Space and public memory in the neoliberal city
"[Hancock] has a keen ethnographic eye and the book reflects many years of immersion in, and thinking about, Chennai/Tamil Nadu. This is an important contribution to anthropology, South Asian studies, and the interdisciplinary field of urban studies." —Smriti Srinivas, University of California, Davis
". . . a major contribution to an underexamined field. . . . [T]his book is . . . a formidable effort at comprehending the industries of cultural heritage in India as they confront and negotiate our contemporary world." —Saloni Mathur, University of California, Los Angeles, H-Asia , May 2009
In this anthropological history, Mary E. Hancock examines the politics of public memory in the southern Indian city of Chennai. Once a colonial port, Chennai is now poised to become a center for India's "new economy" of information technology, export processing, and back-office services. State and local governments promote tourism and a heritage-conscious cityscape to make Chennai a recognizable "brand" among investment and travel destinations. Using a range of textual, visual, architectural, and ethnographic sources, Hancock grapples with the question of how people in Chennai remember and represent their past, considering the political and economic contexts and implications of those memory practices. Working from specific sites, including a historic district created around an ancient Hindu temple, a living history museum, neo-traditional and vernacular architecture, and political memorials, Hancock examines the spatialization of memory under the conditions of neoliberalism.
Mary E. Hancock is Professor of Anthropology and History at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Distribution: World
Publication date: 10/7/2008
