Modernity and Spirit Worship in India

Abstract

This book investigates the entangled relations between people's daily worship practices and their umwelt in South India. Focusing on the practices of spirit (būta) worship in the coastal area of Karnataka, it examines the relationship between people and deities.Based on extensive fieldwork, this book links important anthropological theories on personhood, perspectives, transactions, and gift-exchanges together with the Gestaltkreis theory of Viktor von Weizsäcker. First, it examines the relations between būta worship and land tenure, matriliny, and hierarchy in the society. It then explores the reflexive relationship between modern law and current practices based on conventional law, before examining new developments in būta worship with the rise of mega-industries and environmental movements. Furthermore, this book sheds light on the struggles and endeavours of the people who create and recreate their relations with the realm of sacred wildness, as well as the formations and transformations of the umwelt in perpetual social-political transition.Modernity and Spirit Worship in India will be of interest to academics in the field of anthropology, religious studies and the dynamics of religion, and South Asian Culture and Society. List of illustrationsvii Preface ix 1 Introduction: towards an anthropology of the umwelt PART ONE Humans and the wild śakti of deities 2 The land of paddy fields, forests, and deities 3 The būta shrine and deities in Perar 4 Pāḍdana: the oral epics of deities 5 Dances, oracles, and blessings in the ritual 6 The transaction of wild śakti 7 Playing with perspectives PART TWO Social transformations and the emergence of a new umwelt 8 Būta's agency in conflicts over the village shrine 9 Historical changes in land tenure in South Kanara 10 Modern law, customary law, and the reflexive imagination 11 Land reforms and deities as the 'owners of land' 12 Būtas in the midst of the development project Contents vi Contents 13 The new umwelt in the industrial plant 14 Conclusion: being, pathos, and the umwelt Glossary Bibliography IndexIn the month of māyi during the hottest and driest season, būta rituals are held in many villages in South Kanara, a coastal area in Karnataka. 1 Accompanied by drums and wind instruments played by Puruṣa musicians, spirit mediums of the Pambada or Nalike castes dance around the precincts of local shrines, issue oracles, and interact with people.As apotheosised local heroes or heroines or as the spirits of wild animals dwelling in forests, būtas are generally regarded as deities. While būtas may travel across regions, they are generally believed to be closely linked to the land and nature of localities. Though normally invisible, their power, or śakti, 2 fills the deep forests, hangs over the bush and ponds, and circulates through the woods, agricultural fields, and villages. Consequently, būtas are considered to originate from-and embody-a realm of sacred wildness.Fieldwork for this monograph was mainly carried out in the two adjoining villages of Mudu Perar and Padu ...

Living in the forest as a pluriverse: nature conservation and indigeneity in India’s Western Ghats

“…27-29). 7 See Ishii (2019) for a detailed exposition of the idea of a dynamic Umwelt, as based on the Gestaltkreis theory of Victor von Weizsäcker (1997Weizsäcker ( [1950) with a focus on the exchange and mutual transformation that occurs between an organism and its Umwelt. legislation.…”

“…In the study, I argued that, although the deities that were believed to have divine power (śakti) in the wild were marginalized through forest destruction and the construction of a special economic zone, they exercised their agency via oracles and rites concerning disasters in the zone. They held a unique indigenous logic, different from that of modern rationality, thereby facilitating interactions between residents of the industrial zone and the realm of the wild (Ishii, 2017(Ishii, , 2019.…”