Why Yoga? A Cultural History of Yoga
WHY YOGA? A Cultural History of Yoga takes a critical look at yoga as culture and yoga’s role in society It is about how people – now as then – use the symbolic power of yoga to find a place within society and culture Yogis in the past The book is among many other things a fascinating historical examination of extraordinary customs and unusual social groups We hear about such past milieus’ sometimes bizarre yoga practices and lifestyles, how they are turned into powerful symbols profoundly impressing the rest of society We hear how yoga specialists use the yoga image to struggle for social recognition among competitors and other social groups Thus we hear about Jain ascetics, aristocratic warriors, Buddhist monks, Brahmin high castes, Tantric immortals, ecstatic Shamans, snake charmers, Mughal mercenaries, temple cults, fakir contortionists, rural Lumpen-proletarians, enlightened princes, naked philosophers, colonial gurus, wrestling monks, and semi-divine yogis who can fly and yogis today But we are also introduced to more conventional and familiar lifestyles of modern times: fitness trainers, intellectual Orientalists, middleclass females, Hindu missionaries, fashion models, bourgeois cultural elites, stressed executives, home going housewives, spiritual entrepreneurs, cultural intermediaries, counterculture youths, petty-bourgeois business people, academic specialists and Hollywood stars They all are culturally engaged with yoga for different reasons and rewards why do they practice yoga? Hence throughout history we hear about yoga virtuosi – living conventionally or extraordinarily – who want to find peace after death, increase energy levels, gain political and worldly power, stretch their backs, find their footing in life, be free of disease, unite with the divine, travel in time, improve their wellbeing, attain ethical guidance, realise the fundamentals of existence, secure high social ranking, commit public suicide, be purified from caste pollution, find their deepest self, live for hundreds of years, become pure consciousness, or improve the look of their bum So this book is for anyone fascinated by the amazing diversity of human history and culture seen through the lens of yoga Prepare for surprises A pioneering method A major objection is also to develop a cultural sociological methodology dedicated to the study of ever-changing ideas and culture, focusing on the evolution and transformation of yogic ideas and practices To link yoga to the changing social situation of certain groups and segments of society Thus the following notions, which are explained in specific chapters of the book, are crucial: the dialectic between cultural field and habitus conditioned by conflict and struggle for survival; the dialectic between use-value and symbolic-value; the socio-economic matrix; the understanding of discourses as cultural DNA; discourses as providers of social identity; daily habitual interaction and institutions as the main site for the evolution of new ideas and discourses; the semiotic distinction between the signifier and the signified; conceptual genealogy; high culture as internalised repression (symbolic violence); and oppositional reading This might sound speculative and abstract but when put into practice it becomes a very down-to-earth and self-evident way to describe and explain cultural change The book is written in a clear and accessible language It is structured so it meets the expectations of both educated readers and academics “This is a really interesting manuscript It occupies an unusual – even unique – space As such rather than view the book as a strictly academic work I see it as a critical perspective on the popular and academic literature as a whole In that regard I think there is nothing like this out there ” Professor Richard King, Professor of Buddhist and Asian Studies, University of Kent
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