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Lethal Spots, Vital Secrets: Medicine and Martial Arts in South India by Roman Sieler (Hardcover, 2015)

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Lethal Spots, Vital Secrets provides an ethnographic study of varmakkalai, or the art of the vital spots, a South Indian esoteric tradition that combines medical practice and martial arts. Although siddha medicine is officially part of the Indian Government's medically pluralistic health-care system, very little of a reliable nature has been written about it. Drawing on a diverse array of materials, including Tamil manuscripts, interviews with practitioners, and his own personal experience as an apprentice, Sieler traces the practices of varmakkalai both in different religious traditions--such as Yoga and Ayurveda--and within various combat practices. His argument is based on in-depth ethnographic research in the southernmost region of India, where hereditary medico-martial practitioners learn their occupation from relatives or skilled gurus through an esoteric, spiritual education system. Rituals of secrecy and apprenticeship in varmakkalai are among the important focal points of Sieler's study. Practitioners protect their esoteric knowledge, but they also engage in a kind of lure and withdrawal ---a performance of secrecy---because secrecy functions as what might be called symbolic capital. Sieler argues that varmakkalai is, above all, a matter of texts in practice; knowledge transmission between teacher and student conveys tacit, non-verbal knowledge, and constitutes a moral economy. It is not merely plain facts that are communicated, but also moral obligations, ethical conduct and tacit, bodily knowledge.Lethal Spots, Vital Secrets is an insightful analysis of practices rarely discussed in scholarly circles. It will be a valuable resource to students of religion, medical anthropologists, historians of medicine, Indologists, and martial arts and performance studies.

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Oxford University Press Inc
ISBN-13
9780190243852
eBay Product ID (ePID)
214366153

Product Key Features

Book Title
Lethal Spots, Vital Secrets: Medicine and Martial Arts in South India
Author
Roman Sieler
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Topic
Alternative Belief Systems, Mental Exercise, Anthropology, Hinduism
Publication Year
2015
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
320 Pages

Dimensions

Item Height
238mm
Item Width
162mm
Item Weight
592g

Additional Product Features

Title_Author
Roman Sieler
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States

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Lethal Spots, Vital Secrets: Medicine and Martial Arts in South India by Roman Sieler (Hardcover, 2015)

About this product

Product Information

Product Identifiers

Product Key Features

Dimensions

Additional Product Features

Best Selling in Books

The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery by Brianna Wiest (Paperback, 2020)

The Concise 48 Laws Of Power by Robert Greene (Paperback, 2002)

Atomic Habits: the life-changing million-copy #1 bestseller by James Clear (Paperback, 2018)

Become What You Are: Expanded Edition by Alan W. Watts (Paperback, 2003)

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (Paperback, 2000)

First Day by Andrew Daddo (Paperback, 2014)

Save on Books

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