| Summary/Abstract |
This paper examines how family, kin and other intimate relations are reimagined and reconstructed in contemporary India. I introduce the concept of ‘intimate networks’ to analyze connections between villages, cities and abroad, looking at ways in which people create familial relationships in and across various spatial locations. I argue that there is a shift away from traditional norm of emphasizing patriliny and primogeniture to broadening kin and personal relations, including lateral kin and affines, acquaintances and friends to seek opportunities for education and employment. There is a circular flow of people, things, cash and information between villages, cities and abroad, rather than a unilateral migration from rural to urban, as traditional modernization theory advocates. Circular flow is made possible by construction of intimate networks involving exchanges and flow of substance-codes, such as things, cash and information between people. I also examine emergence of new relationships of care beyond family and kin ties in rurban areas where residents combine aspects of rural and urban in ways that defy assumptions of straightforward modernizing transition from rural to urban.
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