Female Ascetics in Hinduism

Female Ascetics in Hinduism

Author: Lynn Teskey Denton

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 0791484629

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Female Ascetics in Hinduism provides a vivid account of the lives of women renouncers—women who renounce the world to live ascetic spiritual lives—in India. The author approaches the study of female asceticism by focusing on features of two dharmas, two religiously defined ways of life: that of woman-as-householder and that of the ascetic, who, for various reasons, falls outside the realm of householdership. The result of fieldwork conducted in Varanasi (Benares), the book explores renouncers' social and personal backgrounds, their institutions, and their ways of life. Offering a first-hand look at and an insightful analysis of this little-known world, this highly readable book will be indispensable to those interested in female asceticism in the Hindu tradition and women's spiritual lives around the world.


Book Synopsis Female Ascetics in Hinduism by : Lynn Teskey Denton

Download or read book Female Ascetics in Hinduism written by Lynn Teskey Denton and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Female Ascetics in Hinduism provides a vivid account of the lives of women renouncers—women who renounce the world to live ascetic spiritual lives—in India. The author approaches the study of female asceticism by focusing on features of two dharmas, two religiously defined ways of life: that of woman-as-householder and that of the ascetic, who, for various reasons, falls outside the realm of householdership. The result of fieldwork conducted in Varanasi (Benares), the book explores renouncers' social and personal backgrounds, their institutions, and their ways of life. Offering a first-hand look at and an insightful analysis of this little-known world, this highly readable book will be indispensable to those interested in female asceticism in the Hindu tradition and women's spiritual lives around the world.


Female Ascetics

Female Ascetics

Author: Wendy Sinclair-Brull

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-12-16

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1136789529

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This book examines in rich detail the neglected topic of female ascetics. Based on field research, it documents the social forces which facilitated the establishment of an Order of Ascetics for women, defying tradition in many respects. It describes the subtle methods by which the individual is transformed into a full member of the Order, and how hierarchy and purity are indeed integral to the process.


Book Synopsis Female Ascetics by : Wendy Sinclair-Brull

Download or read book Female Ascetics written by Wendy Sinclair-Brull and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines in rich detail the neglected topic of female ascetics. Based on field research, it documents the social forces which facilitated the establishment of an Order of Ascetics for women, defying tradition in many respects. It describes the subtle methods by which the individual is transformed into a full member of the Order, and how hierarchy and purity are indeed integral to the process.


Female Ascetics

Female Ascetics

Author: Wendy Sinclair-Brull

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-12-16

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1136789456

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This book examines in rich detail the neglected topic of female ascetics. Based on field research, it documents the social forces which facilitated the establishment of an Order of Ascetics for women, defying tradition in many respects. It describes the subtle methods by which the individual is transformed into a full member of the Order, and how hierarchy and purity are indeed integral to the process.


Book Synopsis Female Ascetics by : Wendy Sinclair-Brull

Download or read book Female Ascetics written by Wendy Sinclair-Brull and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines in rich detail the neglected topic of female ascetics. Based on field research, it documents the social forces which facilitated the establishment of an Order of Ascetics for women, defying tradition in many respects. It describes the subtle methods by which the individual is transformed into a full member of the Order, and how hierarchy and purity are indeed integral to the process.


Making Fields of Merit

Making Fields of Merit

Author: Monica Lindberg Falk

Publisher: NIAS Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 8776940195

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"This anthropological study addresses religion and gender relations through the lens of the lives, actions and role in Thai society of an order of Buddhist nuns (mae chii). It presents a unique ethnography of these Thai Buddhist nuns, examines what it implies to be a female ascetic in contemporary Thailand and analyses how the ordained state for women fits into the wider gender patterns found in Thai society. The study also deals with the nuns' agency in creating religious space and authority for women. In addition, it raises questions about how the position of Thai Buddhist nuns outside the Buddhist sanhga affects their religious legitimacy and describes recent moves to restore a Theravada order of female monks." -- BACK COVER.


Book Synopsis Making Fields of Merit by : Monica Lindberg Falk

Download or read book Making Fields of Merit written by Monica Lindberg Falk and published by NIAS Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This anthropological study addresses religion and gender relations through the lens of the lives, actions and role in Thai society of an order of Buddhist nuns (mae chii). It presents a unique ethnography of these Thai Buddhist nuns, examines what it implies to be a female ascetic in contemporary Thailand and analyses how the ordained state for women fits into the wider gender patterns found in Thai society. The study also deals with the nuns' agency in creating religious space and authority for women. In addition, it raises questions about how the position of Thai Buddhist nuns outside the Buddhist sanhga affects their religious legitimacy and describes recent moves to restore a Theravada order of female monks." -- BACK COVER.


