Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

I bought this book because I was looking for background information about the religious condition of Malaysian Hindus in the context of Malaysia today. This book, while interesting reading, does not provide that information.

Actually, I found that to be a strange lack-- I would think that looking at how Malaysian Hinduism had developed would be hard to completely disconnect from the nature of Malaysian religious life in the larger context, but Fuller doesn't really mention that element at all.

I also, I have to say, found the book to be disjointed reading. I wasn't sure where she was going or what her central points really were. But this may well be because I brought the wrong questions to the table-- I wasn't looking for High Anthropology and High Anthropology is absolutely what this book is all about. And I think that it is fair to say that for all that the book felt disjointed, it also felt interesting. I liked the way she thought through the issues of possession, her descriptions of the festival, and her efforts to place the experience in the larger Tamil religious experience.

I did find some useful pointers to reading that will probably answer the questions that I brought to it. The book comes with a very impressive set of notes and bibliography.

Every year in the city of Penang, Malaysia and in several other cities there occurs a festival known as Thaipusam. This strange festival is unknown in most of India, and was brought to Malaysia by Indian laborers who followed their English masters from India to S.E. Asia. Thaipusam is one of the most astounding religious rituals that exist in the modern world, with human adults undergoing body piercings that would make many surgeouns cringe.

This festival is the topic of the book, and Murugan's Lance refers to a weapon used by the hero Murugan in his duel with an evil god in Hindu mythology. The author explores the practicalities of the festival itself, its timing, organization, the participants, preparation and effects it has on the participants and the village as a whole. The author also tries to place this festival within the context of caste society, Malaysia, and race relations. The book is accompanied by a few pictures of improvable quality. The subject itself is quite interesting, though the text could be better written. The author rambles a lot, and the style could be more concise and precise. In all, this book is worth reading because it is one of the few English-language texts on a nearly-unknown but quite impressive festival.