Keywords
Gendered Power
Negotiated Agency
Invisible Labour
Customary Institutions
Cultural Continuity
Northeast India
Categories
How to Cite
Abstract
This paper investigates the mechanisms of gendered power and agency within the Biate society of Northeast India, positioning Biate women at the crossroads of tradition and social transformation. Although the community is frequently characterized as culturally unified and comparatively egalitarian, empirical realities disclose enduring gender hierarchies rooted in customary institutions, religious observances, and economic arrangements. Utilizing historical analysis, ethnography, and feminist theory, the study emphasizes routine social practices—including subsistence labour, weaving, oral tradition, caregiving, and religious involvement—as key arenas for the maintenance of cultural continuity. The paper reframes agency, not solely as open resistance, but as strategies of negotiation and relational engagement enacted within patriarchal contexts. Additionally, it assesses the impact of Christianity, educational attainment, and participation in the modern economy on the evolution of gender roles, revealing both emergent opportunities and persistent systemic limitations. By privileging lived experiences, this study engages broader discourses on gender, power, and indigeneity in Northeast India and interrogates longstanding institutional biases that perpetuate the marginalization of women’s contributions in academic research and communal leadership.
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