UCSB Anthropology Brown Bag Lecture Series Presents:
Public Space, Public Practice,
and Class Identity in Kathmandu, Nepal
By Dr. Mark Liechty
This talk traces an emerging modern sense of public space in Kathmandu
and how this notion of public space is mediated through commodities and
commercial practice. From 19th century "public rooms" in the palaces
of the city's elites, to contemporary fashion practice, Dr. Liechty
considers how people construct distinctions between inside and outside,
private and public, and the implications these distinctions gave for
strategies of class dominance. Dr. Liechty suggests that in both 19th
century elite, and contemporary middle-class practice, class privleges
are naturalized and made "public" through the communicative medium of
commodities.
