Power, Violence, and Play
Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 514 g
ISBN: 978-0-19-022532-2
Verlag: Oxford University Press
focuses on the powers exhibited by ascetics of India from ancient to modern time.
The discourses and narratives show ascetics performing violent acts and using language to curse and harm opponents. They also give rise to questions about how power and violence are related to the phenomenon of play. Olson discusses the erotic, the demonic, the comic, and the miraculous forms of play and their connections to power and violence. His focus is on Hinduism, from early Indian religious history to more modern times, but evidence is also presented from both Buddhism and Jainism, which
provides evidence that the subject matter of this book pervades India's major indigenous religious traditions.
The book also includes a look at the extent to which contemporary findings in cognitive science can add to our understanding about these various powers; Olson argues that violence is built into the practice of the ascetic. Indian Asceticism culminates with an attempt to rethink the nature of power in a way that does justice to the literary evidence from Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain sources.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
- Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
- Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Hinduismus
- Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte