In this article I engage with Prof. Leela Dube’s fascinating work on matriliny in Lakshadweep which addressed critical questions in anthropology/sociology and feminist studies. Her discussion about the disjuncture between codified Islamic law and practice in relation to marriage and property devolution, her elaboration on the way law was manipulated strategically, and the image of flexibility in kinship practices are all important for a contemporary understanding of matriliny and kinship in general. Similarly, her discussion of what matriliny meant for women and more broadly the intersections of gender and kinship remain important concerns in the study of kinship. Furthermore, I point to the shifts in her work as she engaged with feminist politics and scholarship.
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