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Life and words : violence and the descent into the ordinary
Das, Veena2006
Book
Veena Das examines case studies that include the extreme violence of the partition of India in 1947 and the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to contribute to contemporary thinking about violence and how it affects everyday life. In this powerful, compassionate work, one of anthropology's most distinguished ethnographers weaves together rich fieldwork with a compelling critical analysis in a book that will surely make a signal contribution to contemporary thinking about violence and how it affects everyday life. Veena Das examines case studies including the extreme violence of the Partition of India in 1947 and the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In a major departure from much anthropological inquiry, Das asks how this violence has entered "the recesses of the ordinary" instead of viewing it as an interruption of life to which we simply bear witness. Das engages with anthropological work on collective violence, rumor, sectarian conflict, new kinship, and state and bureaucracy as she embarks on a wide-ranging exploration of the relations among violence, gender, and subjectivity. Weaving anthropological and philosophical reflections on the ordinary into her analysis, Das points toward a new way of interpreting violence in societies and cultures around the globe. The book will be indispensable reading across disciplinary boundaries as we strive to better understand violence, especially as it is perpetrated against women.
Main title:
Life and words : violence and the descent into the ordinary / Veena Das ; foreword by Stanley Cavell.
Author:
Imprint:
Berkeley, Calif. ; London : University of California Press, 2006.
Collation:
253 p. : map ; 23 cm.
Series title:
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Foreword1. The Event and the Everyday2. The Figure of the Abducted Woman: The Citizen as Sexed3. Language and Body: Transactions in the Construction of Pain4. The Act of Witnessing: Violence, Gender, and Subjectivity5. Boundaries, Violence, and the Work of Time6. Thinking of Time and Subjectivity7. In the Region of Rumor8. The Force of the Local9. The Signature of the State: The Paradox of Illegibility10. Three Portraits of Grief and Mourning11. Revisiting Trauma, Testimony, and Political CommunityNotesAcknowledgmentsIndex
ISBN:
9780520247451 (pbk)
Dewey class:
303.60954303.6095
LC class:
GN635.I4
Language:
English
Subject:
Violence -- IndiaSikhs -- Crimes against -- IndiaRiots -- India -- History -- 20th centurySuffering -- IndiaViolence in societyGender studies, gender groupsSocial & cultural anthropologyAsian historyAsiaIndia -- History -- Partition, 1947India -- Politics and governmentIndia -- Social conditionsIndia -- Social life and customsPolitics and Government
BRN:
1041223