Author: McDermott, Rachel Fell ; & Kripal, Jeffrey John ; editors:
Title: Encountering Kali : In the Margins, at the Center, in the West
Description: Berkeley [CA], Univ. of California Press, 2003. orig.cloth. 24x16cm, xviii,321 pp.. Textual illustrations. Minor rubbing. VG. ¶ Contents: Kali in the Texts & Contexts of South Asia: Kali the Terrific and Her Tests: The Sakta Devotionalism of the Mahabhagavata Purana; The Domestication of a Goddess: Carana-tirtha Kalighat, the Mahapitha of Kali; Dominating Kali: Hindu Family Values and Tantric Power; Kali in a Context of Terror: The Tasks of a Goddess in Sri Lanka's Civil War; Kali Mayi: Myth and Reality in a Banaras Ghetto; Kali in Western Settings, Western Discourses: Wrestling with Kali: South Asian and British Constructions of the Dark Goddess; "India's Darkest Heart": Kali in the Colonial Imagination; Why the Tantrika Is a Hero: Kali in the Psychoanalytic Tradition; Doing the Mother's Caribbean Work: On Shakti and Society in Contemporary Trinidad; Margins at the Center: Tracing Kali through Time, Space, and Culture; Kali's New Frontiers: A Hindu Goddess on the Internet; Appendix: Documentary Film and Video Resources for Teaching on Kali and Fierce Goddesses ["Encountering Kalõ explores one of the most remarkable divinities the world has seen--the Hindu goddess Kalõ. She is simultaneously understood as a blood-thirsty warrior, a goddess of ritual possession, a Tantric sexual partner, and an all-loving, compassionate Mother. Popular and scholarly interest in her has been on the rise in the West in recent years. Responding to this phenomenon, this volume focuses on the complexities involved in interpreting Kalõ in both her indigenous South Asian settings and her more recent Western incarnations...." - Publisher's description]

Keywords: History of Religion, Hinduism, Hindu Deities, Kali Deity, Tantra Tantric, India South Asia, Anthropology, Sakta Tantrism, Sociology