| Burning Women: Widows, Witches, and Early Modern European Travelers in India 2003 Edition Contributor(s): Banerjee, P. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1403960186 ISBN-13: 9781403960184 Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan OUR PRICE: $52.24 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: February 2003 Annotation: In early modern Europe, the circulation of visual and verbal transmissions of sati, or Hindu widowburning, not only informed responses to the ritualized violence of Hindu culture, but also intersected in fascinating ways with specifically European forms of ritualized violence and European constructions of gender ideology. European accounts of women being burned in India uncannily commented on the burnings of women as witches and criminal wives in Europe. When Europeans narrated their accounts of sati, perhaps the most striking illustration of Hindu patriarchal violence, they did not specifically connect the act of widowburning to a corresponding European signifier: the gruesome ceremonial burnings of women as witches. In examining early modern representations of sati, the book focuses specifically on those strategies that enabled European travelers to protect their own identity as uniquely civilized amidst spectacular displays of "Eastern barbarity." |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Death & Dying - Social Science | Women's Studies - Literary Criticism | Feminist |
| Dewey: 393.909 |
| LCCN: 2002068407 |
| Series: Early Modern Cultural Studies 1500-1700 |
| Physical Information: 0.88" H x 6.8" W x 8.82" (1.00 lbs) 278 pages |
| Themes: - Sex & Gender - Feminine - Topical - Death/Dying |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In early modern Europe, the circulation of visual and verbal transmissions of sati, or Hindu widow burning, not only informed responses to the ritualized violence of Hindu culture, but also intersected in fascinating ways with specifically European forms of ritualized violence and European constructions of gender ideology. European accounts of women being burned in India uncannily commented on the burnings of women as witches and criminal wives in Europe. When Europeans narrated their accounts of sati, perhaps the most striking illustration of Hindu patriarchal violence, they did not specifically connect the act of widow burning to a corresponding European signifier: the gruesome ceremonial burnings of women as witches. In examining early modern representations of sati, the book focuses specifically on those strategies that enabled European travellers to protect their own identity as uniquely civilized amidst spectacular displays of 'Eastern barbarity'. |