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9780226494876

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Elison offers a remarkable, persuasive, and--notwithstanding its theoretical and ethnographic rigor and ambition--accessible argument. The Neighborhood of Gods extends the emerging anthropology of the image, working across generic and disciplinary conventions to assess the visual practices by which space is made sacred and the precariousness of marginal labor and habitation is negotiated in urban India. It is a resonant portrait of a city that integrates the best of recent writing on religion and secularism, on Bollywood film, on slums and work, and on dreams, spirits, and the uncanny--and rethinks it mightily. --Lawrence Cohen, University of California, Berkeley The Neighborhood of Gods is an ambitious, deeply erudite, and well-written book that moves across diverse ethnographic sites--from Hindu religious ritual to tribal practice, to Bollywood and urban politics in Mumbai--with an engaging style and innovative research. --Arvind Rajagopal, New York University

For religionists, Elison effectively puts together some time-honored truths about Hinduism and its strong visuality, with original ideas about the uses, meanings, and powers of space and place. From the challenging particularities of Mumbai--huge, diverse, riven by inequalities, ethnic rivalries, political and theological animosities and alliances--Elison's book makes far-reaching contributions. It should have an enduring impact on the ways we think about urban spaces and their human and divine inhabitants. -- History of Religions Elison offers a remarkable, persuasive, and--notwithstanding its theoretical and ethnographic rigor and ambition--accessible argument. The Neighborhood of Gods extends the emerging anthropology of the image, working across generic and disciplinary conventions to assess the visual practices by which space is made sacred and the precariousness of marginal labor and habitation is negotiated in urban India. It is a resonant portrait of a city that integrates the best of recent writing on religion and secularism, on Bollywood film, on slums and work, and on dreams, spirits, and the uncanny--and rethinks it mightily. -- Lawrence Cohen, University of California, Berkeley The Neighborhood of Gods is an ambitious, deeply erudite, and well-written book that moves across diverse ethnographic sites--from Hindu religious ritual to tribal practice, to Bollywood and urban politics in Mumbai--with an engaging style and innovative research. -- Arvind Rajagopal, New York University The Neighborhood of Gods will be useful to anthropologists of media, visual culture, and religion as well as those focused on South Asia. -- American Ethnologist

The Neighborhood of Gods is an ambitious, deeply erudite, and well-written book that moves across diverse ethnographic sites--from Hindu religious ritual to tribal practice, to Bollywood and urban politics in Mumbai--with an engaging style and innovative research. --Arvind Rajagopal, New York University

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William Elison is assistant professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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