These nine lucidly written essays extend the frontiers of understanding between history and anthropology. The essays are grouped into two parts. The first part, "Myth, history and ethnicity', focuses on passions of ethnic and national identity as these impinge on how the past is imagined. The essays in this section analyse how the past is continually reconstructed by the events, perceptions and interests of the present. The second part, 'Caste, kingship and ...
