The Relic State
St Francis Xavier and the Politics of Ritual in Portuguese India
1st Edition
Published on 16. May 2016
304 pages
978-1-5261-1216-3 (ISBN)
Description
This book is a study of the complex nature of colonial and missionary power in Portuguese India. Written as a historical ethnography, it explores the evolving shape of a series of Catholic festivals that took place throughout the duration of Portuguese colonial rule in Goa (1510-1961), and for which the centrepiece was the 'incorrupt' corpse of Sao Francisco Xavier (1506-52), a Spanish Basque Jesuit missionary-turned-saint. Using distinct genres of source materials produced over the long duree of Portuguese colonialism, the book documents the historical and visual transformation of Xavier's corporeal ritualisation in death through six events staged at critical junctures between 1554 and 1961. Xavier's very mutability as a religious, political and cultural symbol in Portuguese India will also suggest his continuing role as a symbol of Goa's shared past (for both Catholics and Hindus) and in shaping Goa's culturally distinct representation within the larger Indian nation-state. -- .
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Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Illustrations, black & white
ISBN-13
978-1-5261-1216-3 (9781526112163)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
08/2014
Manchester University Press
€124.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Pamila Gupta is Senior Researcher at WISER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa -- .
Content
1. Introduction: The relic state
2. Incorruption (1554)
3. Canonisation (1624)
4. Secularisation (1782)
5. Resurrection (1859)
6. Commemoration (1952)
7. Conclusion: Xavier and the Portuguese colonial legacy
Bibliography
Index -- .
2. Incorruption (1554)
3. Canonisation (1624)
4. Secularisation (1782)
5. Resurrection (1859)
6. Commemoration (1952)
7. Conclusion: Xavier and the Portuguese colonial legacy
Bibliography
Index -- .
