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Rituals and Embodiment: Class Differences in Religious Fasting Practices of Bengali Hindu Women

Research unraveling the potential for women’s empowerment through participation in religious rituals is an important corrective to theorizing that suggests that liberation requires that women avoid rather than embrace the litany of cultural rituals that in the past have served to oppress them. The field, however, is premised on theoretical frameworks that are heavily focused in the pursuit of uncovering resistance against patriarchal orders in religious engagements of women, thereby failing to account for the dialectical nature of such engagements. Employing Bourdieu’s theory of habitus to investigate religious fasting practices of 41 Bengali Hindu women, I argue that the impetus for active negotiations, that entail a more dialectical engagement with meanings of cultural rituals, is located in a set of class-based predispositions that are fostered and reinforced in the experiences and opportunities that women encounter in their daily lives.