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From: mn5y@krebs.acc.Virginia.EDU (Mukund Nori)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Name Change After Marriage
Keywords: name change
Message-ID: <1990Aug29.052619.2751@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 29 Aug 90 05:26:19 GMT
References: <1990Aug24.181947.24519@ora.com> <24575@megaron.cs.arizona.edu> <morphy.651805205@arrester>
Sender: ambar@ora.com (Jean Marie Diaz)
Organization: University of Virginia
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Approved: ambar@ora.com

In article ID <morphy.651805205@arrester> Jones Maxime Murphy says
that the Indian roommate has no last name.  I too am from India and I
contend that statement.  While it is true that most people from his
ethnic group do not *USE* a last name, they nevertheless have one.  By
and large, they fall into two major groups, the Iyers and the
Iyengars.  [There are other groups that I am told by Tamilians, are
not as large].  Usually the children are known by their given name and
their father's given name, which is used in lieu of the family/last
name.  Hence, although it is not really so, it appears that the
"family" among such ethnic groups changes from generation to
genration.  This is very similar to the suffixes among the Norse
people e.g Lief Erikson, Lief the son of Erik, etc.

As for the larger issue of name change after marriage, I never
understood it and do not expect to.  The two people have earned the
right to their own names IMHO, and it is up to the individuals to
decide between themselves what name they are going to use, if they are
going to use only one.  As for the children, again one cannot come up
with a solution that satisfies everyone, just the individual couples.

Here are two customs that I know are practiced in India:

(1) Among the Maharashtrians (people from the state of Maharashtra in
the west part of India, with Bombay as its capital), the bride/wife
not only is required to change her last name to that of her husband's
after marriage, but he also gets to rename her first name, i.e. change
her given name.  I find this rather male domineering and demeaning to
the woman.  It is almost as if she has absolutely no identity of her
own, except that provided by "the kindness of" her husband.  Talk
about possessions.  Comments anyone?

(2) Among a group of people from Kerala, a southern state in India,
west coast, hierarchy is via the maternal line.  The man takes the
wife's last name upon marriage.  Not only that, so do the children.
In the case of an inter-group marriage of a woman with a man from a
patriarchal family, it is left to the couple.  The children from such
an union abide by the decision until they are deemed old enough to
make their own choices.  In practice, this happens quite early on,
depending on the relative influences of the two groups.  In the
reverse scenario, the woman from a patriarchal family will change her
name to that of her husband.  One of my closest friends is the son of
the first kind (patriarchal father and matriarchal mother) of marriage
and before he finished high school decided to use his maternal last
name.

Hope you find this interesting.  take care.


 ******************************************************************
 ___Raistlin___  			Mukund Nori
 Raistlin@Virginia.EDU			mn5y@krebs.acc.Virginia.EDU
      "VIOLENCE IS THE LAST RESORT OF THE INCOMPETENT" Asimov