Dowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime

Rating:
Summary: Praise for Dowry Murder
Review: "One of Dowry Murder's many original contributions is to link the discourses on female infanticide/dowry in the high colonial period with the current discourse on dowry. Oldenburg provides a complex picture of causality."--Barbara Metcalf, Professor of History, University of California, Davis

"A strong, contentious book on an intellectually and socially hot topic, Dowry Murder offers a rich and complex answer to the question: What are the causes of violence against women in India, of female infanticide, 'dowry' deaths, and battering?"
--Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, Proefssor of Political Science, University of Chicago

"With this study, Oldenburg has turned the standard interpretation of both sati and dowry death on its head. Her methodology combines the historian's careful combing of the archives with the anthropologist's use of life histories and interviews. This is a provocative and original work of scholarship. Many will disagree with it, but few will be able to ignore it."
--Gail Minault, Professor of History, University of Texas, Austin

"Oldenburg has a unique and compelling voice as a historian. She has left no stone, or document, unturned in her search for answers."
--Geraldine Forbes, Professor of History, SUNY Oswego