Women around the world are opting out of marriage. Through nuanced ethnographic accounts of the ways that women are moving the needle on marital norms and practices, Opting Out reveals the conditions that make this widespread phenomenon possible in places where marriage has long been obligatory. Each chapter invites readers into the lives of particular women and the changing circumstances in which these lives unfold - sometimes painfully, sometimes humorously, and always unexpecte...

Essays on the changing meanings of adulthood in places around the world: "An important collection that furthers anthropological work on life stages." —Susan Reynolds Whyte, author of Generations in Africa: Connections and ConflictsElusive Adulthoods examines why, in recent years, complaints about an inability to achieve adulthood have been heard in societies around the world.By exploring the changing meaning of adulthood in Botswana, China, ...