Dear all,
please consider submitting a title and an abstract for the XXII conference of the International Association for the History of Religions, which will be held at University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand), 23-29 August 2020.
Title of the Panel: Tantra, Shamanism, and Magic: Experiences, Practices, and Practitioners at the “Margins” of the Indic World
Convenors: Andrea Acri (EPHE, Paris) and Paolo E. Rosati (Independent scholar)
Abstract: Tantra, since the middle of the first millennium CE when it made its first step in the Brahmanic religious folds, challenged the dualistic view of the cosmos as an opposition between purity and impurity. Through its ritual violation and subversion of what was perceived as orthopraxy by the mainstream religions in many regions of Asia, Tantra emerged as a source of power, which was closely related to the milieux at the “margins” of Indic mainstream religions. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this panel aims to shed light on experiences, practices and practitioners which have been frequently alienated by the mainstream Indic religions across South and Southeast Asia. Particular attention will be paid to the cross- and trans- cultural dialectic between mainstream, tantric, and intersecting magic-shamanic “marginal” phenomena across history and geography, and their instantiations in textual corpora, myths, folk and oral traditions, visual and performative arts, rituals, and festivals.
Please email to
paoloe.rosati@gmail.com (cc to
andrea.acri@ephe.psl.eu) your
name,
position, a
title, a
long abstract (500 words), a
short abstract (max 150 words), which in case of acceptance will be included in the panel proposal, and a short CV (max. 2 pages) with your academic experiences (paper presentations, publications, academic degrees, etc.)
by 5 December 2020.
Feel free to circulate this CfP.
