Reflection of Tamil culture in the Tamil Family The South Asian religious culture such as the Tamil families is demonstrated in the Notes on love in a Tamil Family ethnography written by Margaret Trawick and the novel Funny Boy written by Shyam Selvadurai. They often project the conception that the ideal household family member performs gender roles according to the social sexed and gendered construction. Both books demonstrate the attempt to maintain the society’s expectation, and gender role performance based on sexed and gendered construction through the family members such as Temozihaya and Arjie’s performance respectively. Themozhiyar, a Tamil scholar from a middle class village family, follows and expects others in the household to follow …show more content…
One of the ethnic group believes the notion of evil eye. One should not stare at own child as bad things could happen to the child. It is this notion of evil eye which causes The Tamil family to show love to others but not their own children. Themozhiyar says love grows in hiding, and this is a kind of love (Trawick 93). Notes on Love in a Tamil Family state the preferred communication method for Tamil people is through ambiguity (Trawick 93). The Indian proverb is, “God hates what is obvious” (Trawick 93). It shows the child’s own mother is trying to protect the child by not loving. Maintaining this notion of evil eye, an ambiguity in all matters would be considered following the society’s …show more content…
We have seen them sacrifice love for the sake of family. In Shyam’s book, Anil and Radha do not get into a relationship, as both of them are from different ethnic group: Sinhalese and Tamil respectively. Their parents do not approve their union stating notions of honor, respect, and difference in ethnicity as the reason (Selvadurai 74). In Tamil culture, an ideal household member would live by their norms and marry their own kind in the same caste. For this reason, if Anil and Radha were to get into a relationship, it would affect the respect that each family has within their respective communities. Thus, Anil and Radha’s attraction to one another challenges the ideal South Asian society. Consequently, the couple sacrificed their love for the sake of maintaining their family ideals because of the Tamil and Sinhalese