Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- I Young Śvetaketu: A Literary Study of an Upaniṣadic Story
- II Dharmaskandhāḥ and brahmasaṃsthaḥ: A Study of Chāndogya Upaniṣad 2.23.1
- III Orgasmic Rapture and Divine Ecstasy: The Semantic History of ānanda
- IV Amrtā: Women and Indian Technologies of Immortality
- V Power of Words: The Ascetic Appropriation and the Semantic Evolution of dharma
- VI Semantic History of Dharma: The Middle and Late Vedic Periods
- VII Explorations in the Early History of Dharmaśāstra
- VIII Structure and Composition of the Mānava Dharmaśāstra
- IX Caste and Purity: A Study in the Language of the Dharma Literature
- X Rhetoric and Reality: Women's Agency in the Dharmaśāstras
- XI Manu and Gautama: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XII Manu and the Arthaśāstra: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XIII Unfaithful Transmitters: Philological Criticism and Critical Editions of the Upaniṣads
- XIV Sanskrit Commentators and the Transmission of Texts: Haradatta on Āpastamba Dharmasūtra
- XV Hair and Society: Social Significance of Hair in South Asian Traditions
- XVI Abhakṣya and Abhojya: An Exploration in Dietary Language
- XVII Food for Thought: Dietary Rules and Social Organization in Ancient India
- References
- Index
XV - Hair and Society: Social Significance of Hair in South Asian Traditions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- I Young Śvetaketu: A Literary Study of an Upaniṣadic Story
- II Dharmaskandhāḥ and brahmasaṃsthaḥ: A Study of Chāndogya Upaniṣad 2.23.1
- III Orgasmic Rapture and Divine Ecstasy: The Semantic History of ānanda
- IV Amrtā: Women and Indian Technologies of Immortality
- V Power of Words: The Ascetic Appropriation and the Semantic Evolution of dharma
- VI Semantic History of Dharma: The Middle and Late Vedic Periods
- VII Explorations in the Early History of Dharmaśāstra
- VIII Structure and Composition of the Mānava Dharmaśāstra
- IX Caste and Purity: A Study in the Language of the Dharma Literature
- X Rhetoric and Reality: Women's Agency in the Dharmaśāstras
- XI Manu and Gautama: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XII Manu and the Arthaśāstra: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XIII Unfaithful Transmitters: Philological Criticism and Critical Editions of the Upaniṣads
- XIV Sanskrit Commentators and the Transmission of Texts: Haradatta on Āpastamba Dharmasūtra
- XV Hair and Society: Social Significance of Hair in South Asian Traditions
- XVI Abhakṣya and Abhojya: An Exploration in Dietary Language
- XVII Food for Thought: Dietary Rules and Social Organization in Ancient India
- References
- Index
Summary
The human body has become in recent years the subject of renewed interest across a spectrum of disciplines, from sociology to literary theory. Approaches to its study vary, of course, with each discipline. Since the groundbreaking study “Techniques of the Body” by Marcel Mauss (1935), however, an underlying assumption in the human sciences has been that the human body is not merely a physical and biological reality confronting human consciousness as an external and independent entity, but primarily a cultural construct carrying social and cultural meanings and messages. Attention has also been drawn by many sociologists and social-anthropologists to a central dimension of the cultural construction of the body: the human body stands as the primary symbol of the social body, or the body politic (Turner 1984). Mary Douglas posits the interrelationship between the two types of bodies in clear terms:
The social body constrains the way the physical body is perceived. The physical experience of the body, always modified by the social categories through which it is known, sustains a particular view of society. There is a continual exchange of meanings between the two kinds of bodily experience so that each reinforces the categories of the other.
(Douglas 1982: 65)Berger and Luckman (1967), furthermore, have drawn our attention to a central dimension of culture: all cultural creations, including the human body, have a dialectic nature.
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- Information
- Language, Texts, and SocietyExplorations in Ancient Indian Culture and Religion, pp. 321 - 350Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011
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