The Social and the Symbolic
Volume II
- Bernard Bel - French National Centre for Scientific Research
- Jan Brouwer - Centre for Advanced Research on Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Mysore
- Biswajit Das - Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
- Vibodh Parthasarathi - Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
- Guy Poitevin - Late of Centre for Cooperative Research in Social Sciences, Pune
Mass Communication Theory
Beginning by describing the pertinence of communication to grasping the overall substance of social reality, the volume is divided into the following three parts:
- Forms of self-identity: This section looks at the emergence and construction of personal and collective identities through myths, religious idioms, stories and traditions of marginalized communities.
- Grounds of work relations: Here, the contributors focus on occupations and vocations of the peasant and artisan communities of western India.
- Bonds of health practices: The focus of this section is on healthcare practices and knowledge of traditional communities.
The second in a three-volume series titled Communication Processes, this book will be of considerable interest to scholars of communication and media studies, oral studies as also social workers dealing with health practices.
| Overture: Recasting 'the Social' as 'the Symbolic' | Bernard Bel, Jan Brouwer, Biswajit Das, Vibodh Parthasarathi and Guy Poitevin |
| Negotiating Modernity with Symbolic Resources | Guy Poitevin |
| Symbolic Facets of Medical Power | Bernard Bel |
| Avenues of Expression |
| The Minas: Seeking a Place in History | Nandini Sinha Kapur |
| Quests for Assertion |
| Vadar Narratives: Dramatic Reappropriation of a Myth | Datta Shinde |
| Mang Narratives: Semantic Reappropriation of a Myth | Sanjay Jogdanda |
| Bhakti: A Faith for Rehabilitation | Guy Poitevin and Hema Rairkar |
| Introduction: Faculties of Correlation Editors |
| Integrative Links of 'the Traditional' |
| The Communicating Goddess of the Artisans | Jan Brouwer |
| The Mother Earth of the Mawal Peasant | Baban Khandbhor and Prabhakar Ghare |
| Disruptive Challenges of 'the Modern' |
| Vadar Communities: Traditional Skills in Changing Times | Datta Shinde |
| Parit Communities: Occupation and Survival | Suresh Kokate |
| Introduction: Symbolic Forms and Signs | Guy Poitevin |
| Between Yesterday and Today |
| The Slum Dwellers of Chennai: Indigenous Health Practices | S A Samy |
| The Vaidu: Traditional Practices and Social Status | Chandrakant Kokate |
| Inheritance of Knowledge |
| Birth Attendants: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea | Bernard Bel and Andréine Bel |
| Popular Culture and Childbirth: Perceptions and Practices in Rural Rajasthan | Tulsi Patel |
| Midwives: A Tradition on the Move in Maharashtra | Hema Rairkar |
| In Lieu of an Epilogue Editors |
This book argues that communication, an exchange of symbols, is the essence of society and that this exchange is the foundation on which the human collective is based…. The various essays highlight the links between culture studies and the use of communication in binding together a community as also to provide a voice to the unheard and the unsung.
In The Social and the Symbolic, the authors have successfully brought to the fore the symbolic ordering in communication processes that is going among and across societies to reveal the various facets of social life. …The book is a laudable effort by the editors to present a methodical model to understand the social reality by analysing communication process in the society. The essays reflect upon the social, political, economic and medical aspects of social life and provide deep insights into their symbolic foundations to reach at the comprehensive understanding of the social system in which they are grounded. A serious reading of the book would be a reader’s delight.
