In the book "Womanhood in the making - Domestic Ritual and Public Culture in Urban South India," Dr. Mary Hancock challenges to rethink the notations of tradition and modernity that have figured centrally in anthropological discussions of social change in South India. She shows tradition and modernity to be categories created, deployed and objectified by Tamil Brahmins as they produce their own class, gender, national and sectarian identities. This highly original ethnographic analysis of Brahmin women's ritualized practices demonstrates tradition and modernity and the shifting boundaries between them.

Dr. Mary Hancock became interested in India and the study of Tamil inspired by her teacher V S Rajan in the University of Pennsylvania. She came to Chennai first in 1985 and has been coming regularly since then. She looks at social movements related to environment issues and how they relate to changing economy in Southern India.