New book: Jainism as Social and Visual Practice
This new book brings together Marcus Banks’ ethnographic writings on Jainism, in a single, posthumous volume. Edited by John E. Cort, David Zeitlyn and Chihab El Khachab.
Marcus Banks (1960–2020) was Professor of Visual Anthropology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College. He served as Head of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME) from 2012 to 2016. His major publications include Organizing Jainism in India and England, Rethinking Visual Anthropology (co-edited with Howard Morphy), and Visual Methods in Social Research.
The writings in this new volume focus on the social organisation of Jains in India and in England, as well as visual representation among Jains. Banks' fieldwork, in both India and England, set his research apart within the relatively small body of anthropological literature on the Jains.
The volume is part of a larger project to publish Marcus Banks' collected essays.
John E. Cort, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Denison University in Granville, Ohio‘Marcus Banks […] was one of a handful of scholars [...] who [...] transformed Jain Studies in ways that have been foundational to the current increasing interest in the field.’
