Emerald City: The Birth and Evolution of an Indian Gemstone Industry

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Lawrence A. Babb’s Emerald City provides an intriguing portrait of the gemstone cutting industry of the North Indian city of Jaipur. It focuses on the ownership class consisting mainly of Jains and members of northern India’s traditional trading communities. Based on oral-historical investigations of family firms, along with ethnographic observations and interviews, the book describes how the industry is organized, when and how it developed its characteristic features, and its evolving relationship with its social context. Babb pays special attention to the impact of culture on the business, with particular emphasis on the role of religion, specifically Jainism. He also offers a systematic comparison between Jaipur’s gemstone business and New York City’s famed diamond industry. In its application of ethnographic methodology to the study of an indigenous Indian industry. Emerald City delivers a unique perspective on business life in a non-Western setting.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lawrence A. Babb

Lawrence A. Babb is Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts.  He has done field research in central, northern, and western India on both Hindu and Jain communities.  His most recent book is Alchemies of Violence: Myths of Identity and the Life of Trade in Western India (2004).

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Bibliographic information

Title
Emerald City: The Birth and Evolution of an Indian Gemstone Industry
Author
Edition
1st. ed.
Publisher
ISBN
9788177421347
Length
232p., 34 Black and White Illustrations; 9.5 Inch X 6.5 Inch.
Subjects