Poverty and Public Celebrations in Rural India
The author examines the paradox of very poor households, spending large sums on celebrations. Using qualitative, and quantitative data from South India, the author demonstrates that spending on weddings, and festivals can be explained by integratin...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/01/891709/poverty-public-celebrations-rural-india http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19724 |
| Summary: | The author examines the paradox of very
poor households, spending large sums on celebrations. Using
qualitative, and quantitative data from South India, the
author demonstrates that spending on weddings, and festivals
can be explained by integrating an anthropological
understanding of how identity is shaped in Indian society,
with an economic analysis of decision-making under
conditions of extreme poverty, and risk. The author argues
that publicly observable celebrations have two functions:
they provide a space for maintaining social reputations, and
webs of obligation, and, they serve as arenas for
status-making competitions. The first role is central to
maintaining the networks essential for social relationships,
and coping with poverty. The second is a correlate of
mobility that may become more prevalent as incomes rise.
Development policies that favor individual over collective
action, reduce the incentives for the networking function,
and increase the incentives for status-enhancing functions -
thus reducing social cohesion, and increasing conspicuous
consumption. Market-driven improvements in urban employment,
for example, could reduce a family's dependence on its
traditional networks, could reduce incentives to maintain
these networks, and could reduce social cohesion within a
village, and thus its capacity for collective action. In
contrast, micro-finance programs, and social funds try to
retain, and even build a community's capacity for
collective action. |
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