Cultural Heritage Transformations of Weddings and Marriage among Women in the Tamil and Parsi diaspora communities in India and the UK

该网络项目将审查移民和侨民对印度和英国侨民社区物质和非物质文化遗产转化的影响，以及这对印度原籍国的影响。婚礼和婚姻是妇女移民的重要驱动力，我们将重点关注散居在孟加卢市、孟买和伦敦的泰米尔人和帕西族人的妇女，以考察由于内部和外部移民而在不同社区发生文化遗产转变的对比例子。通过这一过程，我们将探讨海外侨民得到、失去、交换和保存的东西，以及这对印度家园的影响，并质疑文化遗产保护和适应之间的紧张关系。妇女被视为文化遗产物品和传统的承担者和保护者，然而，不同文化、经济、社区外婚姻、时尚变化和代际冲突的压力可能会导致侨民新家园的文化遗产发生变化。这可能会引发关于散居海外的人希望保护遗产时的样子，以及通过适应新的家园进行改造的过程的争论。该项目将在印度和英国进行田野调查，以检查这些紧张和变化，包括对散居海外的妇女进行采访。我们还将探索婚纱业在散居海外的印度人家乡所带来的经济效益。这个行业是全球化和新自由主义的一部分，并通过NRI社区为印度带来更多财富，这些社区希望举办一场大规模、奢华的印度婚礼。印度的婚庆在印度和英国都越来越受欢迎，而前往印度购买婚礼用品和参加婚礼的相关旅游也带来了更多的经济效益。数字技术、互联网和社交媒体的影响对散居海外的文化遗产的转化产生了重大影响，但也充当了与家庭联系的纽带，以及在全球层面改变做法的影响手段。该项目将汇集一个跨学科和国际学者团队，分享研究成果，交流知识和方法。这将与印度和英国的学者建立一个多视角的方法，他们来自考古学、历史、文化研究、表演和仪式研究、社会人类学和性别研究等学科。我们将作为一个团队在班加卢市举行两次研讨会，讨论核心网络，包括举行一次公开研讨会。我们还将通过范围划分工作分享和交流相关文献，这将找出另一个国家的文献差距，然后与出版商和书商接触，以解决这一差距。除了学术团队，我们还将与文化遗产机构接触，泰米尔纳德邦的达克希纳-奇特拉博物馆和英国埃克塞特的皇家阿尔伯特纪念博物馆(RAMM)的馆长将作为研讨会讨论的一部分。通过这项活动，我们将探索博物馆如何展示和展示与印度和海外侨民婚礼有关的文化遗产，并为博物馆开发新的创意方法，以吸引参观者收藏。我们将在两个博物馆展示该项目展览，并与当地印度社区的妇女举办社区参与研讨会，让她们接触博物馆中的物品，以及文化遗产中的迁移和转化问题。该项目的成果包括一篇期刊文章、研讨会和文献综述。有一些公共产出，包括网站，其中将包括采访摘录；展览，将包括由印度珠宝工匠制作的泰米尔婚礼珠宝复制品；以及一份关于散居国外的被遗弃妇女的政策文件。

The network project will examine the effects of migration and diaspora on transformations of tangible and intangible cultural heritage in diaspora communities in India and the UK, and the effects this has on the homeland of origin in India. Weddings and marriage are a significant driver of migration for women, and we will focus on women in the Tamil and Parsi diasporas in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and London to examine contrasting examples of cultural heritage transformations in different communities due to both internal and external migration. Through this, we will explore what is gained, lost, exchanged and preserved in the diaspora, and how this affects the homeland in India, as well as questioning the tensions between preservation and adaptation of cultural heritage. Women are seen as bearers and preservers of cultural heritage objects and traditions, however pressures of different cultures, economics, marrying outside the community, changes in fashion, and intergenerational conflict can lead to changes to cultural heritage in the new home of the diaspora. This may create contestation over the diaspora wanting to preserve heritage as it was when they brought it with them, and the process of transformation through fitting into the new place of home. The project will conduct fieldwork in India and the UK to examine these tensions and transformations, including conducting interviews with women in the diaspora. We will also explore the economic benefit of the wedding industry in the diasporas to the homeland of India. This industry is part of globalisation and neoliberalism, and is bringing increased wealth to India through the NRI communities wanting to have a large-scale, lavish Indian wedding. Indian wedding fairs are increasingly popular in both India and the UK, and the related tourism of travel to India to buy wedding goods, and attend weddings, has led to increased economic benefit. The effects of digital technology, the internet, and social media have a major impact on the transformations of cultural heritage in the diaspora, but also act as a connector with the home, and a means of influence for changing practices at a global level.The project will bring together a team of interdisciplinary and international scholars to share research, and exchange knowledge and methodologies. This will create a multi-perspectival approach with academics in India and the UK from disciplines including archaeology, history, cultural studies, performance and ritual studies, social anthropology, and gender studies. We will meet as a team for two workshops in Bengaluru for core network discussions, including holding a public symposium. We will also share and exchange relevant literature though a scoping exercise, which will identify gaps of literature in the other country, to then approach publishers and booksellers to address this gap. In addition to the academic team, we will engage with cultural heritage institutions with curators from the DakshinaChitra museum in Tamil Nadu, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter, UK, being part of the workshop discussions. Through this, we will explore how museums display and represent cultural heritage relating to weddings in both India and the diaspora, and develop new creative methodologies for the museums to engage visitors with their collections. We will show the project exhibition in both museums, and hold community engagement workshops with women from local Indian communities to engage them with the objects in the museum, and issues of migration and transformation in cultural heritage.Outputs from the project include a journal article, symposium, and literature review. There are a number of public outputs including the website, which will include extracts from the interviews, and the exhibition, which will include replicas of Tamil wedding jewellery from the RAMM collection made by jewellery craftspeople in India, and a policy document regarding abandoned women in the diaspora.