1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782162203321

Autore

Barrett Ron <1963->

Titolo

Aghor medicine [[electronic resource] ] : pollution, death, and healing in northern India / / Ron Barrett ; foreword by Jonathan P. Parry

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2008

ISBN

1-281-38565-4

0-520-94101-2

9786611385651

1-4356-5368-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (240 p.)

Disciplina

306.4/6109542

Soggetti

Medical anthropology - India - Vārānasi (Uttar Pradesh)

Aghorīs - Rituals

Healing - Religious aspects - Aghorīs

Leprosy - Treatment - India - Vārānasi (Uttar Pradesh)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-209) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Foreword -- Note on Transliteration, Abbreviations, and Names -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The Cosmic Sink -- 2. Fire in the Well -- 3. The Reformation -- 4. The Wrong Side of the River -- 5. Dawā and Duwā -- 6. Death and Nondiscrimination -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Glossary -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

For centuries, the Aghori have been known as the most radical ascetics in India: living naked on the cremation grounds, meditating on corpses, engaging in cannibalism and coprophagy, and consuming intoxicants out of human skulls. In recent years, however, they have shifted their practices from the embrace of ritually polluted substances to the healing of stigmatized diseases. In the process, they have become a large, socially mainstream, and politically powerful organization. Based on extensive fieldwork, this lucidly written book explores the dynamics of pollution, death, and healing in Aghor medicine. Ron Barrett examines a range of Aghor therapies from ritual bathing to modified Ayurveda and biomedicines and clarifies many misconceptions about



this little-studied group and its highly unorthodox, powerful ideas about illness and healing.