Servitude and Sacrifice: Masculinity and domestic labour

摘要

What does it mean to be a male servant in modern India? The rich?anthropological literatures on ‘home', ‘sexuality' and ‘work' have been?oddly remiss in addressing the issue of masculinity and domestic work.?More often spoken for than speaking, the life of a servant has an?indistinct quality that begs attention. Using biography as a method to?frame life lived as a male servant I suggest that a ‘servant biography' iscompleted only in a subsequent life with which it is linked,imaginatively and substantively. Further, the historiography of servitude?positions the female worker as the principal actor, so that the template?upon which an understanding of domestic work is built is feminine.?Additionally drawing on the literature on veiling and gender, I set?myself the task of retrieving the male servant.