Social Relationships through Gifts

DOI Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 贈与が織りなす社会関係
  • 贈与が織りなす社会関係 : 現代南インドにおけるヒンドゥー寺院を事例に
  • ゾウヨ ガ オリナス シャカイ カンケイ : ゲンダイ ミナミインド ニ オケル ヒンドゥー ジイン オ ジレイ ニ
  • A Study of Religious Gift-Giving Practices in a Hindu Temple
  • 現代南インドにおけるヒンドゥー寺院を事例に

Search this article

Description

<p>This paper describes how the practice of religious gift-giving facilitates the building of social relationships in a traditional Hindu temple in contemporary South India. The author analyzes the patron-client relationship between the temple priests and their devotees, focusing on the Hindu religious terms bhakti and prasāda. Though the lives of the priests and the management of the temple are economically dependent on donations from the devotee (kattalai), these religious norms can work to prevent a relationship of dependence, enabling the priests to maintain their dignity. These norms are also related to the imagination and creation of a society in which their god participates in social relationships through involvement as an actor in the gift-giving interaction. This paper clarifies the potentiality of these religious terms and examines how they are imagined and refined in person-to-person gift-giving practices, which vary with economic, political, and social changes and the religious ideals of the temple.</p>

Journal

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top