Chapter 1 Introduction

Overview & Synopsis

This volume draws its inspiration from perspectives that have developed over the last few decades in media anthropology. These include seminal works such as Bourdieu’s (1993 ) analysis of cultural production, Larkin’s (2008 ) study of the impact of media technologies on cultural form and Ginsburg’s (1995a , 2002 ) work on indigenous media. Methodologically, the volume relies heavily on ethnography; each of the contributions is grounded in qualitative research. Most of the chapters are based upon data that their authors collected while doing long-term research. Typically, such research involves building up lasting relationships with one’s interlocutors, learning about their ideas, attitudes and practices by accompanying them in everyday life. Taken together, the various contributions explore how media that is made for audiences deemed indigenous is produced, shared, and viewed or ‘consumed’. The chapters explore the social and political impact of old and new media technologies and media content in relation to the (re)formulation, contestation and (re)defi nition of mediatised representations of indigeneity, and how this bears upon perceptions and conceptualisations of nation in South Asia.