Menstrual kinship: Bonds of Intimacy and Care Work of Women in Central Kerala

ABSTRACT

This paper explores menstruation as a domain of kinship within and across three generations of women in central Kerala, India. Based on fieldwork, it shows that certain gendered practices of intimacy and care work in the context of menstruation produce kinship bonds among them, which the authors enunciate as ‘menstrual kinship.’ In the past, it was shared chiefly among consanguineal and affinal kinswomen and same-caste women, and became conspicuous only during public menarche rites and the separation of menstruating women. Presently, menstrual kinship extends to women outside the natal and marital family, often overturns the traditional perspectives of menstruation and actively contributes to maintaining the contemporary ‘invisibility’ of menstrual phenomena. The paper posits that regardless of its gendered nature and time-tethered transformations, ‘menstrual kinship’ has always existed as a realm that can release menstruation from conventional discourses of patriarchy and caste and aid in retrieving women’s phenomenological experiences and voices.

KEYWORDS:

• Women
• menstruation
• patriarchal power
• kinship
• care
• Kerala

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Informed Consent

The study protocol was approved by the thesis committee constituted by the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay. Prior approval was taken from all the participants before interviewing them. The first author detailed the purpose of the study to the participants and assured them that their names would be kept confidential. All individual participants provided their written informed consent to participate in the study.

Author Contributions

The paper is based on the first author’s fieldwork and data collection, the research plan for which was supervised and guided by the second author. Both authors contributed to the paper’s conceptualisation, design and data analysis, writing and revisions.

Notes

1 Several western feminist theorists have discussed the modern trend of depicting menstruation as an ailment or a ‘failed pregnancy’ (Martin 1997). Indian scholars have also construed menstruation as primarily constituting health problems such as irregular and excessive bleeding, PCOS, dysmenorrhoea (Agarwal and Agarwal 2010), and even psychological disturbances (Goel and Kundan 2011).

2 The phrase was coined by Joan Brumberg (1993).

3 Bobel et al (2020) has elaborate discussions on menstruation across India and the world.

4 For instance, see, Roseneil and Budgeon 2004; Adams and Allan 1998; Allen 1989; Simpson 2006; Roseneil 2000.

5 This is reminiscent of Greeff and Melherbe's (2001:250) formulation of social intimacy.

6 The fieldwork that forms the basis of this paper was conducted by the first author as part of her doctoral research.

7 The region comprising of the present-day Tamil Nadu, Kerala, parts of the other south Indian states, and Sri Lanka.

8 The Sangam age refers to a period in the history of ancient south India, spanning approximately from the third century B.C. to third century A.D. (See Soundaryarajan 2019:01) – known for an egalitarian society and an exuberant growth of classical poetry, literature, and epigraphy.

9 In the 19th century, Kerala consisted of the princely, Hindu states of Travancore and Kochi in the south, and the northern province was known by the name Malabar, which was under direct British rule.

10 A group of Hindu upper castes, who once followed a matrilineal descent system.

11 A caste classified as socially backward/disadvantaged by the Government of India.

12 Kerala Brahmins.

13 The caste of carpenters, included in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in Kerala.

14 A caste considered ‘untouchable’ in pre-modern Kerala; now a Scheduled Caste under India’s constitutional categories.

15 Though the regional caste hierarchies across the country and Kerala are complex, the Pan-Indian varna system divided them into four main categories: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra. These savarna groups were considered above the line of pollution, below which fell the avarna castes, considered polluting, even by touch (hence earlier called ‘untouchable’). These are today designated by the Indian state as Scheduled Castes and sometimes refer to themselves as Dalit-Bahujan.

16 The Roman Catholics of Kerala consist of Syrian Catholics and Latin Catholics, using different rites but governed by the papacy.

17 Free bleeding is when one doesn’t block or collect the period blood but let it flow freely.

18 A woman-oriented, community-based, poverty alleviation programme implemented in Kerala by the state with the aid of the central government and NABARD (National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development).

19 Among Muslims and Christians, menarche rites, unlike the grand celebrations of Hindus, were small private gatherings in the home, with immediate female relatives in attendance (Sabu 2021:43).

20 Aged between 60 and 84 years.

21 Mother, older sisters, grandmothers, paternal and maternal aunts, older paternal and maternal cousins – related to the menstruating girl by blood ties.

22 A temporary privy outside the house, usually near a stream.

23 The names of all the participants in this paper, if not mentioned otherwise, are changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

24 The Nayar community as of the 19th century was an amalgamation of a variety of sub-castes and occupied a social position just below the Nambootiri Brahmins.

25 The number of days would change for different sub-castes.

26 Translated from Malayalam by the first author.

27 A water offering with quicklime and turmeric. It is used to evoke the appearance and colour of blood and clearly represents menstruation (Caldwell 1996).

28 The Sabarimala temple in central Kerala is dedicated to Lord Ayyappan.

29 Translated from Malayalam by the researcher.

30 The detailed relationship between community reform movements and the steady diminution of menarche celebrations and menstrual seclusion of women in modern Kerala is brought out in Sabu (2021).

31 Kooiman (1989:62) illustrates how high-range plantations became a source of employment for the ex-slave communities, starting in the 1860s.

32 Translated from Malayalam by the first author.

33 For example, the ‘She Pad’ project was launched by the Kerala government in November 2017 to provide sanitary napkins, almirahs and incinerators in schools and the Kerala State Women Development Corporation (KSWDC) has implemented the scheme in more than 400 schools by now. Kuruvila, A. (2019 January 09). ‘She Pad’ Project in Kerala Schools Going Strong. New Indian Express.

34 This seems to be a global trend since the 1990s. For instance, see, Brumberg (1993:105).

35 Simpson (2006) also observes the flexible use of familial and friendship terminology.

36 Van Hooff (2011) observes that food preparation in co-living couples is usually the responsibility of women; see also Cronin 2015:671.

37 Contemporary metaphors of menstruation denoting physical or mental illness, as described in the field, are vayaruvedana (stomach ache), thalavedana (headache), vayyathirikkuva (ill), sukhamillathirikkuva (not keeping well), and vattilakunna samayam (the time of madness/ mental illness).

38 While an elaborate examination of the gustatory, tactile, auditory, olfactory and related practices of or imposed on women while menstruating enriches the field of sensory anthropology, such an exploration is beyond the scope of this paper. Here, menstruation as a sensory experience is limited to aspects relating to menstrual kinship. However, see The changing sensory experience of menstruation in central Kerala, India (Sabu 2021), where menstruation is examined as a sensory experience among three generations of women in central Kerala.

39 A socially superior Nayar sub-caste

40 A Malayalam term, often used to address an older woman.