Social Anthropology Seminar - Dr Piers Vitebsky (University of Cambridge)
| Dates: | 8 February 2016 |
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| Times: | 16:00 - 18:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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| Speaker: | Dr Piers Vitebsky |
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Social Anthropology Seminar
Monday, 08 February 2016
Dr Piers Vitebsky, University of Cambridge
Title: “Changing forms of loss and redemption in Tribal India"
During the 1970s, I studied dialogues between the living and the dead among the Sora of Tribal India. I understood this as a remarkable form of grief management, mediated through shamans in trance, in which living and dead healed each other through a form of joint psychotherapy. But if this animistic system was as fulfilling as I thought, why did the next generation abandon it to become Baptists? The structure of Baptist cosmic time makes it impossible to know anything about the dead. But Baptism does make it possible to get government jobs. What kind of liberation do young Sora achieve by rejecting their dead parents? I shall compare theologies of redemption in these two religions, and ask why some Sora are now going on to convert instead to nationalistic Hindu cults. What does it mean to transfer one's religious energy from mortal ancestors to superhuman gods, and what are the tensions between Jesus and Krishna?
Ground Floor G.030 / 31 (Just for this week), Arthur Lewis Building
4:15 – 6:00pm (Tea and coffee available outside the room from 4:00pm)
ALL WELCOME!
Speaker
Dr Piers Vitebsky
Organisation: University of Cambridge
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
2nd floor Boardroom. 2.016 / 017
Arthur Lewis Building
Manchester
