ABSTRACT
The AT model was originally developed in part through analysis of ethnographic data on a site in central India that had been studied in 1976 and 1992 (see Hayden 2002), and one of the advantages we have seen in the approach is that it can be used to interpret ethnographic as well as archaeological and ethnohistorical data. Since most ethnographic work is grounded in a social situation observed over a very short period, utilizing the AT model for ethnography requires a rethinking of some of the premises of that methodology and its dependence on the concept of an ethnographic present. The present chapter develops such a reconceptualization, utilizing data drawn from our own research at the site in Madhi, central India, in 1976, 1992 and 2013, as well as re-analyses of ethnographic studies by critics of the AT approach. We also demonstrate the necessity of considering contested sites in the context of the wider religioscapes associated with the communities in interaction.
