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Sensuality and Consciousness II: Love in Rural South India
Author(s) -
Sorenson E. Richard
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
anthropology of consciousness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1556-3537
pISSN - 1053-4202
DOI - 10.1525/ac.1995.6.1.1
Subject(s) - sensibility , consciousness , caste , expansive , sociology , aesthetics , salient , history , gender studies , psychology , art , political science , literature , archaeology , compressive strength , materials science , law , composite material , neuroscience
In rural south India, embracing a spectrum spanning ancient times to present, three fundamentally different types of love‐sensibility persist. They impel life variously, beget dissimilar psychologies, spawn contrasting economic systems. Between them diverse hybrids rise. Although the spectrum transcends caste, a deeper, more pervasive Indic sense‐of‐caste extends to all. Its live‐and‐let‐ live character enables ancient lifeways to coexist with diverse types, including newer ones, even within small rural communities. Enduring, bifurcating, even coalescing, the resulting mix of variant lifestyles presents a dazzling kaleidoscope of propinquity, propensity and purpose. Within it can be seen three salient types of love‐sensibility: fear‐and‐trembling, intimate personal sensuality, and expansive communal sensuality.