Hindu Ritual at the Margins

Description

Hindu Ritual at the Margins explores Hindu forms of ritual activity in a variety of "marginal" contexts. The contributors collectively examine ritual practices in diaspora; across gender, ethnic, social, and political groups; in film, text, and art; in settings where ritual itself or direct discussion of ritual is absent; in contexts that create new opportunities for traditionally marginalized participants or challenge the received tradition; and via theoretical perspectives that have been undervalued in the academy.

In the first of three sections, contributors explore the ways in which Hindu ritual performed in Indian contexts intersects with historical, contextual, and social change. They examine the changing significance and understanding of particular deities, the identity and agency of ritual actors, and the instrumentality of ritual in new media. Essays in the second section examine ritual practices outside of India, focusing on evolving ritual claims to authority in mixed cultures (such as Malaysia), the reshaping of gender dynamics of ritual at an American temple, and the democratic reshaping of ritual forms in Canadian Hindu communities. The final section considers the implications for ritual studies of the efficacy of bodily acts divorced from intention, contemporary spiritual practice as opposed to religious-bound ritual, and the notion of dharma.

Based on a conference on Hindu ritual held in 2006 at the University of Pittsburgh, Hindu Ritual at the Margins seeks to elucidate the ways ritual actors come to shape ritual practices or conceptions pertaining to ritual and how studying ritual in marginal contexts—at points of dynamic tension—requires scholars to reshape their understanding of ritual activity.

Sujets

• Rituals
• Philosophie et théologie
• Brahmán (casta)
• Hindú
• Hindu studies
• Shivarudra Balayogi
• HINDRAF
• The Hindu Pantheon
• Hindu temple
• Hindu wedding
• Hindu texts
• Ritual purification
• Hindu nationalism
• Indian philosophy
• Hindu reform movements
• Brahmin
• General officer
• Hindu deities
• Swami Vivekananda
• Hindu
• Hinduism
• Hindutva
• Religion
• General
• Practice
• Vivekananda
• Sanskrit

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 09 octobre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9781611173901
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Hindu Ritual at the Margins
Studies in Comparative Religion
Frederick M. Denny, Series Editor
Hindu Ritual at the Margins
Innovations, Transformations, Reconsiderations

Edited by LINDA PENKOWER AND TRACY PINTCHMAN

The University of South Carolina Press
2014 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hindu Ritual at the Margins : Innovations, Transformations, Reconsiderations / Edited by Linda Penkower and Tracy Pintchman.
pages cm. - (Studies in Comparative Religion)
Based on presentations at a conference called Ritualizing in, on, and across the Boundaries of the Indian Subcontinent in honor of Fred W. Clothey on the occasion of his retirement and held at the University of Pittsburgh in March 2006.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61117-389-5 (Hardbound : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-1-61117-390-1 (Ebook)
1. Hinduism-Rituals-Congresses. 2. Hinduism-Social aspects-Congresses.
I. Penkower, Linda L., editor of compilation. II. Pintchman, Tracy, editor of compilation.
III. Clothey, Fred W., honouree.
BL1226.2.H47 2014
294.5 38-dc23
2014004293
To Fred W. Clothey, a leader in the creation of the field of ritual studies
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Series Editor s Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction TRACY PINTCHMAN AND LINDA PENKOWER
Part 1. Transformations: History and Identity
The Medieval Muruka The Place of a God among His Tamil Worshipers LESLIE C. ORR
A Tale of Two Weddings Gendered Performances of Tuls s Marriage to K a TRACY PINTCHMAN
The Roles of Ritual in Two Blockbuster Hindi Films PHILIP LUTGENDORF
Part 2. Innovations: Globalization and the Hindu Diaspora
The Politics of Ritual among Muruka s Malaysian Devotees ELIZABETH FULLER COLLINS AND K. RAMANATHAN
Women, Ritual, and the Ironies of Power at a North American Goddess Temple CORINNE DEMPSEY
Hindu Ritual in a Canadian Context PAUL YOUNGER
Part 3. Reconsiderations: Context and Theory
The Accidental Ritualist DAVID L. HABERMAN
Ritual as Dharma The Narrowing and Widening of a Key Term ALF HILTEBEITEL
From Diaspora to (Global) Civil Society Global Gurus and the Processes of De-ritualization and De-ethnization in Singapore JOANNE PUNZO WAGHORNE

