Full Description
Embodying Transnational Yoga is a refreshingly original, multi-sited ethnography of transnational yoga that obliges us to look beyond postural practice (as̄ana) in modern yoga research.
The book introduces readers to three alternative, understudied categories of transnational yoga practice which include food, music, and breathing. Studying these categories of embodied practice using interdisciplinary methods reveals transformative "engaged alchemies" that have been extensively deployed by contemporary disseminators of yoga. Readers will encounter how South Asian dietary regimens, musical practices, and breathing techniques have been adapted into contemporaneous worlds of yoga practice both within, but also beyond, the Indian Ocean rim.
The book brings the field of Modern Yoga Studies into productive dialogue with the fields of Indian Ocean Studies, Embodiment Studies, Food Studies, Ethnomusicology, and Pollution Studies. It will also be a valuable resource for both scholarly work and for teaching in the fields of Religious Studies, Anthropology, and South Asian Religions.
Contents
Introduction. Engaged Alchemies: New Approaches to the Study of Contemporary Yoga; Chapter 1. Patanjali and Arjuna meet American Countercuisine: Yogic Diet and Selfless Service at Gurani Anjali's Yoga Anand Ashram, Long Island; Chapter 2. Yogananda's Sacred Music in Paradise: Ukuleles and the Unstruck Sound at Polestar Gardens, Hawaii; Chapter 3. Internalizing the Sacrifice in a Sacrifice Zone: Situating Purifying Prāṇāyāma in Pollution at Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute, Lonavala; Conclusion. Future Directions for the Study of Yoga; Index
