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

by Robert Parkin Emeritus Fellow, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography

Overview

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 or 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 group of chapters deals mostly with India and caste, class, tribes, religion, kinship and marriage, gender, the body and personhood, politics and political economy. A second group of chapters deals successively with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781793611796
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	05/19/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	322
File size:	727 KB

About the Author

Robert Parkin is emeritus fellow in the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Anthropology and South Asia, Anthropology of South Asia

1. Caste: The South Asian Social Group
2. Caste and Class in Modern South Asia
3. The Tribe in South Asia: Like Caste or Unlike?
4. Religions in South Asia: Of Indian Soil and Imported
5. Kinship and Marriage in India: Traditional Practices and Modern Changes
6. Gender, the Body and Personhood: Patriarchy and Resistance
7. Politics in Modern India: Policy versus Faction
8. Political Economy of Modern India: From Formality to Precarity
9. Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Asian Islam
10. Sri Lanka: Buddhist Nationalism and Tamil Separatism
11. Nepal: From Hindu Kingdom to Republic

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

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

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 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