Female Ascetics

Female Ascetics

Author: Catherine Clémentin-Ojha

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 8

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis Female Ascetics by : Catherine Clémentin-Ojha

Download or read book Female Ascetics written by Catherine Clémentin-Ojha and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


`Virgins of God' : The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity

`Virgins of God' : The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity

Author: Susanna Elm

Publisher: Clarendon Press

Published: 1994-09-15

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 0191591637

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Many of the institutions fundamental to the role of men and women in society today were formed in late antiquity. This path-breaking study offers a comprehensive look at how Christian women of this time initiated alternative, ascetic ways of living, both with and without men. The author studies how these practices were institutionalized, and why later they were either eliminated or transformed by a new Christian Roman elite of men we now think of as the founding fathers of monasticism. - ;Situated in a period that witnessed the genesis of institutions fundamental to this day, this path-breaking study offers a comprehensive look at how ancient Christian women initiated ascetic ways of living, and how these practices were then institutionalized. Using the organization of female asceticism in Asia Minor and Egypt as a lever, the author demonstrates that - in direct contrast to later conceptions - asceticism began primarly as an urban movement. Crucially, it also originated with men and women living together, varying the model of the family. The book then traces how, in the course of the fourth century, these early organizational forms underwent a transformation. Concurrent with the doctrinal struggles to redefine the Trinity, and with the formation of a new Christian --eacute--;lite, men such as Basil of Caesarea changed the institutional configuration of ascetic life in common: they emphasized the segregation of the sexes, and the supremacy of the rural over urban models. At the same time, ascetics became clerics, who increasingly used female saints as symbols for the role of the new ecclesiastical elite. Earlier, more varied models of ascetic life were either silenced or condemned as heretical; and those who had been in fact their reformers became known as the founding fathers of monasticism. -


Book Synopsis `Virgins of God' : The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity by : Susanna Elm

Download or read book `Virgins of God' : The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity written by Susanna Elm and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1994-09-15 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of the institutions fundamental to the role of men and women in society today were formed in late antiquity. This path-breaking study offers a comprehensive look at how Christian women of this time initiated alternative, ascetic ways of living, both with and without men. The author studies how these practices were institutionalized, and why later they were either eliminated or transformed by a new Christian Roman elite of men we now think of as the founding fathers of monasticism. - ;Situated in a period that witnessed the genesis of institutions fundamental to this day, this path-breaking study offers a comprehensive look at how ancient Christian women initiated ascetic ways of living, and how these practices were then institutionalized. Using the organization of female asceticism in Asia Minor and Egypt as a lever, the author demonstrates that - in direct contrast to later conceptions - asceticism began primarly as an urban movement. Crucially, it also originated with men and women living together, varying the model of the family. The book then traces how, in the course of the fourth century, these early organizational forms underwent a transformation. Concurrent with the doctrinal struggles to redefine the Trinity, and with the formation of a new Christian --eacute--;lite, men such as Basil of Caesarea changed the institutional configuration of ascetic life in common: they emphasized the segregation of the sexes, and the supremacy of the rural over urban models. At the same time, ascetics became clerics, who increasingly used female saints as symbols for the role of the new ecclesiastical elite. Earlier, more varied models of ascetic life were either silenced or condemned as heretical; and those who had been in fact their reformers became known as the founding fathers of monasticism. -


Women Who Fly

Women Who Fly

Author: Serinity Young

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-01-02

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 019065970X

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From the beautiful apsaras of Hindu myth to the swan maidens of European fairy tales, stories of flying women-some carried by wings, others by clouds, rainbows, floating scarves, and flying horses-reveal the perennial fascination with and ambivalence about female power and sexuality. In Women Who Fly, Serinity Young examines the motif of the flying woman as it appears in a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, in legends, myths, rituals, sacred narratives, and artistic productions. She considers supernatural women like the Valkyries of Norse legend, who transport men to immortality; winged deities like the Greek goddesses Iris and Nike; figures of terror like the Furies, witches, and succubi; airborne Christian mystics; and wayward, dangerous women like Lilith and Morgan le Fay. Looking beyond the supernatural, Young examines the modern mythology surrounding twentieth-century female aviators like Amelia Earhart and Hanna Reitsch. Throughout, Young demonstrates that female power has always been inextricably linked with female sexuality and that the desire to control it is a pervasive theme in these stories. This is vividly depicted, for example, in the twelfth-century Niebelungenlied, in which the proud warrior-queen Brünnhilde loses her great physical strength when she is tricked into surrendering her virginity. Even in the twentieth-century the same idea is reflected in the exploits of the comic book and film character Wonder Woman who, Young suggests, retains her physical strength only because her love for fellow aviator Steve Trevor goes unrequited. The first book to systematically chronicle the figure of the flying woman in myth, literature, art, and pop culture, Women Who Fly offers a fresh look at the ways in which women have both influenced and been understood by society and religious traditions throughout the ages and around the world.


Book Synopsis Women Who Fly by : Serinity Young

Download or read book Women Who Fly written by Serinity Young and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beautiful apsaras of Hindu myth to the swan maidens of European fairy tales, stories of flying women-some carried by wings, others by clouds, rainbows, floating scarves, and flying horses-reveal the perennial fascination with and ambivalence about female power and sexuality. In Women Who Fly, Serinity Young examines the motif of the flying woman as it appears in a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, in legends, myths, rituals, sacred narratives, and artistic productions. She considers supernatural women like the Valkyries of Norse legend, who transport men to immortality; winged deities like the Greek goddesses Iris and Nike; figures of terror like the Furies, witches, and succubi; airborne Christian mystics; and wayward, dangerous women like Lilith and Morgan le Fay. Looking beyond the supernatural, Young examines the modern mythology surrounding twentieth-century female aviators like Amelia Earhart and Hanna Reitsch. Throughout, Young demonstrates that female power has always been inextricably linked with female sexuality and that the desire to control it is a pervasive theme in these stories. This is vividly depicted, for example, in the twelfth-century Niebelungenlied, in which the proud warrior-queen Brünnhilde loses her great physical strength when she is tricked into surrendering her virginity. Even in the twentieth-century the same idea is reflected in the exploits of the comic book and film character Wonder Woman who, Young suggests, retains her physical strength only because her love for fellow aviator Steve Trevor goes unrequited. The first book to systematically chronicle the figure of the flying woman in myth, literature, art, and pop culture, Women Who Fly offers a fresh look at the ways in which women have both influenced and been understood by society and religious traditions throughout the ages and around the world.


Ascetic Piety and Women's Faith

Ascetic Piety and Women's Faith

Author: Elizabeth Ann Clark

Publisher:

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13:

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This prize-winning text treats the subject of women in the context of the early Christian world, discussing ascetic renunciation and feminine advancement, female monasticism, and patristic exegesis of the story of Eve and Adam and the Song of Songs.


Book Synopsis Ascetic Piety and Women's Faith by : Elizabeth Ann Clark

Download or read book Ascetic Piety and Women's Faith written by Elizabeth Ann Clark and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This prize-winning text treats the subject of women in the context of the early Christian world, discussing ascetic renunciation and feminine advancement, female monasticism, and patristic exegesis of the story of Eve and Adam and the Song of Songs.


Women in Ochre Robes

Women in Ochre Robes

Author: Meena Khandelwal

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 0791485951

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Meena Khandelwal offers an engaging and intimate portrait of extraordinary Hindu women in India who wear "ochre robes," signifying their renunciation of marriage and family for lives of celibacy, asceticism, and spiritual discipline. While the largely male Hindu ascetic tradition of sannyasa renders its initiates ritually "dead" to their previous identities, the women portrayed here are very much alive. They struggle with, and joke about, the tensions and ironies of living in the world while trying not to be of it. Khandelwal juxtaposes the common refrain that "in renunciation there is no male and female" with arguments that underscore the importance of gender. In exploring these apparent contradictions, she brings together worldly and otherworldly values within renunciation and argues that these create tensions that are at once emotional, social, and philosophical.


Book Synopsis Women in Ochre Robes by : Meena Khandelwal

Download or read book Women in Ochre Robes written by Meena Khandelwal and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meena Khandelwal offers an engaging and intimate portrait of extraordinary Hindu women in India who wear "ochre robes," signifying their renunciation of marriage and family for lives of celibacy, asceticism, and spiritual discipline. While the largely male Hindu ascetic tradition of sannyasa renders its initiates ritually "dead" to their previous identities, the women portrayed here are very much alive. They struggle with, and joke about, the tensions and ironies of living in the world while trying not to be of it. Khandelwal juxtaposes the common refrain that "in renunciation there is no male and female" with arguments that underscore the importance of gender. In exploring these apparent contradictions, she brings together worldly and otherworldly values within renunciation and argues that these create tensions that are at once emotional, social, and philosophical.


Handmaids of the Lord

Handmaids of the Lord

Author: Joan Margaret Petersen

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 454

ISBN-13:

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Throughout the Christian world, women have chosen to lead disciplined lives of prayer and asceticism. Descriptions of early role-models 'Macrina, the two Palas and Melanias, Radagunde 'and others by contemporaries, usually men, provide details of their austerities, their aspirations, and their relationship with the Church and the world, not least with male authority figures.


Book Synopsis Handmaids of the Lord by : Joan Margaret Petersen

Download or read book Handmaids of the Lord written by Joan Margaret Petersen and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the Christian world, women have chosen to lead disciplined lives of prayer and asceticism. Descriptions of early role-models 'Macrina, the two Palas and Melanias, Radagunde 'and others by contemporaries, usually men, provide details of their austerities, their aspirations, and their relationship with the Church and the world, not least with male authority figures.