Lucinda Ramberg

WSRP Research Associate 2009–10

 

Home institution

University of Kentucky

Research project

Given to the Goddess: South Indian Devadasis and the Kinship of Religion and Sex

This book project considers religiosity, sexuality, and postcolonial governance through an ethnography of theogamy (devadasi dedication) and its reform in Karnataka, South India. Karnataka devadasis are Dalit female priests whose sexuality and religiosity are bound up in their marriage to the devi they serve. This ethnography will provide an occasion for a consideration of what counts as religion and who, and what, marriage is for.

WSRP lecture

When the Goddess Is Your Husband: South Indian Devadasis and the Sexuality of Religion

Course

HDS 2103: Religion, Secularism, Feminism (Fall 2009)