Exploring the Senses South Asian and European Perspectives on Rituals and Performativity

This fascinating volume offers a transdisciplinary and transcultural approach to understanding the senses by exploring themes in anthropologies of sound, sight, smell, taste, touch, and movement as expressed through aesthetic, perceptual, religious, and spiritual experiences. In drawing upon comparative perspectives from Indian and Western theories, the essays demonstrate the integral relation of senses with each other as well as with allied notions of the body, emotion and cultural memory. Stressing the continued relevance of senses as they manifest in a globalized world under the influence of new media, this work will interest scholars of anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, ritual studies, psychology, religion, philosophy, and history.

Preface. 1. Exploring the Senses in Rituals and Performances: An Introduction Axel Michaels and Christoph Wulf 2. The Windows on the World: The Senses and Inner Life Remo Bodei 3. Sensory Perception and Notions of the Senses in Saamkhya Philosophy Angelika Malinar 4. Senses, Human and Divine Gerard Colas 5. The Divine Embrace: Role of Senses in Pushthimaarga Anand Mishra 6. Managing the Senses in Sant Devotion Monika Horstmann 7. The Vision: Control, Desire, Perception Christoph Wulf 8. Seeing Ghosts in India and Europe William S. Sax 9. Sonic Perception and Acoustic Communication in Hindu India Annette Wilke 10. "Noise" or "Silence"? Listening to Sacred Sound in 20th-century Europe Karsten Lichau 11. The Sonic Persona: An Anthropology of Sound Holger Schulze 12. Taste as an Aesthetic Sense Alain Montandon 13. Scent of a Flower: Notes on Olfaction in Hindu Worship Astrid Zotter 14. Untouchability and Tactility in Hindu Death Rituals Axel Michaels 15. Senses of Movement: Kinesthetics and Synesthetics in Contemporary Dance Practices Gabriele Brandstetter 16. Memory, Experience and Imagination in Performance Jayachandran Palazhy 17. Family Constellation Therapy: Body Memory and the Sense of Space Jan Weinhold 18. Performative Ritual as Sensual Experience of Body, Place and Sociality Karin M. Polit 19. Unity of the Senses in Indian Thought Sundar Sarukkai 20. The Politics of the Senses: On Vision and Hearing in Hannah Arendt’s "Vita Activa" Theofanis Tasis 21. The Sky Around Our Bodies: Climate and Atmospheric Perception Madalina Diaconu. About the Editors. Notes on Contributors

Axel Michaels is Professor of Classical Indology, South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany. Christoph Wulf is Professor of Anthropology and Philosophy of Education, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.