Many lives of the dead in Banaras: Towards an anthropology of the indefinite social

In: Contributions to Indian sociology, Band 50, Heft 1, S. 27-51

Abstract

The article seeks to redraw some key discussions on death in Banaras by focusing on the subject matter of the 'dead' rather than that of death. Pitched in the shadow of select earlier works on anthropology of death pertaining to Banaras, the general probing centres on the query whether the three realms of dying, death and dead can be delinked and thus seen in a certain relative autonomy from each other. Further, how do the anthropological accounts of death get refracted when seen from the vantage point of the dead? Based on ethnographic fieldwork at intertwined field sites of the home and the hospital, manual and electric cremation ghat and the shaivite aghorashram (hermitage) in relation to the river Ganga, the descriptions involve discussion over declaration of death versus discovery of the dead, distinction between touching and handling of the dead and latent implications of the varied names of the dead. The core concern of the article is to explore the nature of the social vis-à-vis the dead. I show how, unlike the anthropology of death that very often reiterates communitarian restoration (pravah), an anthropology of the dead may haltingly resist such reading and seek a continual searching of the indefinite social (parvah).