Book
Culture and power: legend, ritual, bazaar, and rebellion in a Bengali society
Sage Publications • New Delhi • Published In 1984 • Pages:
By: Östör, Ákos.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This book is a study of legend (ITIHASA), theater (JATRA), ritual or festival (PUJA), and rebellion (ANDOLAN) as these structures exist in the town of Vishnupur, an administrative center located in the western area of West Bengal, India. This work is divided into five chapters, the first of which deals with the concept of ITIHASA or legend, which serves as an introduction to the indigenous, cultural and comparative construction of Bengali society both as it exists in reality and as means of procedure and method. From ITIHASA the discussion turns to JATI or caste, PUJA, JATRA and PURANA (sacred texts), structural systems which are interpreted by the author in the context of everyday life (p. 14). Chapter 2 presents a further discussion of PUJA, PURANA, and JATRA as they relate to practices relevant to the Snake Goddess. The living reality and domain of bazaar relationships are described in great detail in chapter 3, along with an analysis of the structure of the bazaar in an attempt to understand the cultural forms relating the two. In chapter 4, Östör approaches the problems of cultural change, transformation, and revolution through cultural categories. This involves a lengthy analysis of the concept of ANDOLAN (rebellion) as an indigenous theory of change. The study concludes with a largely theoretical chapter (chapter 5) relating the author's evaluation of his data to other kinds of 'anthropologies'.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Sociocultural trends
- Mercantile business
- Retail marketing
- Castes
- Social relationships and groups
- Community structure
- Towns
- Political movements
- Revolution
- General character of religion
- Mythology
- Spirits and gods
- Organized ceremonial
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Bengali
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2002
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- South Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1992
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1967-1969, 1971, 1973 [p. 9]
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1967-1973
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Vishnupur, West Bengal, India
- NotesAdditional notes
- Ákos Östör
- Includes index. Bibliography: p. [215]-219
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Bengalis