Article
Money That Burns Like Oil: A Sri Lankan Cultural Logic of Morality and Agency
Ethnology: An International Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2004
Subjects
- Women household employees -- Middle East -- Social conditions,
- Sri Lankans -- Employment -- Foreign countries,
- Sri Lankans -- Migrations
Disciplines
Abstract
New labor opportunities have drawn Sri Lankan women to work as domestic servants in the Middle East. Many migrants complain that their remittances "burn like oil," disappearing without a trace. The gendered discourse on burning remittances both draws on and contradicts an older cultural system that fetishizes money. The emerging logic provides symbolic resources for women to spend their remittances on advancements for the nuclear family, distancing themselves from other kin. (Migration, remittances, fetishism, Sri Lanka, Middle East)
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/10344
Citation Information
Gamburd, M. (2004). Money That Burns Like Oil: A Sri Lankan Cultural Logic of Morality and Agency. Ethnology, 43(2), 167-184.
This is the publisher's final PDF. Copyright 2004 The University of Pittsburgh. Originally published in Ethnology: An International Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology (http://www.pitt.edu/~ethnolog/)