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PROF Edward Simpson's Outputs (23)

Forgetfulness without memory: Reconstruction, Landscape and the Politics of Everyday in Post-Earthquake Gujarat, India (2020)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2020). Forgetfulness without memory: Reconstruction, Landscape and the Politics of Everyday in Post-Earthquake Gujarat, India. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 26(4), 786-804. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13416

For many good reasons, after natural disasters it is common to work with ‘memory’ as part of a collective catharsis and a globalized humanitarian logic. Long‐term anthropological research on the aftermath of the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, however, a... Read More about Forgetfulness without memory: Reconstruction, Landscape and the Politics of Everyday in Post-Earthquake Gujarat, India.

Marriage and the crisis of peasant society in Gujarat, India (2018)
Journal Article
Tilche, A., & Simpson, E. (2018). Marriage and the crisis of peasant society in Gujarat, India. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 45(7), 1518-1538. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2018.1477759

This contribution takes marriage as the example of a crisis of production and reproduction in rural India. Through the juxtaposition of ethnography separated by six decades, we detail a shift away from land and agriculture as the primary markers of s... Read More about Marriage and the crisis of peasant society in Gujarat, India.

On trusting ethnography: Serendipity and the reflexive return to the fields of Gujarat (2017)
Journal Article
Tilche, A., & Simpson, E. (2017). On trusting ethnography: Serendipity and the reflexive return to the fields of Gujarat. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 24(4), 690-708. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12695

We draw on David Pocock's fieldwork of the 1950s in central Gujarat, India, as a comparative resource to think about social change and anthropological knowledge. Revisiting where Pocock had been through new fieldwork, we were encouraged to think abou... Read More about On trusting ethnography: Serendipity and the reflexive return to the fields of Gujarat.

F.G. Bailey's Bisipara revisited (2016)
Journal Article
Otten, T., & Simpson, E. (2016). F.G. Bailey's Bisipara revisited. Economic and political weekly, 51(26-27), 25-32

F G Bailey, the renowned British social anthropologist, conducted fieldwork in Bisipara in the highlands of Orissa in the 1950s to examine the ways in which the state, democracy and new forms of economy were changing the traditional organisation and... Read More about F.G. Bailey's Bisipara revisited.

Is anthropology legal? Earthquake, blitzkrieg, and ethical futures (2016)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2016). Is anthropology legal? Earthquake, blitzkrieg, and ethical futures. Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, 74(1), 113-128. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2016.740109

Th is article is a contribution to the growing literature that suggests that the methodological and writing practices of anthropology are out of kilter with the times. The processual structures and regulative mechanisms that produce anthropological k... Read More about Is anthropology legal? Earthquake, blitzkrieg, and ethical futures.

The neoliberal aftershock (2015)
Journal Article
Simpson, E., & Serafini, M. (2015). The neoliberal aftershock. Himal, 28(2), 12-25

When we look to Nepal, we see in the scramble and confusion which comes after an earthquake many similarities with what happened in Gujarat in India): stories of maladministration, aid comedy, miracles, blame, hostility, ineffectual decisions, but al... Read More about The neoliberal aftershock.

Enacting nationalist history: Buildings, processions and sound in the making of a village in Central India (2013)
Journal Article
Sbriccoli, T., & Simpson, E. (2013). Enacting nationalist history: Buildings, processions and sound in the making of a village in Central India. Quaderni asiatici, 104, 13-44

In this paper we look at how some big ideas to do with nationalism and religion have been translated into the everyday spaces of a village in Central India over the last sixty years. This particular village was studied by Adrian Mayer in the 1950s an... Read More about Enacting nationalist history: Buildings, processions and sound in the making of a village in Central India.

Blame Narratives and Religious Reason in the Aftermath of the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake (2011)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2011). Blame Narratives and Religious Reason in the Aftermath of the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 34(3), 421-438. https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2011.620554

Recent writing on religion in Gujarat has often confused political rhetoric with common religious belief and practice. Thus, religious categories have become caricatures standing for sociological realities and totalised worldviews. In this scheme, ‘H... Read More about Blame Narratives and Religious Reason in the Aftermath of the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake.

David Pocock's Contributions and the legacy of Leavis (2010)
Journal Article
Parry, J., & Simpson, E. (2010). David Pocock's Contributions and the legacy of Leavis. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 44(3), 331-359. https://doi.org/10.1177/006996671004400305

David Pocock (1928-2007) co-founded this journal with Louis Dumont, and it is easy to assume that they were intellectually more ‘like-minded’ than we believe was really the case. In the first part of this appreciation we offer some biographical and i... Read More about David Pocock's Contributions and the legacy of Leavis.

Remembering natural disaster: Politics and culture of memorials in Gujarat and Sri Lanka (2008)
Journal Article
Simpson, E., & de Alwis, M. (2008). Remembering natural disaster: Politics and culture of memorials in Gujarat and Sri Lanka. Anthropology Today, 24(4), 6-12. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8322.2008.00599.x

This article explores memorial practices that emerged after the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat and along the eastern and southern coasts of Sri Lanka following the tsunami of 2004. In both locations, acts of memorialization are inseparable from reconstru... Read More about Remembering natural disaster: Politics and culture of memorials in Gujarat and Sri Lanka.

State of play six years after Gujarat earthquake (2007)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2007). State of play six years after Gujarat earthquake. Economic and political weekly, XLII(11),

Six years ago, an earthquake in western Gujarat claimed around fourteen thousand lives. Many people I already knew well from previous research in the region died, more lost relatives, homes and possessions. In this article, I review in general terms... Read More about State of play six years after Gujarat earthquake.

The changing perspectives on three Muslim men on the question of saint worship over a 10-year period in Gujarat, western India (2007)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2007). The changing perspectives on three Muslim men on the question of saint worship over a 10-year period in Gujarat, western India. Modern Asian Studies, 42(2/3), 377-403. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X07003216

In many religious traditions, those who mediate relations between men and gods are often the focus of controversy and moral ambiguity. The ethnography in this paper outlines a number of perspectives on the role of such intermediaries (here ‘saints’)... Read More about The changing perspectives on three Muslim men on the question of saint worship over a 10-year period in Gujarat, western India.

Apprenticeship in western India (2006)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2006). Apprenticeship in western India. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 12(1), 151-171. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2006.00285.x

A number of recent attempts to describe what happens in the ‘embodied’ space between action and the discursive language used to describe that action have been primarily informed by various western theories of mind. In this article, I present an indig... Read More about Apprenticeship in western India.

The state of Gujarat and the men without souls (2006)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2006). The state of Gujarat and the men without souls. Critique of Anthropology, 26(3), 331-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X06066581

In 2002, Gujarat, a state in the west of India, was home to one of the worst rounds of religious violence the country had seen for decades. The victims were mostly Muslims. In this paper, I argue, as others have done, that this violence was a product... Read More about The state of Gujarat and the men without souls.