Can I read Gods, Ghosts, and Gangsters : Ritual Violence, Martial Arts, and Masculinity on the Margins of Chinese Society on EtoBox?

Gods, Ghosts, and Gangsters : Ritual Violence, Martial Arts, and Masculinity on the Margins of Chinese Society by Boretz, Avron is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is Gods, Ghosts, and Gangsters : Ritual Violence, Martial Arts, and Masculinity on the Margins of Chinese Society about?

Demon warrior puppets, sword-wielding Taoist priests, spirit mediums lacerating their bodies with spikes and blades—these are among the most dramatic images in Chinese religion. Usually linked to the propitiation of plague gods and the worship of popular military deities, such ritual practices have an obvious but previously unexamined kinship with the traditional Chinese martial arts. The long and durable history of martial arts iconography and ritual in Chinese religion suggests something far deeper than mere historical coincidence. Avron Boretz argues that martial arts gestures and movements are so deeply embedded in the ritual repertoire in part because they iconify masculine qualities of violence, aggressivity, and physical prowess, the implicit core of Chinese patriliny and patriarchy. At the same time, for actors and audience alike, martial arts gestures evoke the mythos of the jianghu, a shadowy, often violent realm of vagabonds, outlaws, and masters of martial and magic arts. Through the direct bodily practice of martial arts movement and creative rendering of jianghu narratives, martial ritual practitioners are able to identify and represent themselves, however briefly and

Who reads Gods, Ghosts, and Gangsters : Ritual Violence, Martial Arts, and Masculinity on the Margins of Chinese Society?

Author

Boretz, Avron

Publisher

University of Hawai'i Press

Published

2017

Language

EN

ISBN

9780824870539

Category

nonfiction

Subjects

Anthropology, Science, History