Modern Yoga: from Counterculture to Consumer Culture
The Global Popularization of Yoga HISTORY Fakirs, Yogins & Europeans (from: Mark Singleton, Yoga Body , Joseph Alter, Yoga in Modern India , Marcea Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom ) ---early representations of yogins by European visitors to India & their status in European scholarship (Orientalism of the late 19 th century) Most likely to be defined by Indian and European critics with black magic, perverse sexuality, alimentary impurity. Admired rational, philosophical & contemplative aspects of yoga while condemning the obnoxious behavior to and queer ascetic practices. Exclusion of hatha yoga in the initial stages of the popular yoga revival Early European Encounters Ancient Greeks ; gymnosophists European Colonists: conflate the hatha yogin with Mohammedan Fakir (Sufi) 17 th century-on (enticing ethnographic accounts of weird and painful austerities) Social group of itinerant renouncers known for disreputable behavior, mendicancy and ...