Modernity and Spirit Worship in India: An Anthropology of the Umwelt

ISBN-13: 9781032086088 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 300 str.

Miho Ishii

Opis

This book investigates the entangled relations between people’s daily worship practices and their umwelt in South India. Focusing on the practices of spirit (būta) worship in the coastal area of Karnataka, it examines the relationship between people and deities.

Spis treści

1 Introduction: Towards an anthropology of the umwelt; Part 1 Humans and the wild śakti of deities; 2 The land of paddy fields, forests, and deities; 3 The būta shrine and deities in Perar; 4 Pāḍdana: The oral epics of deities; 5 Dances, oracles, and blessings in the ritual; 6 The transaction of wild śakti; 7 Playing with perspectives; Part 2 Social transformations and the emergence of a new umwelt; 8 Būta’s agency in conflicts over the village shrine; 9 Historical changes in land tenure in South Kanara; 10 Modern law, customary law, and the reflexive imagination; 11 Land reforms and deities as the ‘owners of land’; 12 Būtas in the midst of the development project; 13 The new umwelt in the industrial plant; 14 Conclusion: Being, pathos, and the umwelt

O autorze

Miho Ishii is an associate professor at Kyoto University, Japan. Her current research focus is on the relationship between spirit worship and environmental movements in South India.