Download or read book South Asian Folklore in Transition written by Frank J. Korom and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Indian Subcontinent has been at the centre of folklore inquiry since the 19th century, yet, while much attention was paid to India by early scholars, folkloristic interest in the region waned over time until it virtually disappeared from the research agendas of scholars working in the discipline of folklore and folklife. This fortunately changed in the 1980s when a newly energized group of younger scholars, who were interested in a variety of new approaches that went beyond the textual interface, returned to folklore as an untapped resource in South Asian Studies. This comprehensive volume further reinvigorates the field by providing fresh studies and new models both for studying the “lore” and the “life” of everyday people in the region, as well as their engagement with the world at large. By bringing Muslims, material culture, diasporic horizons, global interventions and politics to bear on South Asian folklore studies, the authors hope to stimulate more dialogue across theoretical and geographical borders to infuse the study of the Indian Subcontinent’s cultural traditions with a new sense of relevance that will be of interest not only to areal specialists but also to folklorists and anthropologists in general. This book was originally published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.
Download or read book South Asian Folklore written by Peter Claus and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-28 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With 600 signed, alphabetically organized articles covering the entirety of folklore in South Asia, this new resource includes countries and regions, ethnic groups, religious concepts and practices, artistic genres, holidays and traditions, and many other concepts. A preface introduces the material, while a comprehensive index, cross-references, and black and white illustrations round out the work. The focus on south Asia includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, with short survey articles on Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, and various diaspora communities. This unique reference will be invaluable for collections serving students, scholars, and the general public.
Download or read book Myths and Legends of South Asia and Southeast Asia written by World Book and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the crow get its black feathers? How do the gods protect the people from drought and other natural disasters? Explore the rich mythologies and legends of the many cultures of the peoples of South and Southeast Asia. Famous Myths and Legends is a beautifully photographed and illustrated 12-volume series designed to narrate the ancient mythologies and inherited stories from the many diverse cultures throughout the world.
Download or read book The Dialectical Primatologist written by Nicholas Malone and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-10-24 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dialectical Primatologist identifies the essential parameters vital for the continued coexistence of hominoids (apes and humans), synthesising primate research and conservation in order to develop culturally compelling conservation strategies required for the facilitation of hominoid coexistence. As unsustainable human activities threaten many primate species with extinction, effective conservation strategies for endangered primates will depend upon our understanding of behavioural response to human-modified habitats. This is especially true for the apes, who are arguably our most powerful connection to the natural world. Recognising the inseparability of the natural and the social, the dialectical approach in this book highlights the heterogeneity and complexity of ecological relationships. Malone stresses that ape conservation requires a synthesis of nature and culture that recognises their inseparability in ecological relationships that are both biophysically and socially formed, and seeks to identify the pathways that lead to either hominoid coexistence or, alternatively, extinction. This book will be of keen interest to academics in biological anthropology, primatology, environmental anthropology, conservation and human–animal studies.
Download or read book Gender in South Asia written by Subhadra Channa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book theorizes gender in terms of models generalizing upon historical sources and lived realities.
Download or read book A Companion to Folklore written by Regina F. Bendix and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-08-25 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Folklore presents an original and comprehensive collection of essays from international experts in the field of folklore studies. Unprecedented in depth and scope, this state-of-the-art collection uniquely displays the vitality of folklore research across the globe. An unprecedented collection of original, state of the art essays on folklore authored by international experts Examines the practices and theoretical approaches developed to understand the phenomena of folklore Considers folklore in the context of multi-disciplinary topics that include poetics, performance, religious practice, myth, ritual and symbol, oral textuality, history, law, politics and power as well as the social base of folklore Selected by Choice as a 2013 Outstanding Academic Title
Download or read book Children and Knowledge written by Zazie Bowen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children and Knowledge sheds light on what it is to be a child in India in the contemporary moment and in history. While acknowledging the ways Indian children are situated within structures of power, this volume foregrounds innovative methodologies for conducting research into childhood and children’s lives that meaningfully engage with young people’s understandings, stories and agency. The chapters probe conceptualisations of Indian childhoods, and interrogate both singularising models of childhood and the idea of ‘multiple childhoods’. The contributors use the theme 'children and knowledge' to analyse young people’s interactions with institutions of modernity and social structures – including gender, family, class, community and caste, as well as media, markets and development – that often marginalise and frame children in multiple, cumulative ways. The chapters juxtapose and triangulate three approaches to knowledge: knowledge about children; knowledge for children; and children’s own knowledge. Taken together, the chapters demonstrate how this juxtaposition is a useful framework for the analysis of historical and contemporary Indian social processes. Demonstrating that understanding Indian children’s experiences and knowledgeable perspectives is fundamental to any proper understanding of social complexity and change Children and Knowledge will be of great interest to scholars of childhoods studies, gender, education and South Asian studies. The book was originally published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.
