Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth
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"This work is a tour-de-force in cross-cultural scholarship, both sound and bold, constructing a new and refreshing theory on the rise to prominence of rebirth eschatology in India. Obeyesekere argues convincingly that 'ethicization' of rebirth through the theory of karma was the new ingredient that transformed a commonplace belief into a central philosophical and eschatological principle in most of Indian theologies. This is a book that will engage and challenge anthropologists, classicists, and Indologists alike, as well as non-specialists interested in culture and religion."—Patrick Olivelle, University of Texas at Austin"This is a book in the grand tradition of comparative studies, pulling together anthropology, psychology, psychoanalysis, classics, Indology, and history of religions, but in a distinctly contemporary mode. Few scholars would attempt such a project today, let alone pull it off so intriguingly as Obeyesekere does. A brilliant and intellectually courageous book."—Paul B. Courtright, Emory University, author of Ganesha, Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings Paul B. Courtright This is a book in the grand tradition of comparative studies, pulling together anthropology, psychology, psychoanalysis, classics, Indology, and history of religions, but in a distinctly contemporary mode. Few scholars would attempt such a project today, let alone pull it off so intriguingly as Obeyesekere does. A brilliant and intellectually courageous book.
List of IllustrationsPrefaceList of Abbreviations1Karma and Rebirth in Indic Religions: Origins and Transformations12Non-Indic Theories of Rebirth19West Africa19The Trobriand Model28Animal and Human Reincarnation: Northwest Coast Indians and Inuit (Eskimo)37Human and Animal Transformations43Kinship, Rebirth, and Desire46Tlingit Eschatology: Rebirth, Desire, and the Return of the Dead50Animal and Human Reincarnation: An Ethical Dilemma among the Kwakiutl583The Imaginary Experiment and the Buddhist Implications72The Transformation of the Rebirth Eschatology72Emergence of the Karmic Eschatology78Upanishadic Ethicization: The Earliest Indic Model84The Model and the Buddhist Interconnections88Ethicization in Its Historical Context: The Samanic Religions97Contemporary Tribal Religions98Ethicization, Axiology, and the Brahmanic Tradition99Nonethicized Samanic Religions: The Doctrines of the Ajivikas102Eel-Wrigglers and Hair-Splitters: Contentious Discourses in Buddhist Thought108Ethical Transformation and the Axial Age: Ethical Prophecy and Ethical Asceticism115Rationalization and the Transformation of Thought120The Limits of Innovative Thought: Temporality, Impermanence, Nirvana125Karma, Causality, and the Aporias of Existence129Ethicization, Karma, and Everyday Life140Ascetic Religiosity and the Escape from the World1444The Buddhist Ascesis150The Imagined Buddha150The Renunciatory Ideal in the Buddhist Imagination158The Buddha as Seer: The Life Fate of the Buddhist Dead160Samanism and Shamanism: Ecstasis, Enstasis, and Spirit Possession164Ethicization and the Creation of a God-Making Machine168Ethicization and Axiologization173Buddhism, Axiologization, and the Vedic Tradition176Axiologization Continued: Homo Hierarchicus and Homo Aequalis in India1825Eschatology and Soteriology in Greek Rebirth190Methodological Remarks190Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism: A Probable Mythos193History Telling Continued: Pythagorean Beginnings and Lifeways200Pythagorean Soteriology207Ethicization and Soteriology in Empedocles214Ethicization Step 1: Popular Religiosity in Pindar232Orphic Reincarnation: A Brief Aside236Bridging Multiple Worlds: Plato and the Myth of Er2406Rebirth and Reason249Metacosmesis in the Phaedo249The Soteriology and Eschatology of the Phaedrus254The Cosmology of the Timaeus258Cosmological Homoeroticism, Heterophobia, and Female Nature in Platonic Rebirth266Ethicization and Soteriology in the Platonic Dialogues270Regrouping: Rebirth, Memory, and Retrocognition275Reason, Conviction, and Eschatology in Platonic, Buddhist, and Amerindian Thought283"Karma" in Greek Thought: Plotinian Eschatology and Soteriology287Rebirth and the Idea of God: The Druze Case3087Imprisoning Frames and Open Debates: Trobriander, Buddhist, and Balinese Rebirth Revisited319Reincarnation, Procreation, and the Embodiment of the Soul319Buddhism, Procreation, and Rebirth331Balinese Rebirth: Contentious Discourses on Rebirth and Karmic Eschatologies334Methodological Postscript344Notes361Bibliography413Index429
