The Grace of Four Moons: Dress, Adornment, and the Art of the Body in Modern India (Material Culture)

Because clothing, food, and shelter are basic human needs, they provide excellent entries to cultural values and individual aesthetics. Everyone gets dressed every day, but body art has not received the attention it deserves as the most common and universal of material expressions of culture. The Grace of Four Moons aims to document the clothing decisions made by ordinary people in their everyday lives. Based on fieldwork conducted primarily in the city of Banaras, India, Pravina Shukla conceptualizes and realizes a total model for the study of body art — understood as all aesthetic modifications and supplementations to the body. Shukla urges the study of the entire process of body art, from the assembly of raw materials and the manufacture of objects, through their sale and the interactions between merchants and consumers, to the consumer's use of objects in creating personal decoration. Choice . . . unique and fascinating volume. . . . For folklorists and cultural anthropologists, this is a treasure trove of information. For students of religion, it provides the material reference to the system of beliefs. . . . Highly recommended. "In this illustrated study, Pravina Shukla documents the clothing decisions made by ordinary people in their everyday lives. Drawing on fieldwork in Banaras, India, she describes the full process of body art, from the preparation of raw materials and manufacture of objects, through their sale and the interactions between merchants and consumers, to the consumer's use of objects in the assemblage of personal decoration. She investigates the male realms of production and commerce, and considers the individual woman's adornment and its evaluation by others in the context of her life history, personality, and physical and social environments. Shukla conceptualizes and realizes a total model for the study of body art - understood as all aesthetic modifications and supplementations to the body - and applies it in a modern, urban setting, revealing the aesthetic complexity and social dynamics of dress and adornment in contemporary India."--Jacket "Because clothing, food, and shelter are basic human needs, they provide excellent entries to cultural values and individual aesthetics. Everyone gets dressed every day, but body art has not received the attention it deserves as the most common and universal of material expressions of culture. The Grace of Four Moons aims to document the clothing decisions made by ordinary people in their everyday lives. Based on fieldwork conducted primarily in the city of Banaras, India, Pravina Shukla conceptualizes and realizes a total model for the study of body art--understood as all aesthetic modifications and supplementations to the body. Shukla urges the study of the entire process of body art, from the assembly of raw materials and the manufacture of objects, through their sale and the interactions between merchants and consumers, to the consumer's use of objects in creating personal decoration." -- Amazon.com Frontmatter Acknowledgments (page ix) Part 1. Introduction 1. Body Art in Banaras (page 3) 2. Getting Ready (page 19) 3. Gaze, Sacred and Secular (page 26) Part 2. Production and Commerce 4. Shopping for Clothes (page 59) 5. Weaving Saris (page 92) 6. Making Jewelry (page 113) 7. Kanhaiya Lal (page 136) 8. Shopping along the Vishvanath Gali (page 167) 9. Assembling Bangle Sets (page 184) Part 3. Personal Adornment 10. Nina Khanchandani (page 221) 11. Neelam Chaturvedi (page 239) 12. Mukta Tripathi (page 263) Part 4. Body Art in the Lifecycle 13. After the Wedding (page 305) 14. Before the Wedding (page 327) 15. The Wedding (page 344) Part 5. Conclusion 16. The Study of Body Art (page 383) Glossary (page 431) Notes (page 433) Bibliography (page 471) Index (page 491) Aims to document the clothing decisions made by ordinary people in their everyday lives. Based on fieldwork conducted primarily in the city of Banaras, India, this work conceptualizes and realizes a total model for the study of body art - understood as all aesthetic modifications and supplementations to the body.