Negotiating gender and identity: Adornment and body ideals in Indian dolls

Abstract

This study presents Indian traditional dolls as complex cultural texts that materially and symbolically express gender, identity and social hierarchies in diverse regional contexts. Drawing on feminist theories of gender performativity and frameworks of material culture, it analyses various forms of dolls, from gender-marked puppets and marital couples to generalized human figures and hybrid human–animal configurations, and focuses on how physical attributes, ornamentation and ritual practices construct and sometimes subvert normative gender ideals. The study foregrounds the embodied agency of dolls as active participants in cultural continuity and change, emphasizing the role of materiality, craft techniques, regional styles and ritual performance in constructing multifaceted social meanings. Through ethnographic and interdisciplinary approaches, this research uncovers neglected dimensions of caste, regionalism and ecological embeddedness in doll-making traditions. It also examines contemporary challenges and innovations shaped by globalization, digital media and emerging queer and non-binary affiliations. These findings advance important discussions on how material artefacts enact and reshape gendered social orders and offer new insights into the complex interrelationships of tradition, identity and performativity in Indian material culture.