Invitations To Love Part Iii

Front 1

What sorts of literary materials were circulated in Junigau, and what sorts of subjects did they address?

Back 1

-Text books: talked about how to be healthy, what to eat, what to drink, and to wash hands, they also taught
students about how much the village has changed in the past years
-Poetry
-Books: books that help people write love letters, books about good and bad habits
-Cautionary tales
-Magazines: film magazines, education magazines, entertainment magazines, and political movement magazines

Front 2

What is “consciousness raising”, and why did those literacy materials which aimed at “consciousness
raising” not get read/used in these ways?

Back 2

“Consciousness raising” is the act of presenting people (Ahearn’s focus is on women) with material that will
cause them to question the quality of their current position. The consciousness raising materials were pictures
of social ills in literacy textbooks. These tried to bring focus to social issues and start discussion about them.
Ahearn states that the New Path, the method used to teach women in Junigau, is not very effective. This is
because the women actively resisted the teachings. They wanted the same method of teaching as their brothers
received, instead of the ‘easier’ version that aims to include women in society. The women were impatient and
wanted to get a “real” education like their male family members. There was also family pressure to maintain
their traditional gender roles. As well, the literacy classes were held in the evening and women were often tired
after a long days work. Some women were not permitted to attend. The women in the class had different levels
of education, and low supplies of kerosene meant that the activities in the class were limited and only a few
students could practice their skills at a time.

Front 3

How are literacy practices extended beyond formal educational contexts, and connected to development?

Back 3

- Magazines – provide various ideas, encourage people to think independently, promote various ideas, and
introduce issues such as ones that are centered on the environment.
- Love letters – help to promote literacy; raise questions of modernity, success, gender relations, agency and
romantic love
- Love letter guidebooks – literate but do not necessarily know how to write love letters
- Political magazines – think beyond the beliefs of their own government, providing different viewpoints (some
are encouraging western views, some are discouraging these)
- Movies promoting western lifestyle, romantic love
- Film magazines – hung pictures of movies on their walls, contributes to literacy, helps to promote women’s
rights (men and women are interviewed), promotes romantic love

Front 4

How are ideas about love and development connected in love letters and other written materials?

Back 4

- Increased literacy as a result of development leads to the women being more empowered
- Changing gender dynamics; both genders sense of agency in other realms of their lives
- Connects them with development discourse (how their culture will develop/improve)
- Elopement & different methods of marriage is changing
- Love is increasingly associated with being developed & successful, associated with independence
- people label ‘arranged marriage’ & ‘capture marriage’ as being backward
- elopement is labelled as developed
- Love letter correspondences illustrate more recent understanding of romantic love of being out of one’s
control but at the same time, empowering.
- Use English language in their love letters to be more educated and or developed
- Development & nationalism go hand in hand in the context of education in Nepal
- Government encourages development but wants to retain strong cultural identity; do not want to be
‘westernized’
Love and development are connected to love letters for many reasons. The letters make it so people are able to
date, they are a form of courtship, and they allow people to get to know each other and fall in love and marry
for love rather than for kinship and other family related reasons. People went from looking for a marital partner
to trying to find "the one." The love letters show how the communities have developed, the literacy rates are
much higher. The school systems are more developed, all schools use the same textbooks, they unify caste and
ethnic background through schools, and education gave them the freedom to do what they want with their
lives, they had more opportunities available to them. The community showed development by building a health
center and having a health worker, they developed a road system, and a market that people would go to on a
weekly basis. Only the government shows gender roles, women in the villages have more independent roles.
Since reading and literacy rates have increased, books on guiding people to write love letters have been written.

Front 5

What are some of the instances of agency Ahearn describes, what are their outcomes, and is agency fully
expressed (or tempered, e.g. by fatalism) in them?

Back 5

Agency:
-The relationship between Sarita and her husband as they took their romantic relationship into their own hands.
- The progression of literacy for women, and not just accepting that these women can’t read, and actually doing
something about it.
-Disregarding a priest by choosing their own name for their son, instead of letting the priest decide.
-Access to world literature and popular culture broadened their view and horizons of the outside world.
-Watching films also broaden their view and horizons of the outside world.
Fatalism:
- Sarita accepted her marriage (even though she chose who she wanted to marry, which is considered agency)
and considered it “fate” when things got tough situation.

Front 6

How are changing notions of love and development influencing kinship and gender relations, and creating
other forms of social change in Junigau?

Back 6

Changing notions evolved when the men engaged in love letter writing by wanting their potential wife to be
happy and have a choice in her life partner as well. Parents started to respect their children’s wishes to help in
choosing a partner or letting them choose completely. The parents also showed respect by allowing their
children to continue with their schooling instead of marrying so young.
Development of their society began to modernize and stop capture marriages in most scenarios,
because their parents couldn’t always give their consent based on circumstances. However, they no longer
disowned them for eloping. Thus eloping became the popular choice of marriage. As time evolved, this was the
biggest example of showing how women had gained more rights to their future.
With the development of letters, respect was given to women by potential suitors. These suitors sought
out these women and showed respect to them by ways of keeping the letters discreet as to not harm her
reputation for the other suitors.
As before males and females were not allowed to be seen in public together unless they were married.
As time went by, couples would be able to meet in public but with friends as chaperones to disguise their
relationship.