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The Marriage Squeeze on High-Caste Rajasthani Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Michael S. Billig
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Rajasthan, a large, arid state in northwestern India, is widely known to have an excess of males over females. When we consider how such a high sex ratio usually affects the relative availability of potential spouses (i.e., the marriage market), it seems logical that the scarcity of females would generate a “marriage squeeze”— an asymmetry in the availability of potential spouses—against males and thereby give females an advantage in the marriage market. It would be ironic if the “culture against females” (Miller 1981:15) that characterizes Rajasthan had the unexpected side effect of granting females the competitive edge in choosing spouses and forcing males into marriages based on compromise.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 2: 50th Year of Publication 1941–1991 , May 1991 , pp. 341 - 360
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1991

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