Work, Ritual, Biography

This text provides an ethnographic account of a community of Muslim weavers in north India. It analyzes the place of weaving in the Ansari social structure, the work of Ansari women as quilt makers, the ritual of circumcision and the biography of an Ansari individual. These domains are linked in the manner in which the Ansaris represent the body and how in turn these representations reconstitute the body. It is intended for researchers in the disciplines of social anthropology, sociology, sociology of religion and cultural studies.