Read more
Laughter, Creativity, and Perseverance offers ten in-depth case studies analyzing culturally, historically, and geographically unique situations in order to explore the historical background, contemporary trajectories, and impact of the emergence of new and powerful forms of female agency in mostly conservative Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions.
List of contents
- Introduction: Female Agency in Buddhist and Hindu Contexts
- Ute Hüsken
- Section 1: Renewing Religion in Female Spaces
- 1.1 Exclusion, Secrecy and the (Under)ground: Dynamics of Female Religious and Ritual Agency in Kalmykia
- Valeriya Gazizova
- 1.2 "This is not a Home, it is a Temple": Creative Agency in Navarattitri Kolu
- Ina Marie Lunde Ilkama
- Section 2: Appropriation of Male Spaces
- 2.1 Body-Politics and the Gendered Politics of Hindu Militancy: Shiv Sena Women and Political Agency in Western India
- Tarini Bedi
- 2.2 Buddhist 'Radicalism' - A Vehicle for Female Empowerment?
- Melyn McKay and Iselin Frydenlund
- 2.3 Laughing on a Rooftop: Female Buddhist Agency as Local in Lumbini, Nepal
- Amy Paris Langenberg
- 2.4 Right to Pray: A Comparative Analysis of Sabarimala and Sani
- Shefali More
- Section 3: Performing Religion Publicly
- 3.1 Hindu Women and the Gendering of Religious and Ritual Authority in Trinidad
- Priyanka Ramlakhan
- 3.2 Tradition, Innovation, and Resistance? Training Girls in Sanskrit and Vedic Rituals
- Ute Hüsken
- 3.3 "I Will be the Sankaracarya for Women!": Gender, Agency, and a Guru's Quest for Equality in Hinduism
- Antoinette Elizabeth DeNapoli
- Section 4: Research Strategies
- 4 Female Agency in Buddhism and Hinduism: Methodological Reflections and Collective Commitments
- Caroline Starkey
About the author
Ute Hüsken is Professor and Head of the Department of Cultural and Religious History of South Asia (Classical Indology, South Asia Institute) at Heidelberg University. Hüsken's main research fields are Buddhist studies, the study of Hinduism, Ritual and Festival studies, and Gender studies. Together with Ronald Grimes and Sarah Pike, she edits The Oxford Ritual Studies Series.
Summary
Laughter, Creativity, and Perseverance offers ten in-depth case studies analyzing culturally, historically, and geographically unique situations in order to explore the historical background, contemporary trajectories, and impact of the emergence of new and powerful forms of female agency in mostly conservative Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions.
Additional text
Laughter, Creativity, and Perseverance invites scholars to articulate how the technologies of exerting female agency have continued, adapted, and changed through the timeline of these traditions.
