Health, Culture and Religion in South Asia

Assa Doron is an anthropologist in the School of Culture, History & Language at the Australian National University. His research interests include religion, identity politics, gender and popular and new media in North India, as well as alternative medicine and biomedical practices across India more generally. He is the author of Caste, Occupation and Politics on the Ganges: Passages of Resistance (Ashgate, 2008) and has co-edited 'The Cultural Politics of Disadvantage in South Asia', for Asian Studies Review (2009) and the article Caste Away? Subaltern engagement with the modern Indian state, Modern Asian Studies 22, 4 (2010).Alex Broom is a sociologist at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on cancer and palliative care, complementary and alternative medicine, mens health, and international health and development. He has written on a wide range of health issues within diverse cultural contexts including the UK, Australia, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. His recent books include Therapeutic Pluralism: Exploring the experiences of cancer patients and professionals (Routledge) and Mens Health: Body, Identity and Social Context (Wiley-Blackwell).

• Introduction: The Social and Cultural Production of Health in South Asia Assa Doron and Alex Broom Section 1: Culture, power and lay medical interface 1: Class and the Clinic: The Subject of Medical Pluralism and the Transmission of Inequality Kalpana Ram 2: Spatial Boundaries and Moralities of Gender: Considerations from Obstetric and Gynaecological Practice in Chennai, South India Victoria Loblay Section 2: Public health and private illness 3: Occupational Health, Risk and Science in India’s Global Factories Jamie Cross 4: Injecting Drug Use and HIV in North-East India: Negotiating a Public Health Response in a Complex Environment Michele Kermode, Peter Deutschmann, M.C. Arunkumar and Greg Manning 5: HIV and the Gurus: Religiosity, Plurality and the Challenge of a ‘Hindu’ Response to AIDS Nalin Mehta and Upahar Pramanik 6: Unmarried Muslim Youth and Sex Education in the bustees of Kolkata Kabita Chakraborty 7: The Intoxicated Poor: Alcohol, Morality and Power and the Boatmen of Banaras Assa Doron Section 3: Traditional healing and local knowledge 8: Between Medicine and Manthravady: Agency and Identity in Paniya Health Sumant Badami 9: Learning from Infertility: Gender, Health Inequities and Faith Healers in Women’s Experiences of Disrupted Reproduction in Rajasthan Maya Unnithan 10: The Practice and Meanings of Spiritual Healing in Nepal Asha Lal Tamang and Alex Broom