Birth on the Threshold. Cecilia Van Hollen
greatest intellectual debt is to my mentor and friend Lawrence Cohen, who gave generously of his time, and who guided, challenged, and encouraged me at every stage of this project. Arjun Appadurai, Peter van der Veer, and David Ludden all helped with the initial formulation of this project. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Judith Justice, Eugene Irschick, Patricia Jeffery, Pauline Kolenda, Akhil Gupta, Barbara Ramusack, Susan Wadley, Kathleen Erwin, Sandra Cate, and the anonymous reviewers for the University of California Press have all provided invaluable comments at various stages throughout the process of writing the book. I am also extremely grateful to Kausalya Hart for her careful assistance with translating tape-recorded interviews, and to V. A. Vidya for her help with the use of diacritics in the book.
This book has benefited from the material support of many institutions. Grants from the University of Pennsylvania enabled me to carry out two preliminary fieldwork studies in 1991 and 1993 to set the groundwork for this project. The bulk of the research was carried out in 1995 with the generous support of a Fulbright-Hayes Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad grant. A Lowie grant from the University of California, Berkeley, allowed me to do a follow-up study in 1997. A Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Grant in Women’s Studies provided support while I was writing the manuscript for this book. Finally, the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts at the University of Notre Dame provided financial assistance with the final production of the manuscript. Thank you also to Naomi Schneider, Caralyn Bialo, and Dore Brown at the University of California Press for their enthusiasm and editorial insights.
Finally, my heartfelt thanks to Jeffrey Rodgers, who has provided every kind of support imaginable, not only during the processes of researching, writing, and editing this book, but throughout my long, itinerant, and sometimes arduous journey as an anthropologist. Our children, Lila and Jasper, have taught me that the fruit of birth is certainly worth the pain! I hope others will feel the same about this book.
Note on Transliteration
VOWELS
Tamil vowels can be either long or short; short vowels are unstressed and long vowels are stressed. Long vowels are indicated with a dash over the letter.
SHORT VOWELS
| a | as in cup |
| i | as in sit |
| e | as in net |
| u | as in put |
| o | as in old |
LONG VOWELS
| ā | as in father |
| ī | as in need |
| ē | as in lake |
| ū | as in mood |
| ō | as in rope |
There are also two diphthongs:
| ai | as in might |
| ow | as in cow |
CONSONANTS
Consonants are also short and long; short consonants are unstressed, long consonants are stressed. Long consonants are indicated by doubling the letter.
The sounds “b,” “j,” and “g” are represented by p, c, and k. Whether or not they are voiced depends on their position.
Consonants are also differentiated by stops, nasals, and medials. There are six different points of articulation of consonants (velar, palatal, retroflex, dental, labial, and alveolar).
STOPS
Single
| velar | k | as in get or hard |
| palatal | c | as in sing |
| retroflex |
|
similar to idle (but retroflexed) |
| dental | t | similar to the |
| labial | p | as in put or amber |
| alveolar | r | pronounced like a slightly trilled English r |
Double
| velar | kk | as in sticky |
| palatal | cc | as in chick |
| retroflex |
|
similar to ladder (but longer and retroflexed) |
| dental | tt | as in tape |
| labial | pp | as in staple |
| alveolar | rr | similar to train |
NASAL CONSONANTS
| velar |
|
as in ink |
| palatal | ñ | as in lounge |
| retroflex |
|
similar to under (but retroflexed) |
| dental | n | as in anthem |
| labial | m | as in my |
| alveolar | n | as in man |
MEDIAL CONSONANTS
| palatal | y | as in pay |
| flap | r | as in far |
| lateral | l | as in call |
| labial | v | as in van or wander |
| retroflex flap |
|