Author: Dipankar Gupta
Publisher: Sage Publications
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 282
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0761994998
Description
This unusual book extends the concerns of anthropology beyond the study of village life, rituals and caste observances to include considerations of the nation-state. Dipankar employs the analytical framework of the concept of culture combined with practical examples from everyday life to interpret governance, citizenship and fraternity.
He concludes that ostensibly political institutions have in fact deep cultural roots. Professor Gupta argues that the significance of culture lies in the fact that it informs the way people interact with each other in defined spaces. The nation-state being one such space, it should therefore be seen as an important cultural phenomenon and nor merely as lineaments on a map. Only when the nation-state is understood as a cultural phenomenon can the passions it arouses be better understood.
The book is divided into two parts, the first is based on the premise that only in a defined space can there be a clear conception of cultural membership. This conceptualization is then extended to include cultural membership of the nation-state and the territorial space such membership connotes. Part One concludes that as nation-states are bound by strong sentiments of identity they are best understood as cultural phenomena. However, these sentiments need to be buttressed by structures of governance which bring people together by keeping alive the principles of citizenship and fraternity. Part Two uses examples from daily life to examine the phenomena of citizenship, civil society, fraternity, reservation and protecting minorities in the light of the above conceptualization.
With its unique approach to the study of the nation-state and its strong analytical and theoretical bases, this book will be of immense interest to sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists and those in the fields of cultural studies and the study of social systems. It will also serve as a text or supplementary reading for students in these disciplines.
Contents
Preface
PART ONE: FROM SENTIMENT
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Culture, Space and Social Membership
CHAPTER 2
Space, Non-space and Site: Root Metaphor and Lex
CHAPTER 3
Root Metaphors and Regnant Sets of Meaning
CHAPTER 4
Space, Territory and the Nation and State
CHAPTER 5
Sentiment and Structure: Nation and State
PART TWO: TO STRUCTURE
CHAPTER 6
Civil Society or the State: What Happened to Citizenship?
CHAPTER 7
Fraternity, Citizenship and Affirmative Action:
Recasting Reservation in the Language of Rights
CHAPTER 8
Positive Discrimination and the Question of Fraternity:
Connecting Durkheim to Rawls
CHAPTER 9
Minoritization and the Public Sphere
References and Select Bibliography
Index
About the Author