White Utopias

The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals

Amanda J. Lucia (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

320 Seiten

2020
University of California Press (Verlag)
9780520376953 (ISBN)

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Transformational festivals, from Burning Man to Lightning in a Bottle, Bhakti Fest, and Wanderlust, are massive events that attract thousands of participants to sites around the world. In this groundbreaking book, Amanda J. Lucia shows how these festivals operate as religious institutions for “spiritual, but not religious” (SBNR) communities. Whereas previous research into SBNR practices and New Age religion has not addressed the predominantly white makeup of these communities, White Utopias examines the complicated, often contradictory relationships with race at these events, presenting an engrossing ethnography of SBNR practices. Lucia contends that participants create temporary utopias through their shared commitments to spiritual growth and human connection. But they also participate in religious exoticism by adopting Indigenous and Indic spiritualities, a practice that ultimately renders them exclusive, white utopias. Focusing on yoga’s role in disseminating SBNR values, Lucia offers new ways of comprehending transformational festivals as significant cultural phenomena.

Amanda J. Lucia is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside, and the author of Reflections of Amma: Devotees in a Global Embrace.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Author Note

Introduction

1. Romanticizing the Premodern: The Confluence of Indic and Indigenous Spiritualities
Interlude: Cultural Possession and Whiteness
2. Anxieties over Authenticity: American Yoga and the Problem of Whiteness
Interlude: “White People Are on the Journey of Evolution”
3. Deconstructing the Self: At the Limits of Asceticism
Interlude: Sculpting Bodies and Minds
4. Wonder, Awe, and Peak Experiences: Approaching Mystical Territories
Interlude: Producing Wonder / Branding Freedom
5. The Cathartic Freedom of Transformational Festivals: Neoliberal Escapes and Entrapments

Conclusion

Appendix 1: @Instagram Data for Public Figures Cited
Appendix 2: Methodology
Notes
References
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	11.11.2020
Zusatzinfo	5 charts, 15 b-w photographs
Verlagsort	Berkerley
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	454 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
ISBN-13	9780520376953 / 9780520376953
Zustand	Neuware