Author: Giti Thadani
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474287042
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 162

View

Book Description
The product of many years of research, this unique book presents fascinating perspectives on contemporary lesbian life in India and unravels some of the history of lesbian desire from centuries past. Through detailed examination of mythology, cosmology, ancient art and artefacts and her exegesis of ancient Sanskrit texts, Thadani constructs a tapestry of feminine kinship, genealogy and sexual or erotic bonding between women (sakhiyani) in ancient India. The author offers an historical perspective on the effect of colonization upon lesbian identities in India, showing how women were viewed by Western imperialists either as soft victims or as sexually dangerous, possessing an overgrown clitoris and in need of heterosexual domestication. The second half of the book focuses on contemporary lesbian realities and issues, including lesbian marriages, suicide pacts, forging lesbian space, lesbian human rights, lesbophobia, sexual exile and the different construction of gender, family and possible kinship alliances.

Author: Naisargi N. Dave
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822353199
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 278

View

Book Description
This book examines the creation of lesbian communities in India from the 1980s through the early 2000s and explores the everyday practices that comprise queer activism in India.

Author: George Haggerty
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 0815333544
Category : Gay culture
Languages : en
Pages : 919

View

Book Description
Beginning in 1869, when the study of homosexuality can be said to have begun with the establishment of sexology, this Encyclopedia offers accounts of the most important international developments in an area that now occupies a critical place in many fields of academic endeavours. While gays and lesbians have shared many aspects of life, their histories and cultures developed in profoundly different ways. To reflect this crucial fact, the Encyclopedia has been prepared in two separate volumes assuring that both histories receive full, unbiased attention and that a broad range of human experience is covered. Written by some of the most famous names in the field, as well as new researchers this is intended as a reference for students and scholars in all areas of study, as well as the general public.

Author: Vicki Noble
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9781591430117
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 302

View

Book Description
A study of the "double goddess" iconography prominent in Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures that expands our understanding of female sovereignty. Celebrates this archetype of sacred female bonding and depicts a vast array of relationships women may form with themselves and each other to explore a sense of self and empowerment, and to share power with each other.

Author: Giti Thadani
Publisher: Spinifex Press
ISBN: 9781876756543
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 196

View

Book Description
Fueled by 15 years of road trips, this traveling history follows the search for relics, lost temples, and sacred sites that comprise the archaeology of lesbians in ancient India. While exploring the places, stories, and people of India, the author goes beneath the surface of more recent patriarchal cultures that have neglected or desecrated icons of the sacred feminine to reveal the marvels and mythology nearly forgotten by history.

Author: Heidi R.M. Pauwels
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019045153X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 576

View

Book Description
This book seeks to understand the major mythological role models that mark the moral landscape navigated by young Hindu women. Traditionally, the goddess Sita, faithful consort of the god Rama, is regarded as the most important positive role model for women. The case of Radha, who is mostly portrayed as a clandestine lover of the god Krishna, seems to challenge some of the norms the example of Sita has set. That these role models are just as relevant today as they have been in the past is witnessed by the popularity of the televised versions of their stories, and the many allusions to them in popular culture. Taking the case of Sita as main point of reference, but comparing throughout with Radha, Pauwels studies the messages sent to Hindu women at different points in time. She compares how these role models are portrayed in the most authoritative versions of the story. She traces the ancient, Sanskrit sources, the medieval vernacular retellings of the stories and the contemporary TV versions as well. This comparative analysis identifies some surprising conclusions about the messages sent to Indian women today, which belie the expectations one might have of the portrayals in the latest, more liberal versions. The newer messages turn out to be more conservative in many subtle ways. Significantly, it does not remain limited to the religious domain. By analyzing several popular recent and classical hit movies that use Sita and Radha tropes, Pauwels shows how these moral messages spill into the domain of popular culture for commercial consumption.

Author: Janaki Nair
Publisher: Zed Books
ISBN: 9781856498920
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 424

View

Book Description
The essays in this volume develop an understanding of the institutions, practices and forms of representation of Indian sexual relations and their boundaries of legitimacy.

Author: Ahonaa Roy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009276581
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

View

Book Description
Cosmopolitan Sexuality articulates the ethnographic and anthropological studies of varied embodied projects in Indian metropolises. With particular reference to the city of Bombay, it draws evidences of gendered representations – their desires, appeal and aspirations to be and to express their sense of self. It attempts to establish arguments to a deconstructive notion of any fixation of identity categories and build a robust and complex understanding of sexual experiences, love, emotions and interpersonal relationships; an unusual way of local as well as global patterns that are culturally scathed in the contemporary new India. The book is relevant to contemporary embodiment studies – the invasive means of desiring corporeal reconstruction on one hand, and dress, ornamentation, and makeup on the other. Transgressive politics are discursively and materially constructed to their everydayness and their unique ways of re-representation. 'Health' is viewed in new dynamics of shared knowledges and communicative practices that has enabled building fresh arguments around community and public health, with new visions of the anthropologies of empowerment.

Author: Susan Hawthorne
Publisher: Spinifex Press
ISBN: 9781876756567
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 260

View

Book Description
This is a concept from physics in which it is surmised that small actions can have enormous consequences, and that the flutter of a butterfly's wing on one side of the world can cause devastating storms on the other side. This work includes poems on a range of subjects, including death, history, culture physics, and more.

Author: Shakila Abdul Manan
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443843962
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 345

View

Book Description
This book documents the changing realities in the fields of linguistics, literature and culture in Asia, resulting from globalization, modernisation and rapid technological development. It consists of sixteen essays by academics and researchers around the world, reflecting on the interface between the global and the local, and its impact on the local and regional languages, literatures and cultures of Asia. This scenario, which exemplifies language contact in action, is captured by the book mainly to demonstrate that linguistic negotiations, appropriations and indeed changes are not one-way. As such, their implications on language use, language choice, language policy and planning, literacy and pedagogy, identity, subjectivity and culture need to be closely examined. The uniqueness of this book lies in its attempt to showcase original research in a variety of multicultural settings. Its multi- and cross-disciplinary approach will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers from diverse backgrounds. This book will serve as a useful reference that is both scholarly and informative for researchers as well as academics in the fields of linguistics, literature and culture.