The Mothers of the Righteous Society: Lay Buddhist Women as Agents of the Sinhala Nationalist Imaginary

Discussions about the gendered experience of Buddhism, especially in the modern period, have often centered on the status of Buddhist women and the changing role of women’s authority and legitimacy vis-a-vis their male counterparts. Based on fieldwork conducted in Sri Lanka between 2009-2010, thi...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Gajaweera, Nalika (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: [publisher not identified] 2020
Dans: Journal of global buddhism
Année: 2020, Volume: 21, Pages: 187-204
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Sri Lanka / Buddhisme / Laïc / Mère / Bienfaisance / Système socioéconomique / Conscience nationale
RelBib Classification:BL Bouddhisme
KBM Asie
Sujets non-standardisés:B dána
B Humanitarianism
B Sri Lanka
B Buddhist nationalism
B Laywomen
Accès en ligne: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Volltext (kostenfrei)
Informations sur les droits:CC BY-NC 4.0
Description
Résumé:Discussions about the gendered experience of Buddhism, especially in the modern period, have often centered on the status of Buddhist women and the changing role of women’s authority and legitimacy vis-a-vis their male counterparts. Based on fieldwork conducted in Sri Lanka between 2009-2010, this essay explores some of the conceptual challenges that lay Buddhist women's participation within Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka pose to standard liberal conceptions of women's agency and power. Women’s religious giving and charity has played a pivotal role in efforts to sustain a postcolonial Sinhala Buddhist imaginary in Sri Lanka. They derive their power and agency in these nation-building efforts not feminist consciousness within the oppressive patriarchal nationalist project. Instead Sinhala middle-class lay Buddhist women enacted their own privileged place in Sri Lankan society by shoring up culturally prescribed notions of motherhood for the purpose of the elite nationalist aspirations to realize a “righteous society.”
ISSN:1527-6457
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal of global buddhism
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4147502