Yoga in Asia—mimetic History
Problems in the Location of Secret Knowledge
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12457754 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J S Alter (0000-0002-0642-9284, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 213-229 |
| Publication date | 2009-07-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative Studies of South Asia Africa and the Middle East (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1089-201X • E-ISSN: 1548-226X |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/1089201x-2009-005 |
| OpenAlex | W2166514416 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 21 |
On one level, and with reference to a specific frame of reference, embodied forms of practice that have come to be associated with Yoga and Taoist philosophy appear to be very similar if not identical in terms of form, structure, and purpose. However, there is no clear-cut history of communication between eastern and southern Asia concerning the exchange of ideas linked to these practices, and where some scholars presume direct, linear exchange, and obvious congruity, others see radical difference and discontinuity. Taking the inspired work of the Bengali scholar Prabodh Candar Bagchi as a point of departure—and eternal return—the argument presented here is twofold. First, it is highly problematic to conceptualize cross-cultural contact in the premodern period not just in terms of the modern geopolitics of nationalism—which is fairly obvious—but also in terms of a history of ideas that is itself structured by modernity. Second, secret knowledge transforms what is in fact impossible—immortality, transcendence, enlightenment—into a historical vortex that is both local and global. Mimetic history is the recursive pattern, structured through the paradox of secrecy, whereby the impossibility of embodied enlightenment is reflected in forms of practice that, in terms of both time and space, endlessly anticipate perfection
Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis · Embodied cognition · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Impossibility · Modernity · Political science · Sociology · Transcendence (philosophy · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy
The Embodiment of Meaning and the Meaning of Embodiment
Is There Such a Thing as Chinese Yoga? Indian Postural Therapies in Mediaeval China
The Embodiment of Meaning and the Meaning of Embodiment
Kinesisk yoga? Sinificering af yoga-begrebet i sinologiske, terapeutiske og nyreligiøse sammenhænge
Imagining Asia in India
Yoga
Science and civilization in China
Art of the Bedchamber
Paths to Asian Medical Knowledge
Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques
Life along the Silk Road
Chinese Magical Medicine
Simulacra and Simulation
On the concept of sahaja in Indian Buddhist Tantric literature
Religions of the Silk Road
Ancient India and Ancient China
Tantrism in China
The Sanskrit Origins of Recent Style Prosody
Problems of Tao and Tao Te Ching *) 1)
On the Word "Taoist" as a Source of Perplexity. With Special Reference to the Relations of Science and Religion in Traditional China
The Science of Respiration and the Doctrine of the Bodily Winds in Ancient India
India and China
Buddhism in Central Asia
The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine
Yoga and fetishism
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,36 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2023 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |