{"product_id":"contradictory-lives","title":"Contradictory Lives","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn literature and popular imagination, the Bauls of India and Bangladesh are characterized as musical mystics: orange-clad nomads of both Hindu and Muslim backgrounds. They wander the countryside and entertain with their passionate singing and unusual behavior, and they are especially well-known for their evocative songs, which challenge the caste system and sectarianism prevalent in South Asia. Although Bauls claim to value women over men,\n\u003cbr\u003elittle is known about the individual views and experiences of Baul women. Based on ethnographic research in both the predominantly Hindu context of West Bengal (India) and the Muslim country of\n\u003cbr\u003eBangladesh, this book explores the everyday lives of Baul women. Lisa Knight examines the contradictory expectations regarding Baul women: on the one hand, the ideal of a group unencumbered by societal restraints and concerns and, on the other, the real constraints of feminine respectability that seemingly curtail women's mobility and public performances. Knight demonstrates that Baul women respond to these conflicting expectations in various ways, sometimes adopting and\n\u003cbr\u003eother times subverting local gendered norms to craft meaningful lives. More so than their male counterparts, Baul women feel encumbered by norms. But rather than seeing Baul women's normative behavior\n\u003cbr\u003eas indicative of their conformity to gendered roles (and, therefore, failures as Bauls), Knight argues that these women creatively draw on societal expectations to transcend their social limits and create new paths.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44156619325678,"sku":"9780199396849","price":92.5,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/9612\/7726\/files\/9780199396849.jpg?v=1706212856","url":"https:\/\/bookland.com.au\/products\/contradictory-lives","provider":"Book Land AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}