Goddess on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China - Couverture rigide

Bryson, Megan

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0804799547 ISBN 13 : 9780804799546

Editeur : Stanford University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Dali is a small region on a high plateau in Southeast Asia. Its main deity, Baijie, has assumed several gendered forms throughout the area's history: Buddhist goddess, the mother of Dali's founder, a widowed martyr, and a village divinity. What accounts for so many different incarnations of a local deity?

Goddess on the Frontier argues that Dali's encounters with forces beyond region and nation have influenced the goddess's transformations. Dali sits at the cultural crossroads of Southeast Asia, India, and Tibet; it has been claimed by different countries but is currently part of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. Megan Bryson incorporates historical-textual studies, art history, and ethnography in her book to argue that Baijie provided a regional identity that enabled Dali to position itself geopolitically and historically. In doing so, Bryson provides a case study of how people craft local identities out of disparate cultural elements and how these local identities transform over time in relation to larger historical changes--including the increasing presence of the Chinese state.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Megan Bryson is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Stanford University Press
• Date d'édition: 2016
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0804799547
• ISBN 13: 9780804799546
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 264
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible