A Social Anthropological Study on Goddess Cults in South Asia

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The present study aims to ; (1) analyze first-hand data on goddess cults in Sri Lanka and India ; (2) examine historical and anthropological literature on goddess cults in South Asia ; (3) analyze the relationships between religion and gender/sexuality in a more general perspective. Regarding to the first objective (1), a structural analysis has been applied to understand several goddess cults observed in Sri Lanka and southern India. The main criteria are the degree of the autonomy of concerned goddesses, and the degree of the anti-structural elements in the cults. By mapping the goddess cults in the matrix, the seemingly various cults become visually understandable in relation to social factors such as the status of participants. As for the second aim (2), the same method has been used to other goddess cults found in the literature. Finally a tentative effort was made to understand complex goddess cults in a more theoretical framework, applying Althusser's analysis of ideology.