The Rising Daughter Silent Mother Fading Grandmothers : A Study of Female Sexuality within a North Malabar Nair Family Structure

Rising Daughter Silent Mother and Fading Grandmothers narrates the organic research journey of Rekha Govindan Kurup (the author) as a modern-day city-bred daughter of Kerala India wanting to redefine reclaim and re-inform her relationship with body and sexuality through the discovery and investigation of Matrilineal Nayar practices. Rekha did not grow up in a traditional Nayar matrilocal joint family but instead she lived with her father mother and sibling in a nuclear home like many women of her generation. Her mother too did not grow up in a matrilineal family. However most of her grandmotherʼs generation was born in matrilineal Kerala and grew up in a matrilocal and matrifocal system. In conversation with her mother and grandmothers Rekha makes a sincere effort to reconnect with the matrilineal past of Kerala its history the lived experience of women within that system and most importantly the female-centered rituals practiced within the system that empowered the fruitful blossoming of a young girl into an adult woman.