<p>Medical Anthropology; Nationalism and Colonialism; South Asia; Culture of Science</p>
Staff Title:
Given Name:
Email Address:
jsalter@pitt.edu
Family Name:
Alter
Publications:
2013. Sex, Askesis and the Athletic Perfection of the Soul: Physical Philosophy in the Ancient Mediterranean and South Asia. In Geoffrey Samuel and Jay Johnson eds. Subtle Bodies. Pp. 121-148. London: Routledge. 2013. Sri Yogendra: Magic, Modernity and the Burden of the Middle-Class Yogi. In Mark Singleton and Ellen Goldberg, eds. Gurus in Modern Yoga. P.p. 60 -80. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
2012 “Sacrifice and Immortality: Theoretical Implications of Embodiment in Hathayoga.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 35 (2): 408-433.
2011 Moral Materialism: Sex and Masculinity in Modern India. Penguin: New Delhi.
Qualifications:
PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1989
Recipient of grants from the National Science Foundation, 2012-2014
Department:
Anthropology
Region:
South Asia
Office:
3302 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Regional specialty:
Office phone number:
412-648-7508
Rank:
Professor
Staff
Biography:
<p>Joseph S. Alter received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. His research specialization is in medical anthropology with interest in the relationship among religion, nationalism, health and the body in South Asia. Specific projects have focused on sport, sexuality, yoga, ayurvedic medicine, unani medicine and transnational transformations of medical knowledge. He is currently involved in a project to study the relationship among Nature Cure, ecology and worldview in contemporary India. A new project focuses on the relevance of biosemiotics to the development of ecologically grounded social theory. Teaching and research interests are combined by directing a semester-long study abroad program each Fall term, “Pitt in the Himalayas.”</p>
Staff Ranking:
A
Photograph:
Departmental Webpage: