Open-access edition of Material Acts in Everyday Hindu Worlds by Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger

FAIN: DR-290443-23

Research Foundation for the State University of New York (Albany, NY 12207-2826)
James Peltz (Project Director: July 2022 to July 2024)

This project will publish the book Material Acts in Everyday Hindu Worlds, written by Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger (eISBN 9781438480138), in an electronic open access format under a Creative Commons license, making it available for free download and distribution. The book analyzes beliefs that materials can have an effect on both humans and deities beyond human intentions. Flueckiger begins with Indian understandings of the agency of ornaments that have the desired effects of protecting women and making them more auspicious. Subsequent chapters offer more examples, from a south Indian goddess tradition that transforms the aggressive masculinity of men who wear saris, braids, and breasts, to the presence of cement images of Ravana in Chhattisgarh that perform theologies and ideologies that differ from dominant textual traditions. Accessibly written and based on extensive fieldwork, the book expands our understanding of material agency as well as the parameters of religion more broadly.

Associated Products

Single Publication (Open Access eBook or Collection)
Publication Type: Single Publication
Title: Material Acts in Everyday Hindu Worlds
Year: 2020
ISBN: 9781438480114
Author: Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger
Abstract: In Material Acts in Everyday Hindu Worlds, Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger analyzes the agency of materiality—the ability of materials to have an effect on both humans and deities—beyond human intentions. Using materials from three regions where Flueckiger conducted extensive fieldwork, she begins with Indian understandings of the agency of ornaments that have the desired effects of protecting women and making them more auspicious. Subsequent chapters bring in examples of materiality that are agentive beyond human intentions, from a south Indian goddess tradition where female guising transforms the aggressive masculinity of men who wear saris, braids, and breasts to the presence of cement images of Ravana in Chhattisgarh, which perform alternative theologies and ideologies to those of dominant textual traditions of the Ramayana epic. Deeply ethnographic and accessibly written, Material Acts in Everyday Hindu Worlds expands our understanding of material agency as well as the parameters of religion more broadly.
Primary URL: https://soar.suny.edu/handle/20.500.12648/8716
Primary URL Description: SUNY Press
Secondary URL: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/63459
Secondary URL Description: OAPEN
URL 3: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ZyP0DwAAQBAJ
URL 3 Description: Google Play
URL 4: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FBGPPVH
URL 4 Description: Kindle
Type: Single author monograph

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