This post reminds me of the Kathleen Turner's line in Prizzi's Honor. Jack Nicholson learns with shock that his girlfriend is a hit-person with many jobs under her belt. Expressing his amazement to her, she replies, "Well, it's not that many if you take it as a proportion of the population." > Now Doug, I thought you liked numbers, especially as they pertain to > ratios (%):). How about getting the stats on widow burning? This is an > old "internal" versus "external" debate. An understanding of social > change in India informs us that local institutions have interacted with > those introduced from the outside. There is a significant variation > across regions: dowry deaths seem to be taking place in northern Hindi > speaking belt (centered around Delhi and other urban centers). > Paradoxically it is associated with the middle classes. As for widow > burning you need to update your information. The last case I > heard was in the 1980s, in a village in rajasthan, perhaps > one of the most economically underdeveloped state. > > As for restrictions on property ownership it is still a > problem. The institution of patriarchy will not be easy to > eliminate. =================================================== Max B. Sawicky Economic Policy Institute [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1660 L Street, NW 202-775-8810 (voice) Ste. 1200 202-775-0819 (fax) Washington, DC 20036 http://tap.epn.org/sawicky Opinions above do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone associated with the Economic Policy Institute other than this writer. ===================================================
