Sacred Ecology
Cosmologies, Ecologies and Rituals in Colonial India (1886-1936)
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Sacred Ecology
Cosmologies, Ecologies and Rituals in Colonial India (1886-1936)
About this book
This volume delves into the colonial past and identifies papers on nature and natural phenomenon that were deemed 'primitive' and 'superstitious' by those who narrated them and analyzed them in the pages of the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, published from 1886 to 1936; the period covered by the papers that have been reproduced in this volume. However, they have been recast in the contemporary framework of environmentalism, indigenous wisdom and critical reflections on Western science and scientific methodology. The positivist method or western rationalism was propagated during the exact time of the publication of these articles, through the political hegemony of colonial rule. Each of these papers was presented to criticise 'primitive' cultures and obscurantist thinking. Yet, each presents wisdom and knowledge about nature, which, if followed, would have averted much of the environmental distress that the world is facing today. These papers have been reproduced with a purpose, a purpose to show that real knowledge was thrown away as garbage. The volume invites critical rethinking and advocates a revised version of rationalism, reconceptualisingnature as sacred, moving away from anthropocentrism towards nature-centrism.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Endorsements
- Half Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Notes on the Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Introduction: Sacred Ecology: Cosmological Connections between Humans, the Non-Humans and the Super-Humans
- 1 The Theology of Primitive Religion
- 2 Water Worship in India and Western Countries
- 3 Folklore of Bombay Wells
- 4 The Cult of the Lake Goddess of Orissa
- 5 Sacred Trees of the Hindus: Indian Planting and Gardening
- 6 A Note on the Worship of the Pipal Tree in Bengal
- 7 On the Tulsi Plant
- 8 A Note on the “Dhatri Puja”, as Performed by the Hindustanis Resident in Calcutta
- 9 Note on Fire Worship among the Ancient Arabs
- 10 Dream Plants: Indian Planting and Gardening
- 11 The Thunder Myths of the Primitive Races
- 12 Sun Worship in a Chittagong Nursey Rhyme
- 13 The Full Moon Festival of the Tripuris or the Three Flying Cities of the Asuras: A Probable Relic of the Struggle between the Devas (Indo-Aryans) and Asuras (Iranian Aryans)
- 14 On a Tibetan Weather Superstition
- 15 The Crocodile in Bengali Folklore and Cult
- 16 On Some Superstitious Beliefs about the Lizard
- 17 A Note on Dakshina Raya, a Modern Deity
- 18 Notes on Ominous Birds
- 19 The Cosmological Myth of the Birhors and Its Santali and American-Indian Parallels
- 20 Some Curious Folklore about Precious Stones
- Index