Human Body And Folklore

The study of folklore - the expressive traditions of human beings - is an important subject matter in Social Science research. In traditional societies, folklore plays a vital role in the social construction of the human body. This book discusses the association of human body and folklore particularly in rituals performed in various folk cult practices in Tamil Nadu, India. How the human body is culturally conceived, professed, purified, transformed and healed through rituals are the foci of this book. This study also tries to understand the relationship between myths and rituals, how myths become rituals and are ritualized in a particular socio-cultural context.