Une atmosphère très particulière

This contribution focuses on the efforts of contextualisation pursued by specialists of a discipline derived from Sanskrit literature and practised today in India, called vāstuśāstra, vāstuvidyā or vāstu, the “science of habitat”. Combining notions and techniques informed by architecture, iconograph...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Caterina Guenzi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Éditions de la Sorbonne 2017-04-01
Series:Revue d’Histoire des Sciences Humaines
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Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/rhsh/528
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Summary:This contribution focuses on the efforts of contextualisation pursued by specialists of a discipline derived from Sanskrit literature and practised today in India, called vāstuśāstra, vāstuvidyā or vāstu, the “science of habitat”. Combining notions and techniques informed by architecture, iconography, ritual and divination, vāstu is today taught in several Indian universities and enjoys great popularity among the urban middle classes. By combining the study of textual sources and ethnographic materials gathered in the cities of Delhi and Benares, this article indicates the diversity of contextualisation efforts mobilised by the discipline’s specialists. “Sensitivity to context” can thus be viewed not only as an intellectual approach within an investigatory process, but also as a property of living beings reacting to the physical and sensory action of certain external agents, these two dimensions being closely linked.
ISSN:1963-1022