The College of Arts and Sciences

Ann Gold travels to a market town in North India

May 16, 2011

Article by: Judy Holmes

For 30 years, religion Professor Ann Gold, an anthropologist, has conducted extensive fieldwork in the North Indian state of Rajasthan to study Hindu traditions, pilgrimage, gender relations, epic tales of world renunciation, and cultural constructions of the environment. Most of her work has been focused on the lives of people living in rural areas.  She returned to India in July 2010 to conduct fieldwork on her new project, Peopled Places: Neighborhoods, Shops, and Shrines in a North Indian Market Town, funded by her 2010 Fulbright-Hays grant.

Gold will spend 10 months living in Jahazpur, exploring its neighborhoods, markets, and shrines and documenting how the people engage with their town’s ordinary and extraordinary places.

“With roots deep in history and legend, Jahazpur is by reputation both conservative and diverse,” Gold says. “The town is very different from the places I’ve lived before, which is what makes it so interesting to me.”

Gold visited Jahazpur during the summer of 2008 with her research collaborator and co-author, Bhoju Ram Gujar. They were attending a ceremonial beginning of a multi-day foot pilgrimage to the Meena deity, Malaji, which was setting forth from the town’s center.  The Meenas are a caste and community of people living in the northern part of Rajasthan.

“I had absolutely no idea I would be anything but an observer,” Gold says. “Suddenly, I was summoned to hold the flag.  I couldn't quite believe I was up there with the deity's banner in my hands.”

Gold teaches courses on Hindu traditions in modern India, religion and gender, pilgrimage, and religion and storytelling, among others. She has received fellowship awards from the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Spencer Foundation.