Wondering About Wonder: Hindu Temple Ritual, Aesthetics and Creativity

Through her decades-long ethnography of Hindu temple rituals in the city of Bangalore, India, Tulasi Srinivas analyzes wonder as an anthropological concept; moments where ritual enmeshes with global modernity to create wonder- a feeling of amazement at being overcome by the unexpected and sublime. In this talk, Srinivas asks— What is the purpose of wonder and how does it link with creativity? Can it inform our practices of ethnography, our understanding of India, and of ourselves? Srinivas pursues an interrogation of wonder and the adventure of writing true to its experience, reshaping our appreciation of wonder’s transformative potential for scholarship and for life.

Sponsored by International and Global- South Asian Studies, Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, Religion, History of Art & Architecture and Sociology & Anthropology.