Description
Book SynopsisArgues that within the festival of the goddess Gangamma ultimate reality is imagined as female
Trade ReviewWhen the World Becomes Female is a great addition to the academic literature on South Asian religious, ritual, devotional, and goddess traditions. It is accessible enough for use in undergraduate courses on the same or as an example of ethnographic methodology. It is always in-depth enough for graduate courses and as a resource for scholars' and universities' libraries.
* newbooks.asia *
Joyce B. Flueckiger's new book When the World Becomes Female . . . is a rich and colorful analysis of the goddess Gangamma's festival and her devotees.7/3/15
* New Books in South Asian Studies *
[Joyce Flueckiger addresses] directly questions of the relationships between a goddess and her devotees, and the ways that those devotees play with gender.April 2015
* H-Asia *
This is a carefully crafted ethnography on the South Indian festival of the village goddess Gangamma in the pilgrimage town of Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. . . . Recommended.
* Choice *
Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Introduction
Part 1. Imaginative Worlds of Gangamma
1. An Aesthetics of Excess
2. Guising, Transformation, Recognition, and Possibility
3. Narratives of Excess and Access
4. Female-Narrated Possibilities of Relationship
5. Gangamma as Ganga River Goddess
Part 2. Those Who Bear the Goddess
6. Wandering Goddess, Village Daughter: Avilala Reddys
7. Temple and Vesham Mirasi: The Kaikalas of Tirupati
8. The Goddess Served and Lost: Tattayagunta Mudaliars
9. Exchanging Talis with the Goddess: Protection and Freedom to Move
10. "Crazy for the Goddess": A Consuming Relationship
Conclusion: Possibilities of a World Become Female
Glossary
Notes
References
Index
