Imagining karma : ethical transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek rebirth / Gananath Obeyesekere.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Obeyesekere, Gananath, author.

Series:

Comparative studies in religion and society ; Volume 14.

Comparative studies in religion and society ; Volume 14

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reincarnation--Buddhism.

Reincarnation.

Reincarnation--Comparative studies.

Religious ethics--Comparative studies.

Religious ethics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (480 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley ; Los Angeles ; London : University of California Press, [2002]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

With Imagining Karma, Gananath Obeyesekere embarks on the very first comparison of rebirth concepts across a wide range of cultures. Exploring in rich detail the beliefs of small-scale societies of West Africa, Melanesia, traditional Siberia, Canada, and the northwest coast of North America, Obeyesekere compares their ideas with those of the ancient and modern Indic civilizations and with the Greek rebirth theories of Pythagoras, Empedocles, Pindar, and Plato. His groundbreaking and authoritative discussion decenters the popular notion that India was the origin and locus of ideas of rebirth. As Obeyesekere compares responses to the most fundamental questions of human existence, he challenges readers to reexamine accepted ideas about death, cosmology, morality, and eschatology. Obeyesekere's comprehensive inquiry shows that diverse societies have come through independent invention or borrowing to believe in reincarnation as an integral part of their larger cosmological systems. The author brings together into a coherent methodological framework the thought of such diverse thinkers as Weber, Wittgenstein, and Nietzsche. In a contemporary intellectual context that celebrates difference and cultural relativism, this book makes a case for disciplined comparison, a humane view of human nature, and a theoretical understanding of "family resemblances" and differences across great cultural divides.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

PREFACE

ABBREVIATIONS

1. Karma and Rebirth in Indic Religions: Origins and Transformations

2. Non-Indic Theories of Rebirth

3. The Imaginary Experiment and the Buddhist Implications

4. The Buddhist Ascesis

5. Eschatology and Soteriology in Greek Rebirth

6. Rebirth and Reason

7. Imprisoning Frames and Open Debates: Trobriander, Buddhist, and Balinese Rebirth Revisited

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 413-427) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520936300

0520936302

9781597346696

1597346691

OCLC:

475929020