Wife Burning: Cultural Cues for Lethal Violence Against Women among Asian Indians in the United States
Author(s)
Singh, Raghu N; Unnithan, N. Prabha
Abstract
Following a brief profile of Asian Indians in the US, the authors note the continued importance of several religion-cultural norms surrounding marriage, family, and gender relations in this group. The authors discuss the practices of sati and dowry burnings as a backdrop to 2 case studies of wife burning in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. An integrated model of lethal violence is used to analyze these cases and describe some persistent cultural cues that affect the production and direction of lethality. The article concludes with a discussion of the utility of the integrated model in understanding lethal violence against women and possible generational differences in these patterns.
