Samskara: rituals shaping hijra identity.
A conference by Mathieu Boisvert, professor at the Department of Religious Studies, University of Quebec in Montreal
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29th November – 5:30 PM IST
B-75 Shahpura, Alliance Française de Bhopal
Mathieu Boisvert will present how saṁskāra and pilgrimage (yātrā) are used by the members of the Hijrā community of Mumbai in order to strengthen their feminine identity. These reflections are based on field research led in Mumbai, Bechraji (GJ), Saundatti (KA) and Koovagam (TN) between 2012 and 2018.
Mathieu Boisvert is a professor at the Department of Religious Studies of the Université du Québec à Montréal. He was originally trained in South-Asian philology (McGill, 1991) but his research has been more anthropological in nature since he jointed UQAM. He is also the Director of the Centre d’études et de recherches sur l’Inde, l’Asie du Sud et sa diaspora.