Addressing students and the general reader, this series introduces key concepts in feminist theory. Any reader will find the series vitally useful for understanding what new theories mean and how these have evolved and are being used today. Where does the word 'partiarchy' come from? Once it meant the 'absolute ruel of the father or the eldest male member over his family'. Today it refers to male authority and power as exercised in our lives. Culturally it is so pervasive that it appears 'natural' and those who struggle against it are seen as 'deviants'. V. Geetha shows how patriarchy is supported by kinship structures, relationships of production and the caste system and perists because it is not merely coercive but is based on acquiscence, beguiling us by its cultural myths and rituals. About Author : V. Geetha is an independent schoalr who writes in both Tamil and in English. Among her boks are Gender (this series) and with S.V. Rajaduria, Towards a Non-Brahmin Millennium: From Iyothee Thass to Periyar (Samya 1998). She is editoriol director, Tara Publishing, Chennai. Maithreyi Krishnaraj is a pioneering scholar in gender studies and was formerly professor and director, Research Centre for Women's Studies, SNDT Women's University, Mumbai. Among her writings are Essays on Science; co-authored with Neera Desai, Women and Society: wuith Joy Deshmukh-Ranadive, Gender in Economic Theory and Practice; With Karuna Chanana, Women and the Household: Structural and Cultural Dimensions: and co-edited with Alice Thorner, Ideas, Images and Real Lives: with Abusaleh Shariff and Ratna Sudarshan, Piopulation and Development; with Abusaleh Shariff, Between State and Market. Contents : Foreword Introduction Patrirachy: A History of the Term Production, Reproduction and Patriarchy: Global Debates Production, Reproduction and Patriarchy: Indian Arguments on Household, Kinsh