{"product_id":"9781906497521","title":"Guilty Males and Proud Females: Negotiating Genders in a Bengali Festival","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eGuilty Males and Proud Females\u003c\/i\u003e is the first complete study on the Bengali \u003ci\u003egajan \u003c\/i\u003efestival dedicated to Dharmaraj, a village god in the Rarh region of Bengal. The \u003ci\u003egajan\u003c\/i\u003e is the dramatic representation of an hierogamy—the marriage of a god and goddess—and a recreation of the life-cycle of earth. As Fabrizio M. Ferrari explains one of the most fascinating aspects of the \u003ci\u003egajan\u003c\/i\u003e is its approach to gender. The central deity of the \u003ci\u003egajan \u003c\/i\u003eis a goddess identified with the earth. To please such a goddess, male devotees must acknowledge the pain they inflict towards the female world and become “ritual women.” Conversely, as part of the festival, women display their generative power and provoke the jealousy of men by ritually mocking conception and delivery. The outcome of the ritual is that their suffering is acknowledged and transformed into power. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMuch more than an ethnography of Bengali popular religion, \u003ci\u003eGuilty Males and Proud Females\u003c\/i\u003e contributes to new studies on gender transformation in the Bengal region and will be of interest to scholars of South Asian religions, folklore, and gender studies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Seagull Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47039557501168,"sku":"9781906497521","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781906497521_p0.jpg?v=1763616533","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781906497521","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}