussions of relevant religious and culture themes. This Handbook’s three sections present specific religions and groups of traditions, Brazilian religions in the diaspora, and issues in Brazilian religions (e.g., women, possession, politics, race and material culture).


Book Synopsis Handbook of Contemporary Religions in Brazil by : Bettina Schmidt

Download or read book Handbook of Contemporary Religions in Brazil written by Bettina Schmidt and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-09-19 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Brill Handbook of Contemporary Religions in Brazil provides an unprecedented overview of Brazil’s religious landscape. It offers a full, balanced and contextualized portrait of contemporary religions in Brazil, bringing together leading scholars from both Brazil and abroad, drawing on both fieldwork and detailed reviews of the literatures. For the first time a single volume offers overviews by leading scholars of the full range of Brazilian religions, alongside more theoretically oriented discussions of relevant religious and culture themes. This Handbook’s three sections present specific religions and groups of traditions, Brazilian religions in the diaspora, and issues in Brazilian religions (e.g., women, possession, politics, race and material culture).


Brazil in Twenty-First Century Popular Media

Brazil in Twenty-First Century Popular Media

Author: Naomi Pueo Wood

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2014-02-21

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0739186922

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This volume examines some of the ways that Brazil has been represented and seeks to represent itself in popular media. It looks at social inequalities, racial divisions, and legacies of political restructuring as it illuminates the challenges and opportunities that the nation faces at present and going into preparations for and recovery from the upcoming mega events, both the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Drawing on the expertise of scholars in the fields of film and media studies, political science, social movement analysis, and cultural studies this volume features chapters examining the role of stereotyped Brazilian identity and myths of what it means to be Brazilian, the growing interest in favela—slum—culture, and sites of resistance in contemporary Brazilian society.


Book Synopsis Brazil in Twenty-First Century Popular Media by : Naomi Pueo Wood

Download or read book Brazil in Twenty-First Century Popular Media written by Naomi Pueo Wood and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2014-02-21 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines some of the ways that Brazil has been represented and seeks to represent itself in popular media. It looks at social inequalities, racial divisions, and legacies of political restructuring as it illuminates the challenges and opportunities that the nation faces at present and going into preparations for and recovery from the upcoming mega events, both the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Drawing on the expertise of scholars in the fields of film and media studies, political science, social movement analysis, and cultural studies this volume features chapters examining the role of stereotyped Brazilian identity and myths of what it means to be Brazilian, the growing interest in favela—slum—culture, and sites of resistance in contemporary Brazilian society.


Having People, Having Heart

Having People, Having Heart

Author: China Scherz

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2014-07-04

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 022611970X

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This study of charity in Uganda “challenges current international development norms and standards . . . as . . . refusals to redistribute wealth” (Washington Post). Believing that charity inadvertently legitimates social inequality and fosters dependence, many international development organizations have increasingly sought to replace material aid with efforts to build self-reliance and local institutions. But in some cultures—like those in rural Uganda, where Having People, Having Heart takes place—people see this shift not as an effort toward empowerment but as a suspect refusal to redistribute wealth. Exploring this conflict, China Scherz balances the negative assessments of charity that have led to this shift with the viewpoints of those who actually receive aid. Through detailed studies of two different orphan support organizations in Uganda, Scherz shows how many Ugandans view material forms of Catholic charity as deeply intertwined with their own ethics of care and exchange. With a detailed examination of this overlooked relationship in hand, she reassesses the generally assumed paradox of material aid as both promising independence and preventing it. The result is a sophisticated demonstration of the powerful role that anthropological concepts of exchange, value, personhood, and religion play in the politics of international aid and development. “At once ethnographically complex and exceptionally well argued . . . [Scherz] offers the kind of analysis of the politics and morality of aid in the contemporary world that reminds us why anthropology remains a crucial discipline going forward.” —Joel Robbins, University of Cambridge “A radical revaluation of the term ‘dependence.’” —Books & Culture


