Clothing as Devotion in Contemporary Hinduism - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Clothing as Devotion in Contemporary Hinduism write by Urmila Mohan. This book was released on 2019-09-02. Clothing as Devotion in Contemporary Hinduism available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Urmila Mohan draws on her ethnography of Hindu devotional practices in Iskcon, India, to explore cloth and clothing as “efficacious intimacy”, that is, embodied processes that shape practitioners as devotees, connecting them with the divine and the larger community.
The Material Subject
The Material Subject - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Material Subject write by Urmila Mohan. This book was released on 2020-11-01. The Material Subject available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The Material Subject emphasises how bodily and material cultures combine to make and transform subjects dynamically. The book is based on the French Matière à Penser (MaP) school of thought, which draws upon the ideas of Mauss, Schilder, Foucault and Bourdieu, among others, to enhance the anthropological study of embodiment, practices, techniques, materiality and power. Through theoretical sophistication and empirical field research, case studies from Europe, Africa and Asia bring MaP’s ideas into dialogue with other strands of material culture studies in the English-speaking world. These studies mediate different scales of engagement through a sensori-motor, affective and cognitive focus on practices of making and doing. Examples range from the precarity of professional divers in French public works to the gendered subjectivity of female carpet weavers in Morocco, from the ways Swiss watchmakers transmit craft knowledge to how Hindu devotees in India make efficacious use of altars, and from the enskilment of Paiwan indigenous people in Taiwan to the prestige of women’s wild silk wrappers in Burkina Faso. The chapters are organised according to domains of practice, defined as 'matter of' work and technology, heritage, politics, religion and knowledge. Scholars and students with an interest in material culture will gain valuable access to global research, rooted in a specific intellectual tradition.
Masking in Pandemic U.S.
Masking in Pandemic U.S. - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Masking in Pandemic U.S. write by Urmila Mohan. This book was released on 2022-09-19. Masking in Pandemic U.S. available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This anthropological study explores the beliefs and practices that emerged around masking in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. Americans responded to this illness as unique subjects navigating the flux of social and corporeal boundaries, supporting certain beliefs and acting to shape them as compelling realities. Debates over health and safety mandates indicated that responses were fractured with varied subjectivities in play—people lived in different worlds and bodies were central in conflicts over breathing, masking and social distancing. Contrasting approaches to practices marked the limits and possibilities of imaginaries, signaling differences and similarities between groups, and how actions could be passageways between people and possibilities. During a time of uncertainty and loss, the "efficacious intimacy" of bodies and materials embedded beliefs, values, and emotions of care in mask sewing and usage. By exploring these practices, the author reflects on how American subjects became relational selves and sustained response-able communities, helping people protect each other from mutating viruses as well as moving forward in a shifting terrain of intimacy and distance, connection, and containment.
The Thing about Religion
The Thing about Religion - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Thing about Religion write by David Morgan. This book was released on 2021-03-19. The Thing about Religion available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Common views of religion typically focus on the beliefs and meanings derived from revealed scriptures, ideas, and doctrines. David Morgan has led the way in radically broadening that framework to encompass the understanding that religions are fundamentally embodied, material forms of practice. This concise primer shows readers how to study what has come to be termed material religion—the ways religious meaning is enacted in the material world. Material religion includes the things people wear, eat, sing, touch, look at, create, and avoid. It also encompasses the places where religion and the social realities of everyday life, including gender, class, and race, intersect in physical ways. This interdisciplinary approach brings religious studies into conversation with art history, anthropology, and other fields. In the book, Morgan lays out a range of theories, terms, and concepts and shows how they work together to center materiality in the study of religion. Integrating carefully curated visual evidence, Morgan then applies these ideas and methods to case studies across a variety of religious traditions, modeling step-by-step analysis and emphasizing the importance of historical context. The Thing about Religion will be an essential tool for experts and students alike. Two free, downloadable course syllabi created by the author are available online.
The Efficacy of Intimacy and Belief in Worldmaking Practices
The Efficacy of Intimacy and Belief in Worldmaking Practices - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Efficacy of Intimacy and Belief in Worldmaking Practices write by Urmila Mohan. This book was released on 2023-11-17. The Efficacy of Intimacy and Belief in Worldmaking Practices available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This book explores ‘efficacious intimacy’ as an embodied concept of worldmaking, and a framework for studying belief practices in religious and political domains. The study of how beliefs make and manifest power through their sociality and materiality can reveal who, or what, is considered effective in a particular socio-cultural context. The chapters feature case studies drawn from diverse religious and political contexts in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and explore practices ranging from ingesting sacred water to resisting injustice. In doing so, the authors analyze emotions and affects, and how they influence dynamics of proximity and distance. Taking an innovative approach to the topic of intimacy, the book offers a fascinating examination of how life-worlds are constructed by material practices. It will be of interest to scholars of anthropology, religion, and material culture.
