A01=Ronald L. Barrett
aghor medicine
aghor therapy
aghori
anthropology
Author_Ronald L. Barrett
ayurveda
biomedicines
cannibalism
Category=JBSR
Category=JHM
Category=MX
Category=QRD
charnel grounds
conflict
coprophagy
corpses
cremation
cremation grounds
death
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
hardship
healing
healing powers
health
human skulls
illness and health
india
kapalas
living naked
medical anthropology
medical conditions
meditation
multicultural medicine
northern india
political organization
politics
pollution
post mortem rites
radical
ritual bathing
ritually polluted substances
skull cups
stigmatized diseases
Product details
- ISBN 9780520252196
- Weight: 318g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 04 Mar 2008
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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For centuries, the Aghori have been known as the most radical ascetics in India: living naked on the cremation grounds, meditating on corpses, engaging in cannibalism and coprophagy, and consuming intoxicants out of human skulls. In recent years, however, they have shifted their practices from the embrace of ritually polluted substances to the healing of stigmatized diseases. In the process, they have become a large, socially mainstream, and politically powerful organization. Based on extensive fieldwork, this lucidly written book explores the dynamics of pollution, death, and healing in Aghor medicine. Ron Barrett examines a range of Aghor therapies from ritual bathing to modified Ayurveda and biomedicines and clarifies many misconceptions about this little-studied group and its highly unorthodox, powerful ideas about illness and healing.
Ron Barrett is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropological Sciences at Stanford University.
