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This book critically examines the larger world of astrology in India, its ubiquity and relationship with religion, caste, gender, class and aspirations.
It looks at astrology through an empirical and phenomenological lens, analyzing different meanings and questions associated with it. How do people see astrology-as magic, science, religion, or a knowledge system? The volume analyses the role of astrology in religious and social ceremonies; the interplay of faith and fear; beliefs, practices, mysticism, and skepticism in middle-class households; and gendered negotiations in everyday life. It also delves into how astrology has emerged as a livelihood and an industry, the continued fascination with it even in an era of technological advancement, and its domination of the vernacular media.
Insightful and highly comprehensive, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of sociology, political sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies and urban Sociology.
List of contents
1.Introduction 2. Astrology and fluid boundaries of the field 3. Understanding the system of astrology 4. Words of the practitioners: Astrologers and operational astrology 5. Middle class households: Beliefs, practices, and refutation 6. Mediated astrology through religious conventions and technology 7. Conclusion
About the author
Nupurnima Yadav did her PhD from the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is currently working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Sri Venkateswara College. Her publications includes her recent co-edited book Sociology of India 2021, Creative Destruction and Enterprising Economy, in the (eds) Crisis of Social Transformation in India 2015, Fearsome goddess Seetala and Faithful Communities, Nidan:International Journal for the Study of Hinduism.
Summary
This book critically examines the larger world of astrology in India, its ubiquity and relationship with religion, caste, gender, class and aspirations.
It looks at astrology through an empirical and phenomenological lens, analyzing different meanings and questions associated with it. How do people see astrology—as magic, science, religion, or a knowledge system? The volume analyses the role of astrology in religious and social ceremonies; the interplay of faith and fear; beliefs, practices, mysticism, and skepticism in middle-class households; and gendered negotiations in everyday life. It also delves into how astrology has emerged as a livelihood and an industry, the continued fascination with it even in an era of technological advancement, and its domination of the vernacular media.
Insightful and highly comprehensive, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of sociology, political sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies and urban Sociology.
