Narayan (1997), "'Death by Culture'"

Narayan (1997) compares accounts of Indian dowry murders with instances of domestic violence in America. She argues that differences in culture are highlighted in accounts of Indian women deaths, but not in re-tellings of American women's death. Narayan (1997) argues that violence against women is not cultural specific, which points to the problems of describing only Indian women's deaths as the effect of culture.

1. Discussions of happenings focus more closely on culture when doing so serves the position of privilege.

2. By discussing culture in a way that reaffirms stereotypes and power imbalances, scholars Other and essentialize groups of women. 

3. Narayan (1997) urges feminist scholars to apply local context to descriptions. She believes this will help balance re-tellings of events that would otherwise be used to distance women from different cultures.

Narayan (1997) explains that contextual factors shift and change when they cross borders. One way to prevent this kind of essentializing slippage is to focus on the context. Narayan (1997) urges scholars to consider a local context.