The Blemish of "Modern Times": Snakes, Planets, and the Kaliyugam
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in South India, this article traces out the connections that devotees, astrologers, priests, and other Hindu ritual specialists make between n?ga dōşam ("snake blemish," a negative astrological condition) and the Kali Yuga, the fourth and most de...
| Published in: | Nidān |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Univ.
2014
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| In: |
Nidān
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| Further subjects: | B
Modernity
B Naga dosam B Hinduism B Kali Yuga B South India |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in South India, this article traces out the connections that devotees, astrologers, priests, and other Hindu ritual specialists make between n?ga dōşam ("snake blemish," a negative astrological condition) and the Kali Yuga, the fourth and most degenerate world age according to Hindu cosmology. These parallel discourses are intimately related to the changes in religious observance, values, and social roles that informants describe as associated with "modern times" (by which they mean the present and the quite recent past), and demonstrate the ways in which individuals are using the indigenous frameworks of n?ga dōşam and the Kali Yuga in order to confront and respond to challenging contemporary realities. Three elements that informants foregrounded in their narratives - namely declining religious practice, shifting gender expectations, and ecological destruction - are explored in some depth. Perceived changes in degrees of ritual observance and in women's roles as well as changing relationships with the natural world in urbanizing, globalizing India are understood both as partially responsible for the recent rise in n?ga dōşam and as uniquely characteristic of the Kali Yuga, suggesting that these cosmological and astrological models work in tandem as indigenous idioms for categorizing and accounting for the anxiety-producing situations and disconcerting realities that increasingly confront people in these modern times. |
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| ISSN: | 2414-8636 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Nidān
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.58125/nidan.2014.1 |