Visceral Politics
Imaginaries of Power in South India

This book investigates how power, politics and beliefs shape families, land, relationships, and societal changes in the world.

Indira Arumugam (Author)

9781009577441, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 July 2025

254 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

How can a brutal murder influence a person's duty to their god? What do the bold actions of crows entering homes say about family relationships? How does meat reflect political beliefs? And what does the disappearance of gods, once roaming the earth and meeting their followers, tell us about the political changes happening in the world? This book studies the body of politics, revealing the deep connections and unseen forces that hold it together. It illustrates how power, political dynamics, and beliefs come to life through the actions of families, the land they inhabit, and the animals they sacrifice. The book pulls apart the messy, vital, and often mysterious aspects of human existence, examining the politics that shapes people. Along the way, it reveals how ordinary people, in their daily lives, also come to understand and challenge the systems of power around them.

Introduction: The Twilight of the Old Gods
Section 1. Constituting Vernacular Polities: 1. Genealogies of Political Subjectivity
2. Animal Sacrifice and the Body Politic
3. Territorialized Rights, Contested Boundaries
4. Juridical Deliberations and Self-Government
Section 2. Parallel Citizenships, Intersecting Sovereignties: 5. Vernacular Polities, Intersecting Sovereignties
6. Articulations with Electoral Democracy
Conclusion: Intimate Imaginaries and Everyday Theorizing
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]