The Book
In the Kings and Untouchables, the author presents the field work done on the vankar, a caste of untouchable weavers in Gujarat. The ethnographic data, collected over two visits spanning over four years,has led her to a re-evaluation of the traditional approach that focussed on the singualrity and also the rigidity of the caste in Indian Society. Louis Dumont's Homo Hierarchicus has had a significant impact on anthropological theory. Rosa Perez confronts this western perception of untouchablity of with the notion of reversibility, and a fresh translation of social norms.
The Author(s)
Rosa Maria Perez is a Professor of anthropology at Instituto Superior de Ciencias do Trabalho e da Empresa, Lisbon and is also visiting Professor at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island