essay
On the meaning of sakti to women in Tamil Nadu
powers of Tamil women • (6) • Published In 1991 • Pages: 1-34
By: Egnor, Margaret Trawick.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a study of the concept of sakti, loosely defined as 'action' and 'power', with special reference to its meaning for Tamil women in the society. In the first section of this paper Egnor asserts that the meaning of [n]sakti[/n] was to be found not in a study of ideas alone, nor in a study of action alone, nor in a study of discrepancies between these two, but in a study of the union of action and ideas, since it is in this union that meaning is constructed (p. 25). As examples of this union five life histories are presented to illustrate how action is taken on the basis of ideas, and how ideas take shape through action. The second section of the paper attempts to explicate some aspects of these life histories in terms of relation between the concept of sakti and other concepts important in South Indian culture. The last section focuses more directly on the meaning of action. and attempts to answer such questions as: if sakti is action, what form does this action take, and if sakti is the power to do, what is it that it does?
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Theoretical orientation in research and its results
- Life history materials
- Gender status
- Drives and emotions
- Ethnopsychology
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Tamil
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2009
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- South Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle; 2007
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Tamil Nadu, India
- NotesAdditional notes
- Margaret Egnor
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-34)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 91035987
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Tamil (Indic people)