Innumerable References To The Foot And To Foot Worship In Indian Culture Convey The Impression That The Foot Is Regarded As An Important If Not The Most Important Part Of The Human Body. The Foot Is Usually The Part Of The Body That Is Venerated; The Feet

Innumerable References To The Foot And To Foot Worship In Indian Culture Convey The Impression That The Foot Is Regarded As An Important If Not The Most Important Part Of The Human Body. The Foot Is Usually The Part Of The Body That Is Venerated; The Feet

COSTUME, CLOTHES & FASHION. This one-of-a-kind, A-to-Z reference work contains over 150 fascinating entries and intriguing sidebars that look at feet and adornment of feet across the many culturesof the world throughout time. A wide range of international and multicultural topics are covered, including footbinding, fetishes, diseases, customs and beliefs, shoe construction, myths and folktales, the history of footwear, iconic brands and types of shoes, removing shoes upon entering a house, covering feet up for social customs, and the types of footwear worn around the world.

In Thomas Crobsy and the Tsimshian: Small Shoes for Feet Too Large, Clarence Bolt demonstrates that the Indians were conscious participants in the acculturation and conversion process -- as long as this met their goals -- and not merely passive receivers of the blessings as typically reported by the missionaries. In order to understand the complexities of Indian-European contact, Bolt argues, one must look at the reasons for the Indians' behaviour as well as those of the Europeans. He points out that the Indians actively influenced the manner in which their relationships with the white population developed, often resulting in a complex interaction in which the values of both groups rubbed off on each other.

Publisher Description

On the religious and historical significance of feet and footwear in Indian culture.

This is a volume about the life and power of ritual objects in their religious ritual settings. In this Special Issue, we see a wide range of contributions on material culture and ritual practices across religions. By focusing on the dynamic interrelations between objects, ritual, and belief, it explores how religion happens through symbolic materiality. The ritual objects presented in this volume include: masks worn in the Dogon dance; antique ecclesiastical silver objects carried around in festive processions and shown in shrines in the southern Andes; funerary photographs and films functioning as mnemonic objects for grieving children; a dented rock surface perceived to be the god’s footprint in the archaic place of pilgrimage, Gaya (India); a recovered manual of rituals (from Xiapu county) for Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, juxtaposed to a Manichaean painting from southern China; sacred stories and related sacred stones in the Alor–Pantar archipelago, Indonesia; lotus symbolism, indicating immortalizing plants in the mythic traditions of Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia; lavishly illustrated variations of portrayals of Ravana, a Sinhalese god-king-demon; figurines made of cow dung sculptured by rural women in Rajasthan (India); and mythical artifacts called ‘Apples of Eden’ in a well-known interactive game series.