THE CONSTANT AND CHANGING FACES OF THE GODDESS: GODDESS TRADITIONS OF ASIA . Edited by Deepak Shimkhada and Phyllis K. Herman . New Castle, UK : Cambridge Scholars Publishing , 2008 . Pp. xi + 294 . $79.99 .
摘要
This edited volume collects selected papers given at a 2005 conference on goddess traditions of Asia. Like some conference anthologies, this volume has an overly ambitious historical and geographic coverage and lacks an overarching methodological and theoretical direction. The studies take a variety of disciplinary approaches, ranging from sociology and anthropology to religious studies and history, and they range in scope from Korea, India, and Vietnam to China and Hong Kong. The goddesses covered include Mago of Korea; Buddhist dakinis; Hindu goddesses such as Bharat Ma, Sita, Durga, Lakshmi, Kali, Saraswati, and Goma; and the Chinese Mazu and various incarnations of Guanyin in Chinese Buddhism. Unfortunately, the editors fail to offer cross‐cultural insights beyond generic and problematic references to “the divine feminine” or “the Goddess.” Neither the editors nor any of the authors offer a definition of the frequently invoked category “the Goddess” and so miss the chance to explore the interpretive and analytical implications of this unquestioned category, especially the tendency to slip all too easily into normative claims and ideological heavy‐handedness. The chapters that do make significant contributions are too few and all too brief. Nevertheless, the strength of this edited volume tends to be in the study of the goddess traditions of Hinduism and popular Chinese religions. For this reason, scholars specializing in the latter two areas should be aware of this volume, but it would not be suitable as a text for either an undergraduate‐ or graduate‐level course.
