Ritual innovation : strategic interventions in South Asian religion / edited by Brian K. Pennington and Amy L. Allocco.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Pennington, Brian K., editor.

Allocco, Amy L., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ritual--South Asia.

Ritual.

South Asia--Religion.

South Asia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (310 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Albany, New York : Sunny Press, 2018.

Summary:

Religious rituals are often seen as unchanging and ahistorical bearers of long-standing traditions. But as this book demonstrates, ritual is a lively platform for social change and innovation in the religions of South Asia. Drawing from Hindu and Jain examples in India, Nepal, and North America, the essays in this volume, written by renowned scholars of religion, explore how the intentional, conscious, and public invention or alteration of ritual can effect dramatic social transformation, whether in dethroning a Nepali king or sanctioning same-sex marriage. Ritual Innovation shows how the very idea of ritual as a conservative force misreads the history of religion by overlooking ritual's inherent creative potential and its adaptability to new contexts and circumstances.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Figures and Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Ritual Innovation and Political Power

Coronation of the Hindu King

Ritual Replacement and the Unmaking of Monarchy

Innovating the Ancient, Instantiating the Urban

Changes in Ritual Practice at the Himalayan Hindu Shrine of Kedarnath

Ritual Renunciation and/or Ritual Innovation?

Ritual and the Economies of Caste and Class

Ancestral Rites Reworked

Flower Showers for the Goddess

Consuming Krishna

Ritual and the Negotiation of Gender

Village Widow/Town Priestess

Leveraging Agency

Ritual Innovation and Masculine Identity Formation in the Contemporary Cult of Lord Ayyappaṉ

Ritual Innovation in Contemporary Transnational Contexts

Dancing the Vedas, Deritualizing Theory

Ganesha and the Chocolate Almonds

Recasting Sexuality, Gender, and Family through Contemporary Canadian Ritual Innovation

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (EBC, viewed March 2, 2018).

ISBN:

9781438469041

1438469047