Professor John Gray

Professor John Gray
  • Qualifications

    PhD (Anthropology), The University of Hawaii (USA); MA (Anthropology), Northwestern University (USA); BA (Psychology), Bucknell University (USA)
  • Research Interests

    Research themes: the centrality of human experience in giving meaning to our social world, particularly with respect to sense of place and identity; the analysis of those small-scale and intimate social domains, such as the household, which give particular shape and style to our experience of the social world; and understanding how these small-scale domains can affect larger-scale processes.

    Research Interests: Anthroplogical theory, anthropology of experience, historical anthropology, space, place and movement, ritual, kinship, caste and forms of social asymmetry, gender relations, local economy, human-animal relations, European Union policy (Common Agricultural Policty), rural communities in contemporary society, aesthetics, Local poetry, national identity; architecture--the construction and meaning of built forms; cultural geography--experience of place and space in social life

    Ethnographic Fieldwork: Nepal and Scotland

  • Publications

    Sole Authored Books
    2006 [2011]. Domestic Mandala: Architecture of Lifeworlds in Nepal. Aldershot, Hampshire (UK): Ashgate Publishing. xvi, 163 p, : ill., maps.

    2000 [2011]. At Home in the Hills: Sense of Place in the Scottish Borders. New York: Berghahn Books.

    1995 [2008]. The Householder's World: Purity, Power and Dominance In a Nepalese Village. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

    Edited Books
    1989. (with D.J. Mearns) Society from the inside out: anthropological perspectives on the South Asian household. New Delhi: Sage Publications.

    Chapters in Books

    2012. Webs of Significance: An Ethnographer's Account of Anthropology at the University of Adelaide from 1973-2011. In N. Harvey, J. Fornasiero, G. McCarthy, C. MacIntyre and C. Crossin (eds) A History of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Adelaide 1876-2011. Adelaide: Univesity of Adelaide Press

    2012. Caste and Ethnicity: Sociologics and Implications for a federal state of Nepal. In C.  Mishra and O. Gurung (eds) Ethnicity and Federalisation in Nepal. Kirtipur: Tribhuvan University.

    2010. Less Favoured Areas in the European Union: Pretty and [Un] Economic Landscapes in the Scottish Borders. In P. Stewart and A. Strathern (eds) Landscape, heritage and conservation: farming issues in the European Union. European Anthropology Series. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press (pp. 45-73).

    2009. Rurality and rural space: the 'policy effect' of the Common Agricultural Policy in the borders of Scotland. In F. Merlan and D. Raftery (eds) Tracking rural change:  community, policy and technology in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Canberra: ANU E-Press (p. 15-40).

    2009. The anthropology of tacit knowledge in the domestic mandala: a case study of Chhetris in the Kathmandu Valley. In R.B. Chhetri (ed) Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology. Kirtipur, Nepal: Tribhuvan University Press.

    2003. Open spaces and dwelling places: being at home on hill farms in the Scottish borders. In S Low & D. Lawrence-Zuniga (eds) The anthropology and space and place: locating culture. London: Blackwell Publishing (p. 224-244). 

    2003. Ironic images: landscape and history in the local poetry of the Scottish borders. In A. Strathern and P. Steward (eds) Landscape, Memory, and History: Anthropological Perspectives. London: Nova Press (pp 16-46).

    2002. Community as place-making: ram auctions in the Scottish borderlands. In V. Amit (ed) Realizing Community: Concepts, Social Relationships and Sentiments. London: Routledge (pp.38-59)

    1996. The Parbatiya household in the Kathmandu Valley: context for continuity and change. In S. Lienhard (ed.), Change and continuity: studies in the Nepalese culture of the Kathmandu Valley. Turin, Italy: CESMEO (pp 25-39).

    1994. Driving in a Soft City: Trafficking in Images of Status and Power in Kathmandu. In M. Allen (ed) Anthropology of Nepal: People, Problems and Processes. Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point. (pp 147-160)

    1989. Introduction: Household and domestic groups: society from the inside-out. In J.N. Gray and D.J. Mearns (eds.) Society from the inside out: anthropological perspectives on the South Asian household. New Delhi: Sage Publications. (pp 13-35)

    1989. The household in Nepal: social and cultural crucible of society. In J.N. Gray and D.J. Mearns (eds.) Society from the inside out: anthropological perspectives on the South Asian household. New Delhi: Sage Publications. (pp140-162)

    Articles in Professional Journals

    2014. Hefting onto place: Intersecting Lives of Humans and Sheep on Scottish Hills Landscape. Anthrozoos 27(2) 219-234.

    2011. Building a House in Nepal: Auspiciouness as a Practice of Emplacement. Social Analysis 55(1): 53-73.

    2011. Architecture and Architechne: Bulding and Revealing in High Caste Nepalese Houses. South Asia 34(1): 89-112.

    2010. Agricultural Shows in the Scottish Borders. Jouranl of the Royal Anthropological Institute 16:347-371.

    2009. Marriage ritual in Nepal: space, performance and tacit knowledge. Journal of Ritual Studies 23(1): 45-60.

    2009. Where truth happens: the Nepali house as Mandala. Anthropologica 51(1): 195-208.

    2003. A rural sense of place: intimate experience in planning a countryside for life. Planning Theory and Practice 4(1):93-96.

    2001. Lawlessness on the frontier: The Anglo-Scottish Borderlands in the 14th to 16th Century. History and Anthropology 12(4): 381-408.

    2000. Rural Space in Scotland: From Rural Fundamentalism to Rural Development. Anthropological Journal on European Cultures 9(1):53-80.

    2000. The Common Agricultural Policy and the Re-Invention of the Rural in the European Community. Sociologia Ruralis 40(1):30-52.

    1999. Open spaces and dwelling places: being at home on hill sheep farms in the Scottish Borders. American Ethnologist 26(2): 440-460.

    1998. Family farms in the Scottish border: a practical definition by practical farmers. Journal of Rural Studies 14(3):341-356.

    1996. Cultivating farm life on the borders: Scottish hill sheep farms and the European Community. Sociologia Ruralis 36(1):27-50.

    1996. Irony and paradox in the Scottish Borders: Hill sheep farms and their relations with the European Community and the United Kingdom. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 7(3):191-218.

    1993. Dharma and Domestic Practice in Nepal. South Asia XVI(1):73-88.

    1991. Marriage and the constitution of hierarchy and gender in Bahun-Chetri households. Contribution to Nepalese Studies 18(2):53-82.

    1988. Work, technology and the experience of class relations on Scottish hill sheep farms. Ethnos 53(1-2):78-103.

    1987. Bayu utarnu: ghost exorcism and sacrifice in Nepal. Ethnology 26:179-201.

    1984. Lamb auctions on the borders. European Journal of Sociology 25(1):54-82.

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Entry last updated: Thursday, 13 Nov 2014