Śāktism and Ethnography: Some Major Styles of Worship and Belief among Practitioners

Śākta Traditions Online Lecture Series: Contributions to a growing field of Śākta Studies

This week in the Śākta Traditions Online Lecture Series we welcomed Professor June McDaniel. Professor Emerita in History of Religions in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston she did her PhD from University of Chicago and her MTS from Emory University.  Her research areas include Mysticism, Religions of India, Psychology of Religion, Women and Religion, and Ritual Studies.  She did several years of field research in West Bengal, funded by Fulbright and the American Institute of Indian Studies. In her lecture this week, she talked about the study of Shaktism being a relatively new field with the development of new methodologies to befit the perceptions of practitioners and devotees. The regional focus was on West Bengal, India. There was additionally a brief note on how traditional Shakta ideas have been incorporated into nationalism by politicians, and into hedonism by modern entrepreneurs.

Please enjoy the lecture below.