Religion Against the Self: An Ethnography of Tamil RitualsOxford University Press, 2000 M09 21 - 245 pages This book provides a holistic description of Hinduism, showing how different types of Hinduism form a "total" or systematic cosmology and repeat crucial values through different symbols. Looking at Tamil religious practices, Isabelle Nabokov reveals that Tamil religion is primarily concerned with transformations of identity and subjectivity, both in this world and in the hereafter. |
Contents
| 3 | |
Painful Crossings | 19 |
Fruit from the Goddess | 31 |
In the Grip of Blindness | 44 |
Last Rites for Commanding Relationships | 55 |
Of Women and Demons | 70 |
The Decapitation of Young Brides | 86 |
Learning to Live with a Split Self | 100 |
The Recapitation of Young Grooms | 125 |
When Parents are Unsuitable Brides | 138 |
From Feast to SelfSacrifice | 151 |
Beyond Process and Separation | 164 |
Conclusion | 179 |
Notes | 185 |
References | 211 |
Index | 225 |
Common terms and phrases
Amma asked body Brahmā bride brother called cāmis camphor camphor flame caste ceremonial chapter clients communication consultants cultural dance death deceased demonic possession demons devotees divine drum Dumont effigy emotional ethnographic exorcism exorcist experience family deity father female funeral Gingee girl goddess gods groom hair head Hindu household deity human husband identity initial investiture invitation Kālī kalippu Kapferer karakam Laksmi Leila lineage deity living Mahentiran Malaiyaṇūr male margosa Mariamma marriage married means mother Murukan musicians myth Nagaji Obeyesekere Padmini Paraiyan parents participants Pārvatī performed Periyanțavar Perumal Perumal's pēy possession pūjā pūvāṭaikkāri relationships rite rupees sacrifice Śakti sanctuary Saravana seances sexual Shanti singer Sinhalese Śiva social sorcery South Arcot South Indian spells spirits Sri Lanka supernatural symbolic Takkan Tamil rituals Tamilnadu temple told trance transformations Trawick turmeric tutelary untimely dead victims village wears flowers wife woman who wears women worship young
Popular passages
Page 41 - If we analyse the principles of thought on which magic is based, they will probably be found to resolve themselves into two: first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and, second, that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed.
Page 185 - ... models" for human interrelatedness, juxtaposed and alternating. The first is of society as a structured, differentiated, and often hierarchical system of politico-legal-economic positions with many types of evaluation, separating men in terms of "more
Page 13 - He thinks as an individual and this is the distinctive trait which opposes him to the man-in-the-world and brings him closer to the Western thinker.
Page 186 - social structure" has nothing to do with empirical reality but with models which are built up after it.
Page 23 - ... feelings of guilt and anxiety (the moral content), and 4. longings for the establishment of an ideal state of stable and satisfying human and supernatural relations (the restitution fantasy or Utopian content). In a sense, such a dream also functions almost as a funeral ritual: the "dead" way of life is recognized as dead: interest shifts to a god, the community, and a new way.
Page 74 - Pa/a/, separation, includes not only the hardships of the lover away from his love, his search for wealth, fame, and learning, but also the elopement of the couple, their hardships on the way, and their separation from their parents.
Page 7 - Thus we encounter a wide degree of general similarity among ceremonies of birth, childhood, social puberty, betrothal, marriage, pregnancy, fatherhood, initiation into religious societies, and funerals.
Page 8 - ... grain shelter their dear kin and shelter even the distant kin. The Silver Star will not go near the place of Mars. And it rains on the thirsty fields. Hunger has fled and taken Disease with her. O Great One, in your land it blossoms everywhere. Patirruppattu (The Ten Tens), Poem 13 Akam or Love Poetry Akam poetry is directly about experience, not action; it is a poetry of the "inner world.
Page 201 - The head of the household was once a successful merchant but had suffered several financial setbacks. A few members of the household were sick, and a son's marriage and the ear-piercing ceremonies of the other children were postponed. All these misfortunes were attributed to the non-performance of appropriate mortuary rites for a daughter who had met with an untimely death. It was believed that her spirit did not have a resting place and that proper rituals would make the spirit function as a family...