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Cultures of South India: three lectures
Professor Heidrun Brückner, Head of the Chair of Indology at Würzburg University, has been invited by IKOS to lecture on three topics related to cultures of South India
1. Folk Culture and Modernity: The Case of Goddess Renuka Ellamma and her Special Devotees
The presentation introduces the South Indian goddess Renuka-Ellamma and her temple at Saundatti in North Karnataka. The lecture will be illustrated by slides and film clips. Special groups of devotees are dedicated to the goddess and initiated at her temple. Over the last few decades, some of the folk-religious practices in the area have been questioned and criticized as not fitting either the self-image of India as a modern nation or the rapidly spreading middle-class values. The lecture discusses the impact of "modernization" on "folk" or popular religious culture, taking the so-called "Devadasis" and...
Last minute room change today:
The seminar will be held in seminar room 12 PAM, not the usual room 8.
Reading list change
We discussed the availability of my book "Makers of Modern Indian Religions" in class last Thursday. I am afraid I have made a mistake in assuming that this book was available for free on the internet. In fact, it is available for free from Oxford University Press, but dowloading and reading requires that our host institution (University of Oslo) subsrcibes to these services. It does not.
My conclusion, then, is that we change our reading list. You may use Peter van der Veer's "Religious Nationalism" as an alternative overview of some of the large, general questions we are addressing in our course. In addition, I urge you to think about additional literature focusing more specifically on the tradition(s) that you choose to make the subject of your paper this semester. If you feel unsure about this, feel free to contact me.
Torkel Brekke
Nepali Intensive Course 2010, Heidelberg
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg arrangerer intensivkurs i Nepali fra 2. til 27. august 2010. Du kan finne mer informasjon på denne lenken.
Semesteroppgave er lagt ut i Fronter, under "SAS4210 - Meldinger".