Caste in India (Key Issues in Asian Studies)

A clear and compelling introduction to one of the world’s most complex and misunderstood social systems. This volume offers an exhaustive overview of the anthropology and history of caste based on extensive reading and over two decades of ethnographic research in rural South India. It also speaks to the wider political and economic dimensions of caste as it is lived and debated in India today. Caste in India will be a most welcome addition to introductory courses in anthropology, history, sociology, geography, and political science.

DIANE P. MINES is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. She is the author of Fierce Gods: Inequality, Ritual, and the Politics of Dignity in a South Indian Village (2005). She has co-edited two books, Everyday Life in South Asia with Sarah Lamb (2002 with a second edition due in 2010), and the forthcoming Do Villages Matter? with co-editor Nicolas Yazgi (2010). She has conducted anthropological research in India for over twenty years and is currently studying South Indian concepts of landscape and environment. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago.