Encountering the Goddess in the Indian Himalaya: On the Contribution of Ethnographic Film to the Study of Religion
Religions November 25, 2021 Arik Moran 5 citations
Ethnographic film can reveal how religious categories are conceptualized by exposing gaps between colloquial descriptions of divinities and their practical manifestation in ritual. Analysis of scenes from the documentary AVATARA, which focuses on goddess worship among the Khas ethnic majority of the Hindu Himalaya, shows a fundamental difference between the popular depiction of the goddess as a virgin-child who visits followers in dreams and her actual manifestation as a menacing mother during spirit possession séances. Anthropologically informed editing bridges these incongruent images, demonstrating documentary filmmaking's advantage for approximating religious experiences.