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Sati (Suttee)

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Hinduism and Tribal Religions

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Indian Religions ((EIR))

The subject of Sati (Suttee) or Hindu rituals of widow-burning in India has generated enormous scholarship on Hinduism, gender, and modernity, even if the term Sati has multiple meanings, which are discussed in this article. While the academic fascination with Sati remains deeply invested in European scholarship and the Western gaze, recent events from the last two decades have led to renewed debates on Sati that have revealed complex perspectives relevant for discussions on gender and religion in India.

To begin with research that analyzed the representation of Sati in Europe, Figueira’s research on the German representation of Sati notes the divergences within European attitudes, which exhibit a binary in attitudes between denouncing heathenism on the one hand and lionizing the Sati as a remarkable self-dedicatory act on the other [1]. Fisch’s research (translated from German) studied the practice of Sati within the contexts of global funerary practices that accorded communities...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

    Deepra Dandekar

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  1. Deepra Dandekar
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Anthropology, The University of North Texas Dept of Anthropology, Denton, Texas, USA

    Pankaj Jain

  2. The Graduate Theological Union , Berkeley, California, USA

    Rita Sherma

  3. Jamia Millia Islamia, Centre for the Study of Comparative Reli Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

    Madhu Khanna

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Dandekar, D. (2018). Sati (Suttee). In: Jain, P., Sherma, R., Khanna, M. (eds) Hinduism and Tribal Religions. Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1036-5_249-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1036-5_249-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1036-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1036-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

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