Contributors
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
Subrahma ya. Eighth-century stone relief sculpture
Subrahma ya with Va i and Devasen . Early eleventh-century bronze sculptures
Subrahma ya with peacock. Thirteenth-century bronze sculpture
Wedding performed at Assi Gh
Wedding performed at r Ma h
Satyavat nears the end of her worship of Santo M
Prem and Ni during an exuberant dance number
Chettiyar vow fulfillment-performing the k va i dance
Working-class devotees of Muruka with hook-piercing dance
The milk-offering form of vow fulfillment promoted by reformers
A devotee with small pots of milk suspended from hooks in his chest
Muruka in front of Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur
Temple devotee performs p j to R jar je war
Temple participant performs abhi ekam during ivar tri
Ganesha Temple central shrine
Hindu Sabha
Ornate alcove for His Divine Grace Jnana Sitthar
Saturday shoppers crowd the ION center on Orchard Road
Woman takes prashad at a birthday celebration for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
SERIES EDITOR S PREFACE
The editors of this pioneering volume on Hindu ritual do not intend to suggest that the contexts and practices studied are considered to be marginal as juxtaposed against something in or about Hinduism that is normative or authoritative. They understand ritual to be of human construct and thus fluid over time and place-neither static nor unified but rather occasioning diversity, difference, and dispute. This volume s illuminating contributions by a variety of leading contemporary scholars of Hinduism and ritual studies continue the innovative and creatively critical spirit of major theoretical studies of ritual over the past couple of decades, including Ronald Grimes s Ritual Criticism: Case Studies in Its Practice, Essays on Its Theory, which was published in this series in 1990.
A central goal of this collection, according to its editors, is pushing our understanding of the complexities of religion, and Hinduism in particular, beyond the limits, boundaries, or margins to which the Western scholarly community has until recently historically corralled it. As the editors declare, We are, collectively, more interested in change, transformation, and dissonance than in stability, continuity, or consonance. The authors present diverse studies that consider Hindu ritual in traditional historical settings in South Asia, in the contemporary Hindu global diaspora, and in the contexts of contemporary ritual theory. The sophisticated, diversely fascinating, and accessible studies will reward readers-whether professors, their students, or the global market interested in Hinduism in today s world-with discourses that expand our knowledge and understanding of popular religion well beyond the traditional but currently declining boundaries of official religion, whether as defined by orthodox Hindu priests or conventional Western scholars.
Frederick M. Denny
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Because of the efforts of scholars such as Fred W. Clothey beginning in the 1970s, the field of ritual studies has been recognized as a discrete area of scholarly pursuit within religious studies, and the study of South Asian religions, in particular, has moved out of the rarified realm of textual study to reveal vibrant and complex religious universes within diverse South and Southeast Asian and Indian diasporic communities. Clothey was a founder of the Journal of Ritual Studies, produced and directed six documentary films on ritual, and has written or edited eight books, including Rhythm and Intent: Ritual Studies from South India, The Many Faces of Murukan, and Ritualizing on the Boundaries: Continuity and Innovation in the Tamil Diaspora, which inspired the idea for this volume. We are indebted to Clothey s many contributions to the fields of ritual and South Asian studies and offer the essays that appear here with admiration, affection, and appreciation.
This volume was made possible with the help and support of many people and organizations. The essays that appear in this collection were initially prepared for a conference called Ritualizing in, on, and across the Boundaries of the Indian Subcontinent in honor of Clothey on the occasion of his retirement and held at the University of Pittsburgh in March 2006. The conference was convened by Linda Penkower and sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh s Office of the Provost and Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Asian Studies Center (ASC), and Indo-Pacific Council of the University Center of International Studies, and Department of Religious Studies. Additional support was provided by the Department of Anthropology, the Program in Cultural Studies, and the University Honors College. We are deeply grateful for the generous institutional support.
We would especially like to thank Nicole Constable, then acting director of the ASC, and Richard J. Cohen, then its associate director, for their encouragement and support of the initial conference proposal, and Jason Fuller of DePauw University for his assistance with the preorganization of the conference. The success of the conference in large part was because of the unflagging administrative and organizational skills of Judith Macey, then administrator of the Department of Religious Studies, and Dianne F. Dakis and Elizabeth Greene, formerly of the ASC. We thank them for service above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks also go to Doreen Hern ndez, formerly of the ASC, for her artistic and technical acumen in designing the conference website, posters, and brochure.
Our deepest appreciation is reserved for the excellent scholars whose contributions appear in this volume and to those contributors (and their friends and family) who shared their original images that grace its pages. We also wish to thank Ron L. Grimes, now professor emeritus of religion and culture at Wilfrid Laurier University and former chair of ritual studies at Radboud University (the Netherlands), who delivered the conference keynote address, Jeffrey Brackett of Ball State University, Raymond Brady Williams of Wabash College, and Katherine K. Young of McGill University. While their work does not appear in this collection, their presentations and insights during the conference both enlivened the proceedings and added to the success of the essays included here. Thanks also go to our discussants, Joseph S. Alter and Alexander Orbach of the University of Pittsburgh and Donald S. Sutton of Carnegie Mellon University, for their astute comments and critiques during the two-day conference, and to Tony Edwards, Paula M. Kane, and Adam Shear of the University of Pittsburgh for chairing the conference sessions. Thanks too to the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, for hosting a tour for our conference participants.
We would also wish to acknowledge two contributors to this volume who were unable to join the conference but whose excellent contributions are included in this collection: Philip Lutgendorf, who authored The Roles of Ritual in Two Blockbuster Hindi Films, and K. Ramanathan, who coauthored (with Elizabeth Fuller Collins) The Politics of Ritual among Muruka s Malaysian Devotees. We are grateful to the Rajaraja