Download or read book Women Religion and the Body in South Asia written by Kristin Hanssen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-19 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noted for their haunting melodies and enigmatic lyrics, Bauls have been portrayed as spiritually enlightened troubadours traveling around the countryside in West Bengal in India and in Bangladesh. As emblems of Bengali culture, Bauls have long been a subject of scholarly debates which center on their esoteric practices, and middle class imaginaries of the category Baul. Adding to this literature, the intimate ethnography presented in this book recounts the life stories of members from a single family, shining light on their past and present tribulations bound up with being poor and of a lowly caste. It shows that taking up the Baul path is a means of softening the stigma of their lower caste identity in that religious practice, where women play a key role, renders the body pure. The path is also a source of monetary income in that begging is considered part of their vocation. For women, the Baul path has the added implication of lessening constraints of gender. While the book describes a family of singers, it also portrays the wider society in which they live, showing how their lives connect and interlace with other villagers, a theme not previously explored in literature on Bauls. A novel approach to the study of women, the body and religion, this book will be of interest to undergraduates and graduates in the field of the anthropology. In addition, it will appeal to students of everyday religious lives as experienced by the poor, through case studies in South Asia. The book provides further evidence that renunciation in South Asia is not a uniform path, despite claims to the contrary. There is also a special interest in Bauls among those familiar with the Bengali speaking region. While this book speaks to that interest, its wider appeal lies in the light it sheds on religion, the body, life histories, and poverty.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife 3 volumes written by Jonathan H. X. Lee and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-12-21 with total page 1498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive compilation of entries documents the origins, transmissions, and transformations of Asian American folklore and folklife. Equally instructive and intriguing, the Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife provides an illuminating overview of Asian American folklore as a way of life. Surveying the histories, peoples, and cultures of numerous Asian American ethnic and cultural groups, the work covers everything from ancient Asian folklore, folktales, and folk practices that have been transmitted and transformed in America to new expressions of Asian American folklore and folktales unique to the Asian American historical and contemporary experiences. The encyclopedia's three comprehensive volumes cover an extraordinarily wide range of Asian American cultural and ethnic groups, as well as mixed-race and mixed-heritage Asian Americans. Each group section is introduced by a historical overview essay followed by short entries on topics such as ghosts and spirits, clothes and jewelry, arts and crafts, home decorations, family and community, religious practices, rituals, holidays, music, foodways, literature, traditional healing and medicine, and much, much more. Topics and theories are examined from crosscultural and interdisciplinary perspectives to add to the value of the work.
Download or read book Chinese Beliefs and Practices in Southeast Asia written by Hock-Tong Cheu and published by Partridge Publishing Singapore. This book was released on 2021-08-16 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book consists of fifteen chapters which can be divided into five major themes: (i) Chinese religion, (ii) Chinese attitudes toward religion, (iii) Chinese spirit cults in Malaysia, (iv) the development of local spirit cults, and (v) major festivals celebrated in Malaysia. The first section deals with three Chinese religious traditions in Malaysia, in particular, and other countries like Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand in Southeast Asia, in general. The second section attempts to discuss on Chinese attitudes towards religion, Chinese religious conception and its implication in their social life, and how Confucian ethics have contributed to the economic success of the Chinese in Malaysia. The Third section seeks to examine the various aspects of the Nine Emperor Gods, the Datuk Kong (Malay keramat), and the spread of Malay and Chinese spirit cults to Sabah, East Malaysia. The fourth section deliberates on three major processes of change in the development of spirit cults in Malaysia: the localization of Chinese locality cults, including Tudigong and Dabogong, the Sinicization of the Malay keramat, and the indigenization or desinicization of an aboriginal Datuk Seman in Broga, Selangor. And the last section winds up with the practical aspects of celebrating festivals in Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia, with special emphasis on festivals in general in the Chinese calendar, the festival of the Nine Emperor Gods in Southeast Asia, and the socio-psychological aspects of the Nine Emperor Gods Vegetarian Festival in Thailand.
Download or read book The Audacious Raconteur written by Leela Prasad and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-15 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can a subject be sovereign in a hegemony? Can creativity be reined in by forces of empire? Studying closely the oral narrations and writings of four Indian authors in colonial India, The Audacious Raconteur argues that even the most hegemonic circumstances cannot suppress "audacious raconteurs": skilled storytellers who fashion narrative spaces that allow themselves to remain sovereign and beyond subjugation. By drawing attention to the vigorous orality, maverick use of photography, literary ventriloquism, and bilingualism in the narratives of these raconteurs, Leela Prasad shows how the ideological bulwark of colonialism—formed by concepts of colonial modernity, history, science, and native knowledge—is dismantled. Audacious raconteurs wrest back meanings of religion, culture, and history that are closer to their lived understandings. The figure of the audacious raconteur does not only hover in an archive but suffuses everyday life. Underlying these ideas, Prasad's personal interactions with the narrators' descendants give weight to her innovative argument that the audacious raconteur is a necessary ethical and artistic figure in human experience. Thanks to generous funding from Duke University, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.
