South Asia in Transition: An Introduction to the Social Anthropology of a Subcontinent

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Description

South Asia in Transition is an introductory book on the anthropology of South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, suitable for students at all levels and others interested in this topic. It assumes no prior knowledge of either the region of the discipline of anthropology. The book makes extensive use of existing publications to describe how anthropologists have approached the region and what they have said about it. The first set of chapters deal mostly with India, being successively on caste, class, tribes, religion, kinship and marriage, gender, the body and personhood, politics and political economy. The second set of chapters deal successively with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Reviews

This book is a momentous addition to the analytics of South Asia, a region that is at the crossroads of history, experiencing great turmoil, and that is going through significant environmental, social and cultural crises. Through the lens of Anthropology, Emeritus Professor Robert Parkin remarkably weaves together the intersecting threads of religion, caste, gender and other markers of identity along with the complex topics of informality in the economy and precarity of the labouring masses, modernity and politics as well as the politicisation of Islam, and the diaspora. A comprehensive volume of this nature and coverage has been lacking in the shelves for some time, and this book will fill that gap. Readers will enjoy the book for the timeliness of its topic, its scope and the mastery of its style. I can guarantee the readers they will never see South Asia the same way again. -- Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Professor, Crawford School of public Policy, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University
Robert Parkin presents a wide ranging introduction to the Anthropology of South Asia, merging traditional concerns with modern issues. South Asia in Transition is important reading for anyone interested in understanding the region. -- Alpa Shah, Associate Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics. Author of Nightmarch, In the Shadows of the State and co-author of Ground Down by Growth.

Author Bio

Robert Parkin, PhD, is independent scholar of anthropology.