Børge Madsen -
abstract paintings 
and concrete writings
  • Home
  • Paintings
    • Abstract Paintings
    • Paintings - small
    • Paintings - medium size
    • Paintings - large size
    • Paintings - duets
    • Painting philosophy
    • Testimony
    • In Action
  • Yoga book
    • A Cultural History of Yoga
    • Reviews
    • Blurb
    • Download
  • About me
    • About me
    • My books
  • Blog

When the history of yoga becomes an unexplainable series of event - a review of  Andrea R. Jain  Selling Yoga

8/7/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
Below you will find a link to download a review of A.R. Jain "Selling Yoga". The article is mainly for people interested in the methodology of history writing. It is about how to explain cultural historical developments. Most historians focuses on great cultural personalities in explaining how cultural practices like yoga emerge and transform. They home in on the charismatic genius and spend a lot of time clarifying the brilliant  ideas and its implications for history. Doing this they will occasionally borrow sociological concepts and theories to put the cultural hero into perspective. The article puts forward an alternative approach which is build on a historical sociological methodology of how to explain the emergence and settlement of new cultural institutions. 


sellingyoga.pdf
File Size: 331 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

1 Comment

The iron cage of interpretation - a review of The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali

19/1/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture

the_iron_cage_of_hermeneutics_.pdf
File Size: 232 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

In the link below you will find a review of David Gordon White: The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali - A Biography. My essay - The Iron Cage of Hermeneutics - is discussing how to make sense of ancient metaphysical texts. My essay show that the traditional method of  painstaking translating and interpreting old text has its limitations. Such methodology needs to be supplemented with methodologies from cultural sociology. To understand texts and their discourses we need to look deep into the history and culture they evolve from and are an integral part of.






0 Comments

Yoga Protestantism - A Review of Gurus of Modern Yoga

19/1/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
Below you can download a PDF document with a discussion of a reader by M. Singleton and E. Goldberg (eds.): Gurus of Modern Yoga. My essay - The Poverty of Yoga Protestantism -  is primarily written for yoga historians and people interested in the philosophy of methodologies. It is about  the  hidden pitfalls  and social biases embedded in much yoga historiography. It compares contemporary yoga historians with 20th Century protestant theologians who were trying to excavate the Christian truth from ancient texts. Doing this yoga scholars - as exemplified in Gurus of Modern Yoga -  tend to end up as apologetics and propagators.




yogaprotestantism.pdf
File Size: 588 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

1 Comment

What does yoga art illustrations actually tell us?

4/2/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
In the link below (semioticsyogaart) you will find a review of Debra Diamond (ed.) Yoga – The Art of Transformation . 
I investigate some of the methodological limitations of the book and what semiotics could bring to the analysis of yoga illustrations. 
Methodology is important – it defines what we see, the way we see it and finally what we can’t see. The review concludes that it in many ways is Yoga The Art of Transformation symptomatic for the academic yoga discourse.  


semioticsyogaart.pdf
File Size: 220 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

    Author

    I have been involved with yoga asana on and off since the late 1970s.  During those years the role of yoga in society has changed dramatically. This blog aims to create debate and awareness of those changes. 

    Archives

    July 2015
    January 2015
    February 2014

    Categories

    All
    Andrea Jain
    Historical Sociology
    Methodology
    Modern Yoga Explained
    Review
    Selling Yoga
    Yoga History

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.