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Development Resources Press
Coloured Rice: Symbolic Structure in Hindu Family Festivals (second edition)
An ethnographic study of rituals celebrated by multiple castes in two villages of Karnataka State, India, and accompanying myths. Family organization is described in detail, along with discussion of women’s complex status in patrilineal kin groups, as background and context. Four types of family celebrations are described and analysed: for benign goddesses helping married women, for restless and dangerous goddesses threatening whole families, ancestor propitiation rites, and ant-hill festivals for a cobra deity. Forty-five photos have been added to the original 1988 text. Bibliography included.