Book Synopsis Having People, Having Heart by : China Scherz

Download or read book Having People, Having Heart written by China Scherz and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-07-04 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of charity in Uganda “challenges current international development norms and standards . . . as . . . refusals to redistribute wealth” (Washington Post). Believing that charity inadvertently legitimates social inequality and fosters dependence, many international development organizations have increasingly sought to replace material aid with efforts to build self-reliance and local institutions. But in some cultures—like those in rural Uganda, where Having People, Having Heart takes place—people see this shift not as an effort toward empowerment but as a suspect refusal to redistribute wealth. Exploring this conflict, China Scherz balances the negative assessments of charity that have led to this shift with the viewpoints of those who actually receive aid. Through detailed studies of two different orphan support organizations in Uganda, Scherz shows how many Ugandans view material forms of Catholic charity as deeply intertwined with their own ethics of care and exchange. With a detailed examination of this overlooked relationship in hand, she reassesses the generally assumed paradox of material aid as both promising independence and preventing it. The result is a sophisticated demonstration of the powerful role that anthropological concepts of exchange, value, personhood, and religion play in the politics of international aid and development. “At once ethnographically complex and exceptionally well argued . . . [Scherz] offers the kind of analysis of the politics and morality of aid in the contemporary world that reminds us why anthropology remains a crucial discipline going forward.” —Joel Robbins, University of Cambridge “A radical revaluation of the term ‘dependence.’” —Books & Culture


Gendered Lives

Gendered Lives

Author: Nadine T. Fernandez

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2022-01-01

Total Pages: 470

ISBN-13: 1438486960

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Gendered Lives takes a regional approach to examine gender issues from an anthropological perspective with a focus on globalization and intersectionality. Chapters present contributors' ethnographic research, contextualizing their findings within four geographic regions: Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, and the Global North. Each regional section begins with an overview of the broader historical, social, and gendered contexts, which situate the regions within larger global linkages. These introductions also feature short project/people profiles that highlight the work of community leaders or non-governmental organizations active in gender-related issues. Each research-based chapter begins with a chapter overview and learning objectives and closes with discussion questions and resources for further exploration. This modular, regional approach allows instructors to select the regions and cases they want to use in their courses. While they can be used separately, the chapters are connected through the book's central themes of globalization and intersectionality. An OER version of this course is freely available thanks to the generous support of SUNY OER Services. Access the book online at https://milneopentextbooks.org/gendered-lives-global-issues/.


Book Synopsis Gendered Lives by : Nadine T. Fernandez

Download or read book Gendered Lives written by Nadine T. Fernandez and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2022-01-01 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gendered Lives takes a regional approach to examine gender issues from an anthropological perspective with a focus on globalization and intersectionality. Chapters present contributors' ethnographic research, contextualizing their findings within four geographic regions: Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, and the Global North. Each regional section begins with an overview of the broader historical, social, and gendered contexts, which situate the regions within larger global linkages. These introductions also feature short project/people profiles that highlight the work of community leaders or non-governmental organizations active in gender-related issues. Each research-based chapter begins with a chapter overview and learning objectives and closes with discussion questions and resources for further exploration. This modular, regional approach allows instructors to select the regions and cases they want to use in their courses. While they can be used separately, the chapters are connected through the book's central themes of globalization and intersectionality. An OER version of this course is freely available thanks to the generous support of SUNY OER Services. Access the book online at https://milneopentextbooks.org/gendered-lives-global-issues/.


Dalit Women

Dalit Women

Author: Clarinda Still

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-06

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1351588184

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One of the only ethnographic studies of Dalit women, this book gives a rich account of individual Dalit women’s lives and documents a rise in patriarchy in the community. The author argues that as Dalits’ economic and political position improves, ‘honour’ becomes crucial to social status. One of the ways Dalits accrue honour is by altering patterns of women’s work, education and marriage, and by adopting dominant-caste gender practices. But Dalits are not simply becoming like upper castes; they are simultaneously asserting a distinct, politicised Dalit identity, formed in direct opposition to the dominant castes. They are developing their own ‘politics of culture’. Key to both, the author argues, is the ‘respectability’ of women. This has significant effects on gender equality in the Dalit community.


Book Synopsis Dalit Women by : Clarinda Still

Download or read book Dalit Women written by Clarinda Still and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-06 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the only ethnographic studies of Dalit women, this book gives a rich account of individual Dalit women’s lives and documents a rise in patriarchy in the community. The author argues that as Dalits’ economic and political position improves, ‘honour’ becomes crucial to social status. One of the ways Dalits accrue honour is by altering patterns of women’s work, education and marriage, and by adopting dominant-caste gender practices. But Dalits are not simply becoming like upper castes; they are simultaneously asserting a distinct, politicised Dalit identity, formed in direct opposition to the dominant castes. They are developing their own ‘politics of culture’. Key to both, the author argues, is the ‘respectability’ of women. This has significant effects on gender equality in the Dalit community.