Author: Lawrence Cohen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 367
ISBN/UPC (if available): 019 566159 1
Description
Awarded the Victor Turner prize by the American Anthropological Association in 1998, this book explores a relatively uncharted territory in the study of modern India.
In an engagingly written account that feely draws on post-modern social theory and the lived experiences of the fieldworker, Cohen presents a close analysis of the lives of old people in Varanasi, and the ways in which they are viewed.
This book will be of interest not only to those interested in the little-studied problems of the old, but also to scholars interested in how ethnographic studies are undertaken, and how social theory brings to bear on the conduct of field work.
EXCERPTS FROM REVIEWS
No book in medical anthropology matches No aging in India in its extraordinary richness of ethnographic detail. A feast of stories, situations, lives and theory-it contains such a thickness of social experience…Lawrence Cohen has written one of the finest ethnographic monographs I have ever read. A triumph..
- Arthur Kleinman, Harvard Medical School, USA
Brilliant piece of ethnography throwing up detailed case studies dexterously juxtaposed with the latest academic discourse on the subject. The author draws some conclusions that force us to have a fresh look at the finality of medical sciences in terms of diagnosing a disease.
-The Hindu
This is a remarkable book that has ingeniously woven several methodological approaches into a single read..
- The Statesman
Contents
List of Illustrations
The Ground of the Argument
Acknowledgements
Note on Transcription, Translation, and Transliteration
Introduction
Dulari
1.Orientation
World Wide Web
2. Alzheimer’s Hell
Nuns and Doctors
3.Knowledge, Practice and the Bad Family
Aitasa Pralapa
4.Memory Banks
Meri Lata Mahan
5.The Anger of the Rishis
The Philosopher’s Mother
6.The Maladjustment of the Bourgeoisie
The Way to the Indies, to the Fountain of Youth
7.Chapati Bodies
Child is Being Lifted
8.Dog Ladies and the Beriya Baba
The Age of the Anthropologist
9.The Body in Time
A Last Few Trips up the River
Notes
Glossary
References
Index