Amy L. Allocco, assistant professor of religious studies, recently presented a paper at the fifth South and Southeast Asian Association for the Study of Culture and Religion (SSEASR) conference in Manila, Philippines.
Hosted by the University of Santo Tomas, the biannual conference focused on the theme “Healing, Belief Systems, Cultures, and Religions of South and Southeast Asia.” The meeting drew nearly 200 scholars from 25 nations, who presented papers in five concurrent sessions from May 16-19, 2013.
Allocco’s paper, “Healing the ‘Modern’ Body: Snakes, Planets & the Dark Age,” described the multiple healing repertoires that are engaged across South Asian contexts, focusing on a particular class of ritual therapies that are employed by many contemporary South Indian Hindus. Drawing on narratives that she recorded during ethnographic fieldwork carried out in South India in 2008 and 2011, Allocco argued that discourses about the intersections between the kali yugam (the current and most degenerate age in Hindu cosmology) and naga dosham (a negative horoscopic condition) reveal the gendered tensions of contemporary Indian life and signal concerns about environmental degradation.
The SSEASR is a regional association of the International Association of the History of Religions (IAHR). This is the second time that Allocco has participated in an SSEASR conference; in 2011 she presented a paper when the organization met in Thimphu, Bhutan.