The Living and the Dead: Social Dimensions of Death in South Asian Religions (Hindu Studies) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791456781 ISBN 13: 9780791456781

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2003

Synopsis

Explores the social treatment of death in South Asian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and other traditions. Includes material on women and marginalized groups.

This collection examines the social dimensions of death in South Asian religions, exploring the ritualized exchanges between the living and the dead performed by Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and other religious groups. Using ethnographic and historical tools associated with the comparative and historical study of religion, the contributors also record the voices and actions of marginalized groups―such as tribal peoples, women, and members of lower castes―who are often underrepresented in studies of South Asian deathways, which typically focus on the writings and practices of elite groups. For many religious people, death entails a journey leading to some new condition or place. As the ultimate experience of passage, it is highly ceremonial and ritualized, and those beliefs and practices associated with the moment of death itself―death-bed ceremonies, funerary rites, and rituals of mourning and of remembering―are examined here. The Living and the Dead offers historical depth, ethnographic detail, and conceptual clarity on a subject that is of immense importance in South Asian religious traditions.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"This collection examines the social dimensions of death in South Asian religions, exploring the ritualized exchanges between the living and the dead performed by Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and other religious groups. Using ethnographic and historical tools associated with the comparative and historical study of religion, the contributors also record the voices and actions of marginalized groups-such as tribal peoples, women, and members of lower castes-who are often underrepresented in studies of South Asian deathways, which typically focus on the writings and practices of elite groups. For many religious people, death entails a journey leading to some new condition or place. As the ultimate experience of passage, it is highly ceremonial and ritualized, and those beliefs and practices associated with the moment of death itself-death-bed ceremonies, funerary rites, and rituals of mourning and of remembering-are examined here. The Living and the Dead offers historical depth, ethnographic detail, and conceptual clarity on a subject that is of immense importance in South Asian religious traditions."

About the Author

Liz Wilson is Professor of Comparative Religion at Miami University and the author of Charming Cadavers: Horrific Figurations of the Feminine in Indian Buddhist Hagiographic Literature.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0791456781
• ISBN 13: 9780791456781
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Wilson Liz