Experiencing Anthropology in the Nicobar Archipelago

<p>This book explores the discipline of social-cultural anthropology through an extensive study of the Nicobarese people in one of the remotest human settlements of the Indian Ocean. It examines the social, cultural, economic, political and magico-religious beliefs of the Nicobarese, and traces their ritualistic upbringing from conception till after death. The book also discusses the <i>nature-man-spirit complex </i>observed in the life of the Nicobarese. </p><p>The author further utilises this study to examine the complex role of anthropologists in maintaining objectivity and authenticity in ethnographic accounts, and discusses several critical epistemological issues concerning social-cultural anthropology as a field of study today.</p><p>Based upon extensive field research by the author conducted over four decades, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of sociology and social-cultural anthropology, human geography, social sciences, minority studies, as well as South Asian studies.</p>