Cleanliness in a Caste-less Context

Collective Negotiations of Purity and Pollution among Indo-Fijian Hindus

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2144682
AutoresTrnka (0000-0002-4779-8035, The Recovery Center, autor de correspondencia), Susanna Trnka
Año2012
Volumen22
Número1
Páginas25-43
Fecha de publicación2012-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnthropological Forum (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00664677.2012.652586
OpenAlexW1579711843
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas51

Despite the near elimination of caste in Fiji, Indo-Fijian Hindus widely adhere to pollution ideologies that were once associated with caste hierarchies. In this paper, I analyse how such ideologies have been transformed from demarcating caste status to indexing Hindu identity. Examining a hotly contested community debate that took place when members of a Hindu devotional singing group in Fiji were accused of praying while being ‘unclean’, I argue that the intense local interest incited by such allegations—along with highly creative acts of adherence that many Indo-Fijian women undertake to avoid similar accusations—can illuminate largely unexamined aspects of how women collectively comply with pollution prohibitions, while simultaneously investing them with further social and moral force

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Caste · Context (archaeology) · Hinduism · Identity (music) · Ideology · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration · Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies · Gender Studies · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law · Religious studies