One of anthropology's most distinguished ethnographers weaves together rich fieldwork with compelling critical analysis in a powerful book that makes a signal contribution to contemporary thinking about violence and how it affects everyday life. Veena Das examines case studies that include the Partition of India in 1947 and the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In a major departure from much anthropological inquiry, Das asks how the extreme violence of these events has entered "the recesses of the ordinary" and points toward a new understanding of how violence operates in societies and cultures around the globe.

ISBN: 9780520247444