Hierarchy and Its Discontents

The caste system fascinates Western scholars because it forms the basis for South Asian society--but how does it affect its participants?

Steven M. Parish is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego.

"The book is an insightful and sensitive account of the psychological life-world of caste. Its principal strength is the way in which Parrish celebrates the multiplicities and ambiguities of experience of everyday life in caste society. His account strikes a responsive chord. . . . It makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of caste in Nepal as well as to expanding ethnography beyond monolithic truths."--Social Anthropology