University of Edinburgh

Faculty Member, Social Anthropology

About

Jacob Copeman has been Lecturer in Social Anthropology since 2009, having formerly been a Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. He has a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he was supervised by Dr Susan Bayly. His publications include Veins of Devotion: Blood Donation and Religious Experience in North India (2009), Blood Donation, Bioeconomy, Culture (ed. 2009), and The Guru in South Asia: New Interdisciplinary Perspectives (co-ed. with Aya Ikegame, forthcoming in 2012 with Routledge). He is currently working on two further edited volumes: the first, a special issue of Theory, Culture & Society titled 'Social Theory after Strathern', the second a special issue of Contemporary South Asia titled 'South Asian Tissue Economies'. He retains an interest in interrelations between blood donation, kinship, devotional religion and social reform movements in the subcontinent whilst, in addition, pursuing two further research projects: one on anti-superstition activism, the other on the politics of names and naming - both centring on the Indian subcontinent.


Keywords: South Asia, Gurus, Atheism, Blood Donation, Tissue Economies, Social Reform, Media, Technology And Society, India, Medical Anthropology, Names And Naming


Publications:

2011. ‘A Look at Blood Donor Motivation in the UK’. The Gift of Blood (bimonthly newsletter) 104 (July-Sept). Kolkata: Association of Voluntary Blood Donors, West Bengal.

2011. 'Excessifs dons de sang: Dévotion et ascétisme en Inde'. Terrain 56 (March): 106-119.

2011. 'The Gift and Its Forms of Life in Contemporary India'. Modern Asian Studies 45: 1051-1094.

2009. (Ed.) Blood Donation, Bioeconomy, Culture. Special Issue of Body & Society (15, 2).

2009. Veins of Devotion: Blood Donation and Religious Experience in North India. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.

2009. ‘Introduction: Blood Donation, Bioeconomy, Culture’. Body & Society: Special Issue on Blood Donation, Bioeconomy, Culture, ed. Jacob Copeman. 15, 2: 1-28.

2009. ‘Gathering Points: Blood Donation and the Scenography of “National Integration”’. Body & Society: Special Issue on Blood Donation, Bioeconomy, Culture, ed. Jacob Copeman. 15, 2: 71-99.

2009. ‘Blood, Blessings and Technology in India’. The Gift of Blood (bimonthly newsletter). Kolkata: Association of Voluntary Blood Donors, West Bengal. (Originally published in Cambridge Anthropology).

2008. ‘Sangue, benedizioni e tecnologia in India’. In F.Dei, M.Aria, G.L.Mancini eds., Il dono del sangue. Per un'antropologia dell'altruismo. Pisa: Pacini, pp.113-125. (Italian translation of ‘Blood, Blessings and Technology in India’, originally published in Cambridge Anthropology).

2008. ‘Violence, Non-Violence, and Blood Donation in India’. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 14: 277-295.

2008. ‘Veinglory: Exploring Processes of Blood Transfer Between Persons’. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Original article from 2005 re-published in themed virtual issue: Anthropology of the Gift. March 2008 - Vol. 14. (See http://www.wiley.com/bw/vi.asp?ref=1359-0987#176).

2006. ‘Cadaver Donation as Ascetic Practice in India’. Social Analysis 50, no. 1. 103-126.

2006. ‘Blood, Blessings and Technology in India’. Cambridge Anthropology 25, no. 3. 39-51.

2005. ‘Veinglory: Exploring Processes of Blood Transfer Between Persons’. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute N.S., no. 11. 465-485.

2004. ‘The “Hybrid” in Anthropology’. The Eastern Anthropologist 57, no. 3-4. 285-302.

2004. ‘“Blood Will Have Blood”: A Study in Indian Political Ritual’. Social Analysis 48, no. 3. 126-148.

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