ebooks Living with Jim Crow: African American Women and Memories of the Segregated South (Palgrave Studies in Oral History) by L. Brown; A. Valk in History

Description

Annually during the months of autumn; Bengal hosts three interlinked festivals to honor its most important goddesses: Durga; Kali; and Jagaddhatri. While each of these deities possesses a distinct iconography; myth; and character; they are all martial. Durga; Kali; and Jagaddhatri often demand blood sacrifice as part of their worship and offer material and spiritual benefits to their votaries. Richly represented in straw; clay; paint; and decoration; they are similarly displayed in elaborately festooned temples; thronged by thousands of admirers. The first book to recount the history of these festivals and their revelry; rivalry; and nostalgic power; this volume marks an unprecedented achievement in the mapping of a major public event. Rachel Fell McDermott describes the festivals' origins and growth under British rule. She identifies their iconographic conventions and carnivalesque qualities and their relationship to the fierce; Tantric sides of ritual practice. McDermott confronts controversies over the tradition of blood sacrifice and the status-seekers who compete for symbolic capital. Expanding her narrative; she takes readers beyond Bengal's borders to trace the transformation of the goddesses and their festivals across the world. McDermott's work underscores the role of holidays in cultural memory; specifically the Bengali evocation of an ideal; culturally rich past. Under the thrall of the goddess; the social; political; economic; and religious identity of Bengalis takes shape.