Gender Relations among Oraons in Bangladesh Continuity and Change

Continuity and Change Tone Bleie The Oraons living in scattered settlements in the westernmost districts of Bangladesh are one of the largest aboriginal groups in the region. In the last century they have become increasingly landless and have experienced a number of other socio-economic changes. This paper examines the interrelations between social processes that generate a continuity in the cultural ideas about gender and those that induce significant changes in other aspects of the female-male relationship. Changes in the rural production system are identified as interacting with gender organisation at household, kin-group and community level and the organisation of inter-ethnic relations. For example the mohila sikkar, the women's hunt, is an outcome of and response to the long-term changes in femalemale dynamics. Through the organisation of the event women have successfully managed to put under public discourse the legitimacy of the current transformations in gender relations.