Negotiating Cultural Identity: Landscapes in Early Medieval South Asian History (2) (Archaeology and Religion in South Asia)

By: Himanshu Prabha Ray

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Synopsis: This volume breaks new ground by conceptualizing physical landscapes as living cultural bodies. It redefines dynamic cultural landscapes as catalysts in which the natural world and human practice are inextricably linked and are constantly interacting. Drawing on research by eminent archaeologists, numismatists and historians, the essays in this volume • Provide insights into the ways people in the past, and in the present, imbue places with meanings; • Examine the social and cultural construction of space in the early medieval period in South Asia; • Trace complex patterns of historical development of a temple or a town, to understand ways in which such spaces often become a means of constructing the collective past and social traditions. With a new chapter on continuity and change in the sacred landscape of the Buddhist site at Udayagiri, the second edition of Negotiating Cultural Identity will be of immense interest to scholars and researchers of archaeology, social history, cultural studies, art history and anthropology.