The epistemic question about what constitutes religious belief in non-Western contexts is addressed here through the ontology of sonic experience. I demonstrate that beliefs are habitually ingrained as long-sustaining visceral memories, when afforded by sensory—for instance, aural—affects. Bengal’s peculiar devotional milieu constructs a prototype oppositions. On one end urban, classical, marti...

Local belief systems such as indigenous religions and social taboos have been credited with helping to conserve animal and plant species and particular sites worldwide. Certain species and sites are protected because they are considered sacred. Although the meaning of sacred varies across cultures, religions, and languages, in general sacred entities are distinguished from the everyday world an...

From light-skinned deities depicted in ancient religious tableaux, pearl-swallowing practices in China, turmeric ceremonies in India to clay application in Africa, history has been coloured by our questionable aversion to the darker shades. Complexion has assumed psychological, economic and political currency with continued growth in the desire for skin lighteners sweeping the boundaries of cou...