Everyday Life in South Asia

by Diane P. Mines (Editor), Sarah Lamb (Editor)

This vivid anthology of ethnographic writing on South Asia focuses on the daily lives of people in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Firsthand accounts portray the ways ordinary people live and make their worlds through growing up and aging, arranging marriages, exploring sexuality, negotiating caste hierarchies, practicing religion, participating in politics and popular culture, enduring violence as nations are built, and moving abroad to make new lives. An international group of scholars present a diverse range of contemporary life situations and perspectives, including peasant girls in rural Rajasthan and advertising executives in Mumbai; ""untouchable"" sharecroppers and high-caste landlords; intimate, multi-generational households and street youth involved in ""modern"" gangs; South Asian--American children of high-powered professionals and refugees displaced by national conflict, among many others. The lively text provides lucid introductions to the questions involved in understanding gender, caste, religion, globalization, nationalism, and other key issues as they affect this important region. Joseph S. Alter, J. Bernard Bate, E. Valentine Daniel, Robert Desjarlais, Sara Dickey, Gautam Ghosh, Ann Grodzins Gold, Benedicte Grima, Kim Gutschow, Kathleen Hall, Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery, Pradeep Jeganathan, Nita Kumar, Sarah Lamb, Mark Liechty, McKim Marriott, William Mazzarella, Diane P. Mines, Mattison Mines, Serena Nanda, Kirin Narayan, Steven M. Parish, Gloria Goodwin Raheja, Paula Richman, Susan Seizer, Susan Seymour, Margaret Trawick, Ruth Vanita, Viramma (with Josiane Racine and Jean Luc Racine), Susan S. Wadley, and Jim Wilce.

Genres: Academic, India

504 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2002

Reviews

[Kavya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive and suitable for beginners. Thorough literature review of relevant studies and include critical analyses of culturally specific situations/institutions like caste-- "many anthropological models of caste derive from textual, Brahmanical models of caste, thus ignoring possible alternative understandings of the non-elite" (see Saurabh Dube 1998 et al.)

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think I read the entire book, but at least a good 3/4s of it, for my Non-Western Worlds, India class. I enjoyed this book as well as the course. This book was more enjoyable than the rest of my other textbooks for the other classes. Instead of presenting facts, this book had many true-life accounts of life in India, while not necessarily relatable, still very interesting to read.