Cave of My Ancestors with Kirin Narayan

Описание: Anthropologist Kirin Narayan and SAR Senior Scholar Frank J. Korom discuss Narayan’s latest book, Cave of My Ancestors.

Book Description (courtesy of the University of Chicago):
As a young girl in Bombay, Kirin Narayan was enthralled by her father’s stories about how their ancestors had made the ancient rock-cut cave temples at Ellora. Recalling those stories as an adult, she was inspired to learn more about the caves, especially the Buddhist worship hall known as the “Vishwakarma cave.” Immersing herself in family history, oral traditions, and works by archaeologists, art historians, scholars of Buddhism, Indologists, and Sanskritists, Narayan set out to answer the question of how this cave came to be venerated as the home of Vishwakarma, the god of making in Hindu and Buddhist traditions.
 
Cave of My Ancestors represents the perfect blend of Narayan’s skills as a researcher and writer. Her quest to trace her family’s stories took her to Ellora; through libraries, archives, and museums around the world; and across disciplinary borders. Equal parts scholarship, detective story, and memoir, Narayan’s book ably leads readers through centuries of history, offering a sensitive meditation on devotion, wonder, and all that connects us to place, family, the past, and the divine.

Author Bio:
An anthropologist, folklorist, and scholar of South Asia, Kirin Narayan is the author of seven books including a family memoir My Family and Other Saints and a writing manual, Alive in the Writing: Crafting Ethnography in the Company of Chekhov. She has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Australian National University. Honors she has received include the inaugural Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing, the Elsie Clews Parsons Prize for Folklore (co-winner), a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and, with Ken George, an Australian Research Council Discovery Project Award.

Frank J. Korom bio:
Frank J. Korom is professor emeritus of anthropology and religion at Boston University and an associate of Harvard University’s Committee on Folklore and Mythology. He specializes in the cultures of South Asia and has also conducted extensive research on the Tibetan diaspora and the anglophonic Caribbean. He is the author/editor of ten books and the co-editor of Asian Ethnology, an academic journal based at Nanzan University in Japan. His current research focuses on transnational Sufism originating in Sri Lanka.


SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH
Established in 1907, the School for Advanced Research (SAR) advances creative thought and innovative work in the social sciences, humanities, and Native American arts. SAR is home to the Indian Arts Research Center (IARC), a leader in community-advised and collaborative Indigenous arts engagement and collections management. Through scholar residency, seminar, and artist fellowship programs, SAR Press publications, and a range of public programs, SAR facilitates intellectual inquiry and human understanding. SAR’s historic sixteen-acre campus sits on the ancestral lands of the Tewa people in O’gah’poh geh Owingeh or Santa Fe, New Mexico. SAR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational institution.

sarweb.orgSCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH
Established in 1907, the School for Advanced Research (SAR) advances creative thought and innovative work in the social sciences, humanities, and Native American arts. SAR is home to the Indian Arts Research Center (IARC), a leader in community-advised and collaborative Indigenous arts engagement and collections management. Through scholar residency, seminar, and artist fellowship programs, SAR Press publications, and a range of public programs, SAR facilitates intellectual inquiry and human understanding. SAR’s historic sixteen-acre campus sits on the ancestral lands of the Tewa people in O’gah’poh geh Owingeh or Santa Fe, New Mexico. SAR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational institution.

sarweb.org