Food, Community, and the Spirit World: An Indian Village Study

By Stanley Regelson

This is a detailed ethnographic study of food beliefs and practices in a rural community of Hassan District, Karnataka State (formerly Mysore), India. The author is an anthropological linguist who resided in the locality for almost two years in 1966-67. He provides the reader with an unusually detailed view of the intersections of language, food, and social relationships. Food is viewed as an important structuring aspect of the Hindu world view, a way that people symbolically represent and reproduce their own identities, gender relationships, and the differences among local castes and sub-castes. The roles of foods and food exchange in weddings, ancestor ceremonies, and other family ceremonies is explored. The area visited no longer exists, having been submerged by a dam project; but the reader has an opportunity to probe deeply into the life of a community as it was fifty years ago.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0990633780
• ISBN13: 9780990633785
• Release Date: May 2022
• Publisher: Development Resources Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"