Refiguring the Body
Embodiment in South Asian Religions
Published on 30. December 2016
Book
Hardback
376 pages
978-1-4384-6315-5 (ISBN)
Description
Examines how embodiment is conceived and experienced in South Asian religions.
Refiguring the Body provides a sustained interrogation of categories and models of the body grounded in the distinctive idioms of South Asian religions, particularly Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The contributors engage prevailing theories of the body in the Western academy that derive from philosophy, social theory, and feminist and gender studies. At the same time, they recognize the limitations of applying Western theoretical models as the default epistemological framework for understanding notions of embodiment that derive from non-Western cultures. Divided into three sections, this collection of essays explores material bodies, embodied selves, and perfected forms of embodiment; divine bodies and devotional bodies; and gendered logics defining male and female bodies. The contributors seek to establish theory parity in scholarly investigations and to re-figure body theories by taking seriously the contributions of South Asian discourses to theorizing the body.
Refiguring the Body provides a sustained interrogation of categories and models of the body grounded in the distinctive idioms of South Asian religions, particularly Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The contributors engage prevailing theories of the body in the Western academy that derive from philosophy, social theory, and feminist and gender studies. At the same time, they recognize the limitations of applying Western theoretical models as the default epistemological framework for understanding notions of embodiment that derive from non-Western cultures. Divided into three sections, this collection of essays explores material bodies, embodied selves, and perfected forms of embodiment; divine bodies and devotional bodies; and gendered logics defining male and female bodies. The contributors seek to establish theory parity in scholarly investigations and to re-figure body theories by taking seriously the contributions of South Asian discourses to theorizing the body.
Reviews / Votes
"...Refiguring the Body makes for a dense but fascinating read. Scholars of Asian traditions should definitely read it, and it will probably have special appeal to scholars of yoga, dance and performing arts, as well as women's and gender studies." - Nova Religio"The sheer weight of textually and ethnographically well grounded evidence speaking to distinctive South Asian paradigms of embodiment is this volume's greatest contribution, and one that should inspire continued in-depth scholarship into both the traditions themselves and potential cross-cultural applications of their insights." - Body and Religion
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
College/higher education
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
635 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4384-6315-5 (9781438463155)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
12/2016
1st Edition
De Gruyter
from
€88.99
Available for download
Persons
Barbara A. Holdrege is Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the South Asian Studies Committee at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her books include Bhakti and Embodiment: Fashioning Divine Bodies and Devotional Bodies in K???? Bhakti and Veda and Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture, also published by SUNY Press. Karen Pechilis is NEH Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the Comparative Religion Department at Drew University. Her books include Interpreting Devotion: The Poetry and Legacy of a Female Bhakti Saint of India and The Embodiment of Bhakti.
Content
Introduction: Body Matters in South Asia
Barbara A. Holdrege
Part I. Material Bodies, Embodied Selves, and Perfected Embodiments
1. Perfected Embodiment: A Buddhist-Inspired Challenge to Contemporary Theories of the Body
Michael Radich
2. Body, Self, and Embodiment in the Sanskrit Classics of Ayurveda
Anthony Cerulli
3. Bodily Gestures and Embodied Awareness: Mudra as the Bodily Seal of Being in the Trika Saivism of Kashmir
Kerry Martin Skora
4. Bodied, Embodied, and Reflective Selves: Theorizing Performative Selfhood in South Indian Performance
Harshita Mruthinti Kamath
Part II. Divine Bodies and Devotional Bodies
5. Observations on the Bodies of the Gods in the Mahabharata
Kendall Busse
6. Bhakti and Embodiment: Bodies of Devotion and Bodies of Bliss in K???a Bhakti
Barbara A. Holdrege
7. To Body or Not to Body: Repulsion, Wonder, and the Tamil Saint Karaikkal Ammaiyar
Karen Pechilis
8. Bodies of Desire, Bodies of Lament: Marking Emotion in a South Indian Vai??ava Messenger Poem
Steven P. Hopkins
Part III. Gendered and Engendering Bodies
9. Defining Women's Bodies in Indian Buddhist Monastic Literature
Carol S. Anderson
10. Murderer, Saint, and Midwife: The Gendered Logic of Engendering in Buddhist Narratives of A?gulimala's Conversion
Liz Wilson
11. Fruitful Austerity: Paradigms of Embodiment in Hindu Women's Vrat Performances
Tracy Pintchman
Afterword: Bodies of Knowledge
Karen Pechilis
Contributors
Index
Barbara A. Holdrege
Part I. Material Bodies, Embodied Selves, and Perfected Embodiments
1. Perfected Embodiment: A Buddhist-Inspired Challenge to Contemporary Theories of the Body
Michael Radich
2. Body, Self, and Embodiment in the Sanskrit Classics of Ayurveda
Anthony Cerulli
3. Bodily Gestures and Embodied Awareness: Mudra as the Bodily Seal of Being in the Trika Saivism of Kashmir
Kerry Martin Skora
4. Bodied, Embodied, and Reflective Selves: Theorizing Performative Selfhood in South Indian Performance
Harshita Mruthinti Kamath
Part II. Divine Bodies and Devotional Bodies
5. Observations on the Bodies of the Gods in the Mahabharata
Kendall Busse
6. Bhakti and Embodiment: Bodies of Devotion and Bodies of Bliss in K???a Bhakti
Barbara A. Holdrege
7. To Body or Not to Body: Repulsion, Wonder, and the Tamil Saint Karaikkal Ammaiyar
Karen Pechilis
8. Bodies of Desire, Bodies of Lament: Marking Emotion in a South Indian Vai??ava Messenger Poem
Steven P. Hopkins
Part III. Gendered and Engendering Bodies
9. Defining Women's Bodies in Indian Buddhist Monastic Literature
Carol S. Anderson
10. Murderer, Saint, and Midwife: The Gendered Logic of Engendering in Buddhist Narratives of A?gulimala's Conversion
Liz Wilson
11. Fruitful Austerity: Paradigms of Embodiment in Hindu Women's Vrat Performances
Tracy Pintchman
Afterword: Bodies of Knowledge
Karen Pechilis
Contributors
Index