Journeys and Dwellings

This collection of essays makes a significant and innovative contribution to the emerging field of Indian Ocean Studies. New perspectives come into view that highlight movement and exchange across borders, travelling actors, cultures and faiths as well as processes of cultural re-localisation, mixture and assimilation. While these processes are more often associated with late twentieth-century globalisation and West South relationships of dominance, Journeys and Dwellings focuses on historical and contemporary movements and exchanges along a South South (Indian Ocean) axis. How did these contribute to the emergence of plural regional / littoral societies in South Asia? What are the consequences of the displacement of people, flows of culture and labour for a society organised along caste lines in terms of social and religious constructions of reality. The majority of the contributors to this volume address these questions in regard to movements and connections between South Asia and East Africa, but exchanges with Arabia and Lakshadweep Islands are also considered. Studying the diversity of ways of life in the Indian Ocean World, primarily from South Asian sites, the contributors adopt an interdisciplinary approach by combining historical and anthropological methods.