[Anthropgrad] Reminder - Assi Doron book launch Thursday!

[Fay castles]

You are invited to a book launch:

/Caste, Occupation and Politics on the Ganges: Passages of Resistance /
by Dr Assa Doron (web details: 
http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=10975&edition_id=11757) 


To be launched by Professor Robin Jeffrey, (Introduced by Professor Mark 
Mosko)
Where: The Co-op Bookshop ANU, Bldg 17, Union Court
When: Thursday 26 February 2009 6.00 pm for 6.30 pm
Light refreshments will be served
RSVP: Denise Kay dkay at coop-bookshop.com.au 
<mailto:dkay at coop-bookshop.com.au>

*********************************
About the book:

/Caste, Occupation and Politics on the //Ganges//: Passages of Resistance/
Assa Doron (Ashgate 2008)

A multitude of people in the world are marginalized - what scope do they 
have to assert their rights and what do they inspire in us for our 
analysis and appreciation of their plight? This ethnographic study of a 
marginalized boatmen community in the city of Banaras seeks to answer 
these questions by offering a historically grounded examination of the 
cultural politics of this community and their dramatic and creative 
struggle for self-assertion in modern India. /Caste, Occupation and 
Politics on the Ganges/ charts the changing and complex nature of the 
caste system, the modern nation-state, and the ritual economy of 
Banaras. It focuses on the political and social aspirations, fears and 
hopes of these boatmen; their everyday practices and interactions with 
the state, local elites, pilgrims and international tourists. As such, 
the book also seeks to respond to Sherry Ortner's call for a thick 
description of the cultural and historical forms of social practice and 
resistance at the juncture between tradition and the global economy. 
/Caste, Occupation and Politics on the Ganges/ will be of interest to 
all those scholars who seek to understand the strained and ambivalent 
relationship that disadvantaged social groups all over the globe have 
with the modern state. This is a case study that promises an exciting 
intellectual and ethnographic journey to the city of Banaras (Varanasi) 
- a city well known as the cultural heartland of India.





-- 
Prof Mark Mosko, Head
Department of Anthropology
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
ph: 61-2-6125-2161
fax: 61-2-6125-3023
email: mark.mosko at anu.edu.au
ANU CRICOS # 00120C