Religion Against the Self: An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals

245 Pages·2000·12.76 MB·English

by  Isabelle Nabokov

RELIGION AGAINST THE SELF
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RELIGION AGAINST
THE SELF
An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals
Isabella Nabokov
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2OOO
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford New York
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and associated companies in
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Copyright CO 2000 by Isabella Nabokov
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue. \ew York. New York looib
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced.
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means.
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise.
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nabokov, Isabelle.
Religion against the self : an ethnography of Tamil Rituals /
Isabelle Nabokov.
p. cm.
ISBN o-i L)-;J i i ^64-0: ISBN 0-19-51 i ^65-9 Ipbk.l
i. Hinduism—India—Tamil Nadu—Customs and practices. 2. Tamils
(Indie people!—Customs and practices, v Tamil Nadu (India]
Religious life and customs. 4. Spirit possession India Tamil
Nadu. 1. Title.
BI.122(1.is.T}6N^ 2000
}ofi.6'ot)54'82 - dc.ii c.)i)-.54727
i 5 s 7 S 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-tret1 paper
For Penelope
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PREFACE
This book is a documentation and analysis of a spectrum of practices by
means of which congregations of suffering and congregations of kinship in
the South Arcot district of Tamilnadu, South India, deal with crises of inclu-
sion and exclusion. It emphasizes that these practices are so strongly similar
to one another that anthropological categories like "initiation," "divination,"
"sorcery," "countersorcery," "demonic possession," "exorcism," "investiture,"
and "sacrifice" do not gloss their common symbolic structures, processual
dynamics, and underlying resonances. It also contends that anthropological
dualist or triadic models of the ritual process fail to describe Tamil rituals.
Participants, for instance, are not separated from society, put in the realm of
liminality, and then put back in society as is assumed in most of these models,
but are continuously drawn into an "innermost" space. Finally, the book dis-
tinguishes between two kinds of ritual structures: "prescriptive" rituals, which
pressure people to incorporate an outer or public image of themselves, and
"performative" rituals, which let them author their own transformations; but
it argues that both kinds ultimately do violence to the self. At its broadest
level, this book is about how religion coerces the Tamil person into becoming
someone at odds with his or her self.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank all the Tamil women and men who accepted my garbled questions,
invited me into their homes and shrines, tolerated my intrusions at family
rituals, and made my ethnographic project possible. My debt to them is enor-
mous. No words could express the gratitude I feel for their patience and hos-
pitality.
Ethnographic research was funded by the American Institute of Indian
Studies to which I extend my deepest appreciation. Throughout fieldwork, the
A1IS directors and administrators in India and in the United States, Ms. Kaye
Hill, Joseph W. Elder. P. Venugopala Rao. and especially Pradeep Mehendiratta,
assisted me in every possible way and I thank them all for their support.
Without the help of my five field assistants this work would not exist. I
single out M. Savarana Kumar from Madurai, whose good-humor and cour-
tesy won me the sympathy of many South Arcot villagers and contributed to
the success of the entire field project. Saravana was recommended to me by
Ulrike Niklas and introduced to me by Eveline Masilamani-Meyer, so my
thanks to them as well. R Srida from Alampoondi offered English translations
and valuable commentaries of many interviews. From Madurai, P. Velraj, and
D. M. Saravanan also worked with me on interviews, transcriptions, and
translations of many tapes. Finally M. Thavamani of Gingee, who joined me
halfway through my fieldwork, came closer than any to becoming a true
intellectual collaborator in this research
Other established scholars provided mentorship and assistance in India.
AH' Hiltebeitel's lecture on the cult of the goddess DraupadT at the Kamaraj
University of Madurai inspired me to settle nearby Gingee where he had doc-
umented her festival. T. Murugarathanam, professor and head of the Depart-
ment of Tamil Studies at Madurai Kamaraj University, served as my academic
mentor in India. J. Rajasekaran. coordinator for the University of Wisconsin
Language Program Abroad, always made my stays in Madurai productive and
fun, offering not only experienced advice, but, perhaps more importantly, his