Women's Lives after Marriage in Rural Sri Lanka: An Ethnographic Account of the ‘Beautiful Mistake'

Foreword
Translation and Transliteration
Sinhala Kin Terms
Acknowledgement
Cast of Characters
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction
	The Good Life of the Ideal Sinhala Buddhist Woman
	Love, Marriage, and Ruptures
	Relatedness in Everyday Life
	Becoming Kin-Like
	The Daughter of the Village
	A Series of Beautiful Mistakes
Chapter 2: Divulvæva: A Village in the Dry Zone
	Developing the North Central Province
	Divulvæva: A Village Portrait
	Socio-demographic Overview of Divulvæva
		Households and Homesteads
		Emerging Landlessness
		Livelihoods
	The Unseen Architects of Village Life
	Nurturing bæňdima in Village Life
Chapter 3: That’s Not Love but Greed!: Reflections on Love and Sex After Marriage
	Giving Meaning to Love and Sex
		Mega-Teledramas
		Sex and Married Life
		Finding a Balance Between Love and Sex in Marriage
		hora-gæni
	Joys of the Heart
		Mobile Lovers
		The būtayā
	Married Lives and Beautiful Mistakes
Chapter 4: Tying of Two and More: Love, Marriage, and Elopement in Divulvæva
	Being a Good Girl
	Love and Mobile Phones
	Marriage and Wedding Ceremonies in Sinhala Culture
	Eloping in the Moonlight
	Reclaiming Propriety
Chapter 5: More than Bricks and Cement: Building a House and a Good Family Life
	A gedara
		Houses in Divulvæva
	A Good Family Life
		The Right Spouse
		Building a House
		Household Economies
	A Problem House
	The Fault of the House
	Lata’s Tolerance
	Manjula: A Courageous Woman
Chapter 6: House Ablaze: Reshaping bæňdim in the House
	The Problems
		An Extramarital Affair
		A Mental Problem
		A Public Spectacle
		Food in Exchange of Sex
		Other Men
		House Ablaze
	The Fire Inside the House
		Children as Go-Betweens
		Rowdy Boy
		A Ripened Girl
	The Spread of Fire Outside the House
		The Affines Efforts to Remake bæňdima
		Blood Relatives’ Efforts to Undo the bæňdima
		Privileged Knowledge of the Kin-Like
	Involving the State
		Double Standards
		An Incident of Domestic Violence
		A Temporary Rupture
	Sociality of Anger in a Marital Dispute
Chapter 7: Cooling of the House: bæňdim with the Supernatural
	Solutions for Marital Problems
		Piyasiri’s Dilemma
		Nadee’s Treatment (sāttuva)
	Entrusting Kadavara ‘in Charge of’ Solving Marital Problems
		Kadavara deviyo
		Connecting with Kadavara
	Interacting with Kali
		Kali ammā
		Treatment at the Kali Shrine
	Restoring Self and Good Life
Chapter 8: Conclusion
	The Karma of Being a ‘Woman’
	The Capacity in Building Connections
	The Practice of Careful Resilience
	The Persistence of the Good Life
References
Index