Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
A Time for Tea
A Time for Tea: Women, Labor, and Post/Colonial Politics on an Indian Plantation | Piya Chatterjee
5 posts | 3 to read
In this ethnographic and historical critique of labour practices on an Indian plantation, Piya Chatterjee provides a sophisticated and creative examination of the production, consumption, and circulation of tea. A Time for Tea reveals how the female tea-pluckers seen in advertisements - picturesque women in mist-shrouded fields - came to symbolise the heart of colonialism in India. Chatterjee exposes how this image has distracted from terrible working conditions, horribly low wages, and coercive labour practices enforced by the patronage system. Allowing personal, scholarly, and artistic voices to speak in turn and in tandem, Chatterjee discusses the fetishisation of women who labour under colonial, postcolonial, and now neo-feudal conditions. In exploring the global and political dimensions of local practices of gendered labour, she reflects on the privileges and paradoxes of her own "decolonisation" as a third-world female anthropologist. In the end, the history of empire itself is traced through tea's journey in the British imagination from an exotic to a consolingly domestic commodity. Chatterjee concludes with an extended reflection on the politics of women labourers to examine the intermingling of gender, class, caste, and ethnicity with issues of hierarchy, difference, and power. A Time for Tea will appeal to anthropologists and historians, South Asianists, and those interested in colonialism, postcolonialism, labour studies, and comparative or international feminism.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
blurb
Kayla.Adriena
post image

Oooo tea yum! I have only tried and loved the lemon herbal tea!

@umbrellagirl #harneyteagiveaway

blurb
emmanoble
post image

I don‘t know if any other littens have heard of Albion Tea Co. or have tried their literary-themed tea blends, but they have such a great mission! They aim to help kids aging out of the foster care system & recently they were at risk of having to shut down for many reasons, but primarily a lack of cash flow. Please go donate if you can, even if it‘s a dollar! They are the best & their tea is pretty amazing, too ☺️

blurb
BooksForYears
post image

#emojinov Day 5 - 🤷‍♀️

In the choice between coffee and tea, some people say 🤷‍♀️ but I say 🆗 to both!

BethM Same! Coffee if I need the caffeine kick, tea for everything else! 7y
RealLifeReading 🙋me too! 7y
119 likes2 comments
blurb
hlgreenfield
post image

#riotgrams #booksandtreats the thing I treat myself the most to whilst reading is definitely a nice cup of tea. My dream scenario is drinking some earl grey while reading with a cat keeping me company!

blurb
BooksForYears
post image

#SeptPhotoChallenge Day 10 - set in Asia

This non-fiction book looks at the history of tea production in India, through an intersectional feminist lens. The author explores the roles that race, gender, and class play in this process of growing, harvesting, and exportation, and how it all ties back to colonial attitudes and patriarchy.

36 likes1 stack add