Book ID: CBB001420302

Sacred Groves and Local Gods: Religion and Environmentalism in South India (2013)

unapi

Kent, Eliza F (Author)


Oxford University Press


Publication Date: 2013
Physical Details: ix + 236 pp.; ill.; maps; bibl.; index
Language: English

Sacred Groves and Local Gods traces a journey through Tamil Nadu, exploring how the localized meanings attached to forested shrines are changing under the impact of globalization and economic liberalization. Confounding simplistic representations of sacred groves as sites of a primitive form of nature worship, the book shows how local practices and beliefs regarding sacred groves are at once more imaginative, dynamic, and pragmatic thacally de-cen previously thought. Kent argues that rather than being ancient in origin, as has been asserted by other scholars, the religious beliefs, practices, and iconography found in sacred groves suggest origins in the politintered eighteenth century, when the Tamil country was effectively ruled by local chieftains. She analyzes two projects undertaken by environmentalists that seek to harness the traditions surrounding sacred groves in the service of forest restoration and environmental education.

...More
Reviewed By

Review Strahorn, Eric (2014) Review of "Sacred Groves and Local Gods: Religion and Environmentalism in South India". Environmental History (pp. 386-387). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001420302/

Similar Citations

Book Squatriti, Paolo; (2013)
Landscape and Change in Early Medieval Italy: Chestnuts, Economy, and Culture (/isis/citation/CBB001420355/)

Book Costlow, Jane T; (2013)
Heart-Pine Russia: Walking and Writing the Nineteenth-Century Forest (/isis/citation/CBB001420376/)

Book Lewis, Michael L.; (2007)
American Wilderness: A New History (/isis/citation/CBB000930098/)

Book Newfont, Kathryn; (2012)
Blue Ridge Commons: Environmental Activism and Forest History in Western North Carolina (/isis/citation/CBB001421805/)

Chapter Cook, Elizabeth Heckendorn; (2012)
The Vocal Stump: The Politics of Tree-Felling in Swift's “On Cutting down the Old Thorn at Market Hill” (/isis/citation/CBB001421360/)

Book Tucker, Richard P; Russell, Edmund; (2004)
Natural Enemy, Natural Ally: Toward an Environmental History of War (/isis/citation/CBB000740853/)

Chapter Sörlin, Sverker; (2013)
Epilogue: Preservation in the Age of Entanglement: STS and the History of Future Urban Nature (/isis/citation/CBB001420350/)

Article Sigurmundsson, Friðρór S.; Gísladóttir, Guðrún; Óskarsson, Hreinn; (2014)
Decline of Birch Woodland Cover in Þjórsárdalur Iceland from 1587 to 1938 (/isis/citation/CBB001421932/)

Book Auricchio, Laura; Cook, Elizabeth Heckendorn; Pacini, Giulia; (2012)
Invaluable Trees: Cultures of Nature, 1660--1830 (/isis/citation/CBB001420322/)

Article Curry, Helen Anne; (2014)
Radiation and Restoration; or, How Best to Make a Blight-Resistant Chestnut Tree (/isis/citation/CBB001420285/)

Chapter Porter, Roy; (2003)
The Environment and the Enlightenment: The English Experience (/isis/citation/CBB000670928/)

Book Hall, Marcus; (2010)
Restoration and History: The Search for a Usable Environmental Past (/isis/citation/CBB001023154/)

Book Jonsson, Fredrik Albritton; (2013)
Enlightenment's Frontier: The Scottish Highlands and the Origins of Environmentalism (/isis/citation/CBB001420318/)

Book Hrvoje Petrić; Ivana Žebec Šilj; (2017)
Environmentalism in Central and Southeastern Europe: Historical Perspectives (/isis/citation/CBB598856291/)

Article Kheraj, Sean; (2007)
Restoring Nature: Ecology, Memory, and the Storm History of Vancouver's Stanley Park (/isis/citation/CBB001030865/)

Book Freinkel, Susan; (2007)
American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree (/isis/citation/CBB000850679/)

Article Bennett, Brett M.; (2011)
A Global History of Australian Trees (/isis/citation/CBB001034567/)

Book Darren Frederick Speece; Paul S. Sutter; (2019)
Defending Giants: The Redwood Wars and the Transformation of American Environmental Politics (/isis/citation/CBB502336211/)

Authors & Contributors
Cook, Elizabeth Heckendorn
Hrvoje Petrić
Ivana Žebec Šilj
Sigurmundsson, Friðρór S.
Óskarsson, Hreinn
Newfont, Kathryn
Concepts
Environmental history
Forests and forestry
Nature and its relationship to culture; human-nature relationships
Environmentalism
Trees
Restoration ecology
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
18th century
Enlightenment
21st century
17th century
Places
United States
England
Americas
Scotland
Balkan Peninsula
Sweden
Institutions
United States. National Park Service
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment