White Utopias

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Amanda J. Lucia. White Utopias

White Utopias. The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Author Note

NOTE ON LANGUAGE

Introduction

THE AVAILABLE EXOTIC / THE USABLE PRIMITIVE: PLAYING INDIAN

SPIRITUAL, BUT NOT RELIGIOUS

WHITENESS AND WHITE POSSESSIVISM

THE FIELD(S) Transformational Festivals

Yoga

CHAPTER OUTLINE

1. Romanticizing the Premodern. The Confluence of Indic and Indigenous Spiritualities

THE SPIRITUAL BRICOLAGE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL FESTIVALS

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION AND ITS IMPACT

WHITE BHAKTAS AND THE POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION

GOING NATIVE: BECOMING A TRIBE

CONCLUSION

Interlude. Cultural Possession and Whiteness

2. Anxieties over Authenticity. American Yoga and the Problem of Whiteness

AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORITY

WHY AUTHENTICITY? ESCHEWING THE VERY NOTION OF ESSENCES

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE

ON TRANSLATION, DOMESTIFICATION, AND APPROPRIATION

PROSTRATION VERSUS PLANK: THE “DOMESTICATING PROCESS” OF TRANSLATION

ARE THE TRANSMITTERS OF AMERICAN YOGA TRANSLATORS OR AUTHORS?

CONCLUSION

Interlude “White People Are on the Journey of Evolution”

3. Deconstructing the Self. At the Limits of Asceticism

THE PRODUCTIVE SPACES OF FESTIVAL

THE ASCETIC FESTIVAL: AN OXYMORON OF SORTS

TRANSFORMATIONAL FESTIVALS: THE VARIETIES OF ASCETICAL EXPERIENCE

GEOGRAPHICAL DISLOCATION, A FIRST STEP TOWARD ASCETICAL PRACTICE

DECONSTRUCTING THE OLD SELF TO CONSTRUCT THE NEW

EMOTIONAL DECONSTRUCTION

BODILY DISCIPLINE

DIETARY DISCIPLINES

CONCLUSION

Interlude. Sculpting Bodies and Minds

4. Wonder, Awe, and Peak Experiences. Approaching Mystical Territories

MYSTICISM IN MODERNITY

NATURE

ART

PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE

DEVOTIONAL MUSIC

CONNECTION WITH OTHERS

CONCLUSION

Interlude. Producing Wonder / Branding Freedom

5. The Cathartic Freedom of Transformational Festivals. Neoliberal Escapes and Entrapments

FREEDOM FROM THE ENCLOSURES OF MODERNITY

FREEDOM FROM JUDGMENT

FREEDOM FROM RESPONSIBILITIES

FREEDOM FROM ISOLATION

YOGIC FREEDOM, SPIRITUALITY, AND NEOLIBERALISM

BUILDING THE COMMONS THROUGH COMMUNITAS

CONCLUSION

Conclusion

APPENDIX ONE @Instagram Data for Public Figures Cited

APPENDIX TWO. Methodology

Notes. INTRODUCTION

1. ROMANTICIZING THE PREMODERN

INTERLUDE: CULTURAL POSSESSION AND WHITENESS

2. ANXIETIES OVER AUTHENTICITY

INTERLUDE: “WHITE PEOPLE ARE ON THE JOURNEY OF EVOLUTION”

3. DECONSTRUCTING THE SELF

INTERLUDE: SCULPTING BODIES AND MINDS

4. WONDER, AWE, AND PEAK EXPERIENCES

INTERLUDE: PRODUCING WONDER / BRANDING FREEDOM

5. THE CATHARTIC FREEDOM OF TRANSFORMATIONAL FESTIVALS

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX 2: METHODOLOGY

References

Index

Отрывок из книги

The publisher and the University of California Press Foundation gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Ahmanson Foundation Endowment Fund in Humanities.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

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National statistics reveal that the United States is still a majority-white nation, with 76.5 percent of the population identifying as white and 60.4 percent identifying as white (non-Hispanic/non-Latino).48 Thus, one could argue that the ethnic composition of Burning Man and LIB closely mirrors national averages. In contrast, the more yogic festivals (Wanderlust, Bhakti and Shakti Fests) exceed national statistics of white majority by 15 to 20 percent. These figures become more incongruous if one considers the population percentages of non-Hispanic whites; when compared to those statistics, these festivals range from 20 to 45 percent whiter than the national average. The figures become even more stark if one attends to geography a bit more closely. Burning Man and LIB are as white as Oregon (77 percent white [non-Hispanic]), and the more yogic festivals are whiter than Maine (93.7 percent white [non-Hispanic]).49 This is despite the fact that many of these transformational festivals either take place in or draw on populations from California, a state where non-Hispanic whites comprise only 38.8 percent of the total population.50 For example, nearly 500,000 Indian Americans live in California, 120,000 of them in Los Angeles, but a mere handful of Indian Americans attend Bhakti and Shakti Fests, held just 128 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

When I started to study these festivals, I was most interested to uncover the nuances in the translation processes of globalized yoga and, particularly, its relation to Hinduism. Upon entering the field, I was struck by the significant presence of Native American traditions, and as a result, I began to further explore the soteriological composition of the category of spirituality in these SBNR populations. Importantly, SBNR populations are less white than the transformational festival and yogic communities that this study engages. SBNR populations are still predominantly white (67 percent), but there are growing numbers of African Americans and Latinx Americans who identify as SBNR.51 Throughout this book, I use the term SBNR as a convenient shorthand, noting throughout that while transformational festival participants largely identify as SBNR, people of color who also identify as such are not represented in these fields.

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