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

Babb, Lawrence A.

State University of New York Press（2013/05発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 232 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781438445878
• DDC分類 338.27809544

Full Description

A fascinating study of the gemstone industry of Jaipur with special emphasis on its ownership class.

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.

Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration

1. Introduction

2. Dramatis Personae: Industrial Multiculturalism

3. The Rise of the Emerald Elite

4. Doing Business

5. Contexts

6. The Decline of the Emerald Elite

7. Conclusion

Endnotes
References