No Aging in India: Alzheimer's, The Bad Family, and Other Modern Things [Paperback]

Lawrence Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 11, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0520224620 | ISBN-13: 978-0520224629 | Edition: 1

From the opening sequence, in which mid-nineteenth-century Indian fishermen hear the possibility of redemption in an old woman's madness, No Aging in India captures the reader with its interplay of story and analysis. Drawing on more than a decade of ethnographic work, Lawrence Cohen links a detailed investigation of mind and body in old age in four neighborhoods of the Indian city of Varanasi (Banaras) with events and processes around India and around the world. This compelling exploration of senility--encompassing not only the aging body but also larger cultural anxieties--combines insights from medical anthropology, psychoanalysis, and postcolonial studies. Bridging literary genres as well as geographic spaces, Cohen responds to what he sees as the impoverishment of both North American and Indian gerontologies--the one mired in ambivalence toward demented old bodies, the other insistent on a dubious morality tale of modern families breaking up and abandoning their elderly. He shifts our attention irresistibly toward how old age comes to matter in the constitution of societies and their narratives of identity and history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A tour-de-force in the analysis of body and society. . . . It is an exemplar of critical and cultural analysis. . . . One of the finest works in anthropology of the last decade . . . this beautifully written and analytically sophisticated work deserves to be read by anyone interested in the body and society." -- Stacy Leigh Pigg, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology

"No Aging in India deserves to be a classic in the anthropological literature on aging." -- John Van Willigen, Medical Anthropology Quarterly

"This is a book that ventures where other anthropological writing has feared to tread, becoming the formidable precursor that later writers will have to reckon with." -- Pankaj Mishra, Times Literary Supplement

From the Inside Flap

"Beautifully written, erudite, a perfect balance between theory and ethnography. The narratives are wonderful."--E. Valentine Daniel, author of Charred Lullabies

"No book in medical anthropology matches No Aging in India in its extraordinary richness of ethnographic detail. A feast of stories, lives, and theory--it contains such a thickness of social experience that the reader feels he or she has become a part of India's local worlds. Lawrence Cohen has written one of the finest ethnographic monographs I have read. A triumph of field research and writing, this book will, I feel sure, set the standard for the next wave of ethnographies in medical anthropology."--Arthur Kleinman, author of Writing at the Margin

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (January 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520224620
• ISBN-13: 978-0520224629
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #773,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1998 Winner of Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing, September 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: No Aging in India: Alzheimer's, The Bad Family, and Other Modern Things (Hardcover)

Brilliant ethnographic research fused with engaging narrative that makes for truly enjoyable reading. Cohen dissects the phenomenon of an aging population and their role in culture and society, while explaining the greater implications both for policy and popular opinion, with reflections on US and Western societies.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars absolutely first rate, March 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: No Aging in India: Alzheimer's, The Bad Family, and Other Modern Things (Paperback)

professor cohen may be the most brilliant anthropologist of our time as it pertains to south asia. this book is a sparkling example of a prodigious mind at work. it is both scholarly and playful; rigorous and light-hearted. may be read for both pleasure and for what it can teach us about all manner of things. may be the beat scholarly work i have ever read. first-rate.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Approachable, yet profound, January 5, 2006

By 

D. Liu (CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: No Aging in India: Alzheimer's, The Bad Family, and Other Modern Things (Paperback)

As a medical student beginning research on Alzheimer's disease, this book provided me a deeper understanding of the full ramifications of such a disease on the lives of the patient and family members. The interactions described in this book are really quite complicated, yet the clear writing and organization makes this subject matter approachable.