Person
Ralph W. Nicholas PhD, University of Chicago, 1962 Office: Phone: Email Interests:

Cultural, social, and psychological anthropology; religion; kinship; South Asia, Bengal.
William Rainey Harper Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and of Social Sciences in the College; President, American Institute of Indian Studies

Ralph W. Nicholas does research on South Asian societies and cultures with an emphasis on Bengal. He has done research on religion, including Hindu rites, middle period Bengali narrative, and the relationship between Hinduism and Islam in South Asia. He also has studied kinship and families in Bengal. (Retired June 2000.)

 

Recent Research / Recent Publications

Selected Publications

2016
Thirteen Festivals: A Ritual Year in Bengal. Delhi: RCS and Orient BlackSwan Publishers.

2013
Night of the Gods: Durga Puja in Bengali Society. Delhi: Chronicle Books.

2008
Rites of Spring: Gajan in Village Bengal. Delhi: Chronicle Books.

2002
The Fruits of Worship: Practical Religion in Bengal. Delhi: Chronicle Books.

1982
The village mother in Bengal. In J.J. Preston, ed., Mother Worship: Theme and Variations. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 192-209.

1981
The goddess Sitala and epidemic smallpox in Bengal. Journal of Asian Studies 41:21-44.

1977
(with Ronald B. Inden) Kinship in Bengali Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.