Is the Goddess a Feminist? : The Politics of South Asian Goddesses

by Hiltebeitel, Alf

• ISBN13: 9780814736197
• ISBN10: 081473619X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: New York University Press

Summary

In India, God can be female. The goddesses of Hinduism and Buddhism represent the largest extant collection of living goddesses anywhere on the planet. Feminists in the West often draw upon South Asian goddesses as theological resources in the contemporary rediscovery of the Goddess. Yet, these goddesses are products of a male supremacist society.What is the impact of powerful female deities--their images, projections, textuality, and history--on the social standing and psychological health of women? Do they empower women, or serve the interests of patriarchal culture?Is the Goddess a Feminist?looks at the goddesses of South Asia to address these questions directly.Not a book about a single goddess or even about a variety of South Asian goddesses, the volume raises questions about images of deities as symbols and the ways in which they function. Contributors discuss contemporary Indian women who have embraced goddesses as spiritually and socially liberating, as well as the seeming contradictions between the power of Indian goddesses and the lives of Indian women. They also explore such topics as the element of male desire in the embodiment of female deities, the question of who speaks for the goddesses, and the politics and theology of Western feminist use of Hindu and Buddhist goddesses as models for their feminist reflections.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	7	(11)
Introduction: Writing Goddesses, Goddesses Writing, and Other Scholarly Concerns	11	(13)
Alf Hiltebeitel
Kathleen M. Erndl
`Sa Ham---I Am She': Woman as Goddess	24	(28)
Rita DasGupta Sherma
Dancing with Prakriti: The Samkhyan Goddess as Pativrata and Guru	52	(17)
Alfred Collins
Battles, Brides, and Sacrifice: Rajput Kuldevis in Rajasthan	69	(22)
Lindsey Harlan
Is Shakti Empowering for Women? Reflections on Feminism and the Hindu Goddess	91	(13)
Kathleen M. Erndl
Is the Goddess a Feminist?	104	(9)
Rita M. Gross
Draupadi's Question	113	(10)
Alf Hiltebeitel
Is the Devi Mahatmya a Feminist Scripture?	123	(28)
Cynthia Ann Humes
Power in its Place: Is the Great Goddess of Hinduism a Feminist?	151	(15)
Usha Menon
Richard A. Shweder
Is Vajrayogini a Feminist? A Tantric Buddhist Case Study	166	(15)
Miranda Shaw
In Our Image: The Feminist Vision of the Hindu Goddess	181	(6)
Stanley N. Kurtz
Is the Hindu Goddess Tradition a Good Resource for Western Feminism?	187	(16)
Tracy Pintchman
Seeking Ma, Seeking Me	203	(36)
Brenda Dobia
A Garland of Talking Heads for the Goddess: Some Autobiographical and Psychoanalytic Reflections on the Western Kali	239	(30)
Jeffrey J. Kripal
Real and Imagined Goddesses: A Debate	269	(16)
Rajeswari Sunder Rajan
Index of Authors	285