Agency and knowledge in Northeast India the life and landscapes of dreams / Michael Heneise.
| Author/creator | Heneise, Michael T. |
| Format | Electronic |
| Publication Info | London ; New York : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2019. |
| Description | xv, 171 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm |
| Supplemental Content | Full text available from Taylor & Francis eBooks |
| Subjects |
| Series | Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian studies series |
| Contents | The social life of dreams -- The Angami science of dreaming -- The phenomenology of dreaming -- The corporeality of dreams -- The authority of dreams -- The landscape of dreams -- The public life of dreams. |
| Abstract | "The Nagas of Northeast India give great importance to dreams as sources of divine knowledge, especially knowledge about the future. Although British colonialism, Christian missions, and political conflict have resulted in sweeping cultural and political transformations in the Indo-Myanmar borderlands, dream sharing and interpretation remain important avenues for negotiating everyday uncertainty and unpredictability. This book explores the relationship between dreams and agency through ethnographic fieldwork among the Angami Nagas. It tackles questions such as: What is dreaming? What does it mean to say 'I had a dream'? And how do night-time dreams relate to political and social actions in waking moments? Michael Heneise shows how the Angami glean knowledge from signs, gain insights from ancestors, and potentially obtain divine blessing. Advancing the notion that dreams and dreaming can be studied as indices of relational, devotional, and political subjectivities, the author demonstrates that their examination can illuminate the ways in which, as forms of authoritative knowledge, they influence daily life, and also how they figure in the negotiation of day-to-day domestic and public interactions. Moreover, dream narration itself can involve techniques of 'interference' in which the dreamer seeks to limit or encourage the powerful influence of social 'others' encountered in dreams, such as ancestors, spirits, or the divine. Based on extensive ethnographic research, this book advances research on dreams by conceptualising how the 'social' encompasses the broader, co-extensive set of relations and experiences - especially with spirit entities - reflected in the ethnography of dreams"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Access restriction | Available only to authorized users. |
| Technical details | Mode of access: World Wide Web |
| Genre/form | Electronic books. |
| LCCN | 2018011557 |
| ISBN | 9781138479647 (hardback) |
| ISBN | (ebook) |
| ISBN | ebook |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic Resources | Access Content Online | ✔ Available |