PIERCED BY MURUGAN'S LANCE: RITUAL, POWER, AND MORAL REDEMPTION AMONG MALAYSIAN HINDUS [Paperback]

ELIZABETH COLLINS (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1997

An analysis of the Thaipusam festival of the Hindu Tamils of Malaysia and the vows they make to the god Murugan. It explores the meaning of vow fulfilment as reflected in social, economic and political divisions in the Tamil community, and the practice of ritual as a form of symbolic action.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A remarkable first book."
—Journal of Ritual Studies

"This splendid book succeeds in making an esoteric and forbidding subject into an engaging study that will interest a wide readership."—Choice

"Masterfully crafted.... A deft analysis of an arresting ritual event."—Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Product Details

• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press; 1 edition (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875805744
• ISBN-13: 978-0875805740
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,805,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > History > Asia > Malaysia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars interpreting rituals from a multi-dimensional perspectives, October 27, 1998

By 

Palanisamy Ramasamy - See all my reviews

This review is from: PIERCED BY MURUGAN'S LANCE: RITUAL, POWER, AND MORAL REDEMPTION AMONG MALAYSIAN HINDUS (Paperback)

Rituals associated with religious festivals (case of Thaipusam among Hindus in Penang, Malaysia) must be understood in the larger macro context of the society. For Collins, rituals associated with Thaipusam reflects the enduring tensions within the Hindu society in Malaysia. More specifically, she argues the class and caste contradictions play a significant role in how the different sections of the society interpret rituals. The author by solely focussing on the internal contradictions of the Hindu society in Malaysia fails to take into account the impact of the role state in Malaysia on the Hindu society. The revitalization of Islam and the pro-Malay policy of the Malaysian state equally play a significant role in influencing the Hindu society.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor scholarship, major oversights, few insights, January 20, 2006

By 

Jarrod Brown (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: PIERCED BY MURUGAN'S LANCE: RITUAL, POWER, AND MORAL REDEMPTION AMONG MALAYSIAN HINDUS (Paperback)

While Collins has certainly picked an interesting subject, there are some unforgivable errors in her scholarship that can only be attributed to sloppiness (or worst). One of the first things that struck me was her complete misunderstanding of Margaret Trawick's Notes on Love in a Tamil Family, which even the most basic reader should have picked up. For example, she repeatedly draws from Trawick's experiences with a "Brahmin Tamil family," when Trawick explicitly states several times that the family she conducted her research with was "non-Brahmin, high caste" and opposes that to her other primary informant, a Brahmin. Trawick's discussions make her informants' caste stature obvious; that Collins missed these repeated and explicit statements makes one doubts that Collins actually read the book, which she uses as one of her main secondary sources. Such sloppiness in her scholarship is unforgivable, and casts a shadow of duplicity over the entire work.

Also, it appears Collins has been oblivious to other motivations behind Thaipusam besides intra-caste conflicts; she has completely ignored Thaipusam as a celebration of Tamil ethnicity within an multi-ethnic nation, but instead focused on its significance within the Tamil community alone, and in doing so, pulls the typical interpretive stunts of a stumbling anthropologist, lending significance to anything that can further her theory. While it may have been her intention to examine Thaipusam only in a Tamil context, one feels that there is something vital missing, and I came away very unsatisfied with her examination, exploration, and explanations. She mentions the participation of Chinese in the celebration, but seems oblivious to the additional reasons that Tamils express joy about that--it reaffirms the efficacy of their own religion and beliefs, and helps to reinforce their own worth when seeing it acknowledged by those outside their ethno-linguistic group as Tamils are also the most socio-economically disadvantaged in Malaysia (aside from, perhaps, the Orang Asli). This was certainly my experience when I participated in Thaipusam in Penang several years ago.

Collins does provide some interesting discussion of theoretical anthropology, and her insights into Thaipusam, though narrow, are interesting. If one is looking for a formidable and accurate piece of scholarship concerning this fascinating festival, however, I must suggest that they set about doing the research and writing it themselves-I have yet to see the piece of scholarship about this particular festival that leaves me feeling satisfied, and unfortunately the oversights in Collins' work leaves me with the acrid taste of gross inaccuracy in my mouth.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars interpreting rituals from a multi-dimensional perspective, October 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: PIERCED BY MURUGAN'S LANCE: RITUAL, POWER, AND MORAL REDEMPTION AMONG MALAYSIAN HINDUS (Paperback)

Rituals associated with religious festivals (case of Thaipusam among Hindus in Penang, Malaysia) must be understood in the larger macro context of the society. For Collins, rituals associated with Thaipusam reflects the enduring tensions within the Hindu society in Malaysia. More specifically, she argues the class and caste contradictions play a significant role in how the different sections of the society interpret rituals. The author by solely focussing on the internal contradictions of the Hindu society in Malaysia fails to take into account the impact of the role state in Malaysia on the Hindu society. The revitalization of Islam and the pro-Malay policy of the Malaysian state equally play a significant role in influencing the Hindu society.