Mesocosm
Hinduism and the Organization of a Traditional Newar City in Nepal
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3965106 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ronald Inden |
| Year | 1994 |
| Volume | 114 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 318 |
| Publication date | 1994-04-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | REVIEW |
| Review of | Mesocosm: Hinduism and the Organization of a Traditional Newar City in Nepal, Robert I Levy, 1991 |
| Venue | Journal of the American Oriental Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0279 • E-ISSN: 2169-2289 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/605875 |
| OpenAlex | W1995330270 |
| Language | EN |
Mesocosm is a study of Hinduism in its most fully realized form as a symbolic system for organizing the life of a particular kind of city - what the author terms an archaic city. The work is a detailed description and analysis of the symbolic world of Bhaktapur, a unicultural city in the Kathmandu Valley, a city which is perhaps the last surviving example of a type of organization once widespread in the ancient world.Robert Levy views Bhaktapur as a structured mesocosm, mediating between the microcosm of individual self-conception and the macrocosm of the culturally conceived larger universe. The city is a bounded entity, grounded on a minutely divided and interrelated sacrilized space. It uses that space, roles assigned by an elaborate caste system, a semantically differentiated pantheon, and the tempos and forms of the festival year and rites of passage to construct a civic dance, a web of communication and instruction which deeply affects the experience of Bhaktapur's citizens. Levy investigates the meaning of the community to the people who live there and suggests how the religious forms that have challenged Hinduism in South Asia - Christianity and, above all, Islam - are profoundly antithetical to Hinduism as the organizing principle for cities such as Bhaktapur. Mesocosm is a groundbreaking contribution to anthropology, social and religious history, and Indian and Nepalese studies
Biology · Ecosystem · Geography · Hinduism · Mesocosm · Ecology · History · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · Religious studies · South Asian Studies and Conflicts
Two Kitchens and Other 'Modern' Stories
Between Mandala and World Stage
Ontological Transformations in Hindu Tantric Ritualisms of Kathmandu Valley
Modern dharma
Social Inequality and Access to Services in Premodern Cities
A community of education
Weaving the Body and the Cosmos
Empirical Urban Theory for Archaeologists
Goddesses dancing in the city
Does symbolism ‘construct an urban mesocosm’? Robert Levy’s Mesocosm and the question of value consensus in Bhaktapur
Macrocosm, mesocosm, and microcosm
Sacred space and the city
Kingship and ‘contrapriests’
The power of space in a traditional Hindu city
Devī’s Dance
Terrifying Beauty
Accra's Sounds and Sacred Spaces
The archaeological study of neighborhoods and districts in ancient cities
Urban Open Spaces in Historical Perspective
South Asian Geometry and the Durga Temple, Aihole
Envisioning Identity
Setting a New Standard
Jains, caste and hierarchy in north Gujarat
Gatekeepers of cultural memory
The Emergence of Conversion in a Hindu-Buddhist Polytropy
Monumentality, Identity, and the State
Tellings and Texts
When Is Housing an Environmental Problem? Reforming Informality in Kathmandu
Ordering a Sacred Terrain
A Hyperreal God and Modern Belief
A Lotus Blooms in the End Times
The Living Goddess
Maoist People’s War and the Revolution of Everyday Life in Nepal, by Ina Zharkevich
Scapegoats
Pentecostal peacefulness
Hindu-Buddhist Syncretism in Medieval and Early Modern Nepal (An Obelisk (Middle of the XVIII Century) on the Restoration of Stupa Svayambhunath)
Intergenerational transfer of Indigenous knowledge by Newar women in Khokana, Nepal
Constructivist Models of Mind, Contemporary Psychoanalysis, and the Development of Culture Theory
The Anthropology of Cities
A Curious King, a Psychic Leper, and the Workings of Karma
Making it Vernacular in Agra
‘Not in the name of dharma’
In Search of Middle Indonesia
Order, identity, and religion in Nepal
Mind and Experience in a Hindu City
Is a Theory of Caste Still Possible
The Rite of Durgā in Medieval Bengal
The Anthropology of Tacit Knowledge in the Domestic Mandala
Forging Mandalic Space
Subjects, Selves, and the Politics of Personhood in Theravada Buddhism in Nepal
| Highly cited | No |
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