Download or read book Culture Health and Development in South Asia written by M. Islam and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-14 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recently, mass arsenic poisoning of groundwater has emerged as a disastrous public health concern in Bangladesh. Apart from hundreds of deaths that have already been reported, 85 million people are estimated to be at high risk of developing deadly arsenicosis symptoms. The severity and extent of arsenicosis have obliged the government of Bangladesh to declare it the "worst national disaster" the country has ever faced, and further to be deemed a "state of emergency." To fight this pervasive public health disaster, the Bangladesh government has collaborated with the international and national NGOs to implement development projects to provide arsenic-free water to rural villagers. Drawing upon ethnographic research in rural Southwestern Bangladesh, this book discusses arsenic contamination and its resultant health impact from a medical anthropological and anthropology of development perspectives. It examines how the actual patients perceive, explain, manage and respond to this catastrophic public health outbreak, and goes on to analyse how such lay perceptions shape health-seeking behaviour of subjects in a medically plural context. To make the issue more holistic, this book further examines mitigation strategies and community participation in these projects. Challenging approaches to development and development project management, the book is of interest to policy makers, practitioners and academics working in the field of development studies, South Asian studies, medical anthropology, anthropology and sociology of development.
Download or read book The Middle East South Asia Folklore Newsletter written by and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tales of South Asia written by Beulah Candappa and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Popular Cinema in Bengal written by Madhuja Mukherjee and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular Cinema in Bengal marks a decisive turn in studies of Bengali language cinema by shifting the focus from auteur and text-based studies to exhaustive readings of the film industry. The book covers a wide range of themes and issues, including: generic tropes (like comedy and action); iconic figurations (of the detective and the city); (female) stars such as Kanan Bala, Sadhana Bose and Aparna Sen; intensities of public debates (subjects of high and low cultures, taste, viewership, gender and sexuality); print cultures (including posters, magazines and song-booklets); cinematic spaces; and trans-media and trans-cultural traffic. By locating cinema within the crosscurrents of geo-political transformations, the book highlights the new and persuasive research that has materialised over the last decade. The authors raise pertinent questions regarding 'regional' cinema as a category, in relation to 'national' cinema models, and trace the non-linear journey of the popular via multiple (media) trajectories. They address subjects of physicality, sexuality and its representations, industrial change, spaces of consumption, and cinema’s meandering directions through global circuits and low-end networks. Highlighting the ever-changing contours of cinema in Bengal in all its popular forms and proposing a new historiography, Popular Cinema in Bengal will be of great interest to scholars of film studies and South-Asian popular culture. The chapters were originally published in the journal South Asian History and Culture.
Download or read book They Sing the Wedding of God written by John Napier and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-06-04 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Rajasthan, India, a caste of musicians and mendicants, the Nath-Jogis, sing stories of kings who renounce their thrones to become wandering mendicants. They also sing of a god, Mahadeva, Shiva, who must abandon his world-renouncing life and marry, thus establishing the very caste that tells his story. This is the first detailed ethnomusicological study of the music of this caste, examining how the existential questions of the sung stories--of the conflict between loyalty to families or communities and the transcending desire to renounce the material world--are articulated in musical performances in which the caste's own ethnography is inscribed. Discussing the relationship between the performed repertoire and the caste's identity, the contexts of performance and ways in which familiar stories are effectively retold, the book offers a transcription, translation and musical and ethnographic analysis of one performance, by Kishori Nath, and shows how the questions the performances project are not merely speculative acts of self-identification but also challenges to audiences to consider their own responses.
Download or read book Mind Soul and Consciousness written by Soumen Mukherjee and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-06-29 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive volume explores histories and modern reworkings of the ideas of mind, soul and consciousness in South Asia. It focuses on the burgeoning ‘psy-disciplines’ – psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy – and their links with religion, science, philosophy, and modern notions of the mystical and spiritual, not just in South Asia, but around the world. The authors explore the global flows of ideas that gathered pace during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including: the idea(s) of self within ‘Hindu modernities’; the history of relativity of consciousness in Jaina epistemology; Jungian critiques of Cartesian rationalism; Islamic reform vis-à-vis Sufi mysticism; and the re-examination and invocations of key strands of the fields of ‘Indian philosophy’ and the ‘psy-disciplines’ in modern India. Together these chapters stoke a critical engagement with existing conceptual boundaries and categories of mind, soul, consciousness, and body-mind relationship in modern Asian and European spiritual and intellectual traditions. This book will interest scholars and students of cross-cultural philosophy, intellectual history, history of religion, religious studies, and history of the mind sciences. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal South Asian History and Culture.
