Agonistic intimacy and moral aspiration in popular Hinduism

A study in the political theology of the neighbor

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2279233
AutoresB Singh (0000-0002-8877-3563, Harvard University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen38
Número3
Páginas430-450
Fecha de publicación2011-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01315.x
OpenAlexW2065311689
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas45
Referencias citadas44

In what ways do potentially hostile neighboring groups find a place in each other's moral aspirations? I analyze the arrival of a "new" god, the oral-epic deity Tejaji, in the villages of Shahbad (Rajasthan, India) and the modes of relatedness this divine migration expresses between neighboring castes and tribes. How do we conceptualize relations between neighbors? I set out the idea of "agonistic intimacy" as a way of engaging the copresence of conflict and cohabitation. Placing Tejaji in relation to longer-term currents of Hinduism, I examine the conflicts, neighborly relations, and shared moral aspirations that animate this form of religious life. I locate spiritual-moral aspirations not necessarily in "otherworldliness" but as a political theology of the neighbor, conceiving of the neighbor as human and nonhuman (as deity, spirit, and animal), in ways that widen the definition of "the political" and of "theos

Aggression · Agonistic behaviour · Cohabitation · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Hinduism · Political science · Politics · Relation (database · Set (abstract data type · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious studies · Social Psychology