000			01230nam a2200217Ia 4500
999			_c172820 _d172820
005			20220219015937.0
008			200208s9999 xx 000 0 und d
020			_a9788178243542
082			_a306.694538082 SON
100			_aSoneji, Davesh
245		0	_aUnfinished gestures
260			_aRanikhet
260			_bPermanent Black
260			_c2012
300			_a313p.
365			_b750
365			_dRS
520			_apresents the social and cultural history of courtesans in South India who are generally called devadasis, focusing on their encounters with colonial modernity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Following a hundred years of vociferous social reform, including a 1947 law that criminalized their lifestyles, the women in devadasi communities contend with severe social stigma and economic and cultural disenfranchisement. Adroitly combining ethnographic fieldwork with historical research, davesh Soneji provides a comprehensive portrait of these marginalized women and unsettles received ideas about relations among them, the aesthetic roots of their performances, and the political efficacy of social reform in their communities.
650			_aDance-Social aspects
942			_cB _2ddc