Gender and nature in the matrilineal society of Meghalaya, India: Searching for ecofeminist perspectives

ABSTRACT

The ecofeminist perspective of the matrilineal society of Meghalaya, India, is intriguing in that it has descent through mother, is matrilocal and daughters inherit parental property, but the different genders possibly do not agree about the relationship between women and nature. Ecofeminism has not yet been studied in a matrilineal society. The purpose of the study was to investigate qualitatively the students' ecofeminist perspectives among the Khasi, Jaintia, and Garo tribes of Meghalaya, through students who were studying in North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India. The sample consisted of 33 students purposefully selected to complete an open questionnaire and unstructured interviews. The responses showed that the women of this matrilineal society seem to be more ecofeminist compared with the men. However only a minority of both male and female expressed an ecofeminist worldview with respect to nature and development indicating that this concept is at early stage of development.

KEYWORDS:

• ecofeminism
• gender
• matrilineal society
• Meghalaya
• nature
• worldviews

Funding

This study received support from the State Scholarship Foundation (IKY) in Greece, Post Doctoral Scholarships No. 12290.