Description: Tantric Revisionings presents stimulating new perspectives on Hindu and Buddhist religion, particularly their Tantric versions, in India, Tibet or in modern Western societies. Geoffrey Samuel adopts an historically and textually informed anthropological approach, seeking to locate and understand religion in its social and cultural context. The question of the relation between "popular" (folk, domestic, village, "shamanic") religion and elite (literary, textual, monastic) religion forms a recurring theme through these studies. Six chapters have not been previously published; the previously published studies included are in publications which are difficult to locate outside major specialist libraries.
Review Quotes: '... the ideas in each chapter are clearly explained, with reference to previous scholarship in relevant areas, so that the book could easily stand in its own right as an introduction to Samuel's thought and, therefore, may be useful to undergraduate and postgraduate students.' Religions of South Asia