| FA-52656-06 | Research Programs: Fellowships for University Teachers | Kirin Narayan | Women's Sung Mythologies from the Himalayan Foothills | 9/1/2006 - 5/31/2007 | $40,000.00 | Kirin | | Narayan | | | | University of Wisconsin System | Madison | WI | 53715-1218 | USA | 2005 | Anthropology | Fellowships for University Teachers | Research Programs | 40000 | 0 | 40000 | 0 |
I seek NEH support to complete "Divine Troubles," an ethnography that follows how traditional poetic texts intertwine with performers' lives amid shifting cultural horizons. I address a genre of songs that retell Hindu mythological episodes from Kangra women's points of view. In such songs, mythic women and goddesses take charge of their lives, facing and resolving troubles. I supplement poetic texts with women singers' commentaries, life histories, and perceptions of changing social contexts; views of men and local women who distance themselves from such traditional practices; and my own narrative of encounters with Kangra since 1975. |