Aghor Medicine - Pollution, Death and Healing in Northern India

1. Auflage 2008
ISBN: 978-0-520-25219-6
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 154 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 467 g

For centuries, the Aghori have been known as the most radical ascetics in India: living naked on the cremation grounds, meditating on corpses, engaging in cannibalism and coprophagy, and consuming intoxicants out of human skulls. In recent years, however, they have shifted their practices from the embrace of ritually polluted substances to the healing of stigmatized diseases. In the process, they have become a large, socially mainstream, and politically powerful organization. Based on extensive fieldwork, this lucidly written book explores the dynamics of pollution, death, and healing in Aghor medicine. Ron Barrett examines a range of Aghor therapies from ritual bathing to modified Ayurveda and biomedicines and clarifies many misconceptions about this little-studied group and its highly unorthodox, powerful ideas about illness and healing.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Barrett, Ronald L.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Parry, Jonathan P.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Hinduismus
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Komplementäre Medizin, Asiatische Medizin (TCM), Heilpraktiker
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophische Anthropologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Religionssoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
Foreword
Jonathan P. Parry
Note on Transliteration, Abbreviations, and Names

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Cosmic Sinks

Fire in the Well
The Reformation
The Wrong Side of the River
Dawa and Duwa
Death and Nondiscrimination
Conclusion

Glossary
Notes
References
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Ron Barrett is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropological Sciences at Stanford University.