Changing Birth Practices and Rituals among the Bengali Women in Siliguri

Abstract

In this paper, I have attempted to make sense of the social ways in which Bengali women find themselves when they go through birth giving. Based on ethnographic study of Bengali women in Siliguri city, this work aims to understand the dynamics of cultural change and continuity vis-à-vis the practice of birth rituals in contemporary times. It examines the ways in which birth practices provide both the context and the medium for the social formation of gender, caste and community relations. The fieldwork insights demonstrate the decaying significance of traditional birth rituals and builds on women’s narratives about the birth as a social event in their personal and family lives. The work draws upon the conceptual and theoretical insights from the sociological literature on child birth and social and cultural experiences, social classification, identity and socialization.