Browsing by Subject "history"

This work stems from the various debates of the definition, authenticity and plurality of yoga traditions both among yoga practitioners and scholars. The work has two aims: to move away from these debates by constructing a new theoretical perspective, and to study yoga as a lived, non-ascetic practice in India because based on ethnography, because such ethnographic study has not been done properly. The material of this work is based on official field work in the city of Bangalore, in Karnātaka state, India, from the end of October 2005 towards the end of February 2006. This thesis then seeks to map the social reality of yoga as it existed in the mid 2000’s among the of middle-aged, middle-class Hindu practitioners. In this work, it is analyzed how they narrate yoga. Overview of yoga history is presented as a frame that both provides an intertextual library and guides interpretation as an authoritative voice of “past in the present”. Similarly, the traditional sources of authoritative knowledge in India, the Sanskritic textual canon and the institution of the guru are discussed. The yoga narratives gathered in Bangalore essentially informs the re-theorizing of yoga, shifting focus from tradition to knowledge. Knowledge is taken as the main analytical category of the discussion. The dialogic relationship of theory and practice is at the core this work which then translates into exploring yoga knowledge as two interconnected categories: objectified knowledge, that is theory and philosophy of yoga, and embodied knowledge, meaning not only the practiced techniques of yoga but essentially all yoga knowledge that is performed. Yoga classes and narratives are observed as knowledge performances. Lastly, practitioner narratives are analyzed by using the concepts of objectified and embodied knowledge, hierarchies of knowledge and participant roles in addition to exploring the narratives in their ethnographic context. As a result, the work concludes: each performance has the potential to integrate the theory and practice, and despite all the differences, all yoga is yoga.

This thesis examines Japanese castle reconstructions in the Heisei (1989–2019) and Reiwa eras (2019–) and links them to the ideas of cultural heritage and authenticity in traditional architecture. Japanese castles are opportune for examining the development of the role of architecture in cultural heritage throughout history. The role of castles as symbols of authority and later as symbols of local culture and history has changed according to the fluctuations of time and the needs of the contemporary people and thoughts. After majority of the feudal castles were demolished during Japan’s modernization, there have been three distinctive “booms” during which castles have been reconstructed. In the post-war era, dozens of ahistorical concrete replicas of castles were rebuilt concrete as local town symbols, and to many they symbolized the rebuilding of post-war Japan. From the early 1990s, however, a new castle boom has taken place, with the reconstructions emphasizing on using wood and historical evidence. Most notable of these reconstruction projects is the Nagoya Castle reconstruction project, in which the post-war concrete castle tower is to be demolished and rebuilt from wood using original methods and historical plans. This thesis examines these reconstructions in contemporary Japan, aiming to understand how authenticity and cultural heritage are related to this ongoing boom. In this study, a country-wide visitor survey on 10 Japanese castle sites was conducted, supported by two expert interviews from supervisors of two Heisei era castle reconstructions in Ōzu and Kakegawa cities. The findings supported the hypothesis, which suggested that the current appeal of castles is linked not only to their symbolic value to the castle towns, but also their value as objects of cultural heritage. This is why “authentic”, wooden reconstructions are preferred, which was evident from the visitor surveys, as all the respondents favored wooden reconstructions over concrete ones. Furthermore, majority of the respondents wished for more authentic castle reconstructions to be built.