The Clash Between Mythology and Reason in Paternal Recognition Narratives

Why do people tell the same stories again and again?  And why do they tell stories that fly so blatantly in the face of concerns of logic and reason, even when such concerns are explicitly raised in the course of the stories?  A survey of narratives in which a ring establishes the paternity of a child will provide a wedge into the cross-cultural corpus of myths of recognition. These stories reveal the traditional religious structures that support the widespread irrational belief that a little thing like a ring can bring justice to the asymmetrical power relations that have controlled female sexuality for most of human history.

A renowned Indologist, Professor Wendy Doniger is the author of over thirty books, including Siva: The Erotic Ascetic; Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India; The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth; The Hindus: An Alternative History; and On Hinduism. Her nine translations include three Penguin Classics—Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook, Translated from the Sanskrit; The Rig Veda: An Anthology, 108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit; The Laws of Manu (with Brian K. Smith)—and a new Oxford World’s Classics translation (with Sudhir Kakar) of the Kamasutra. Among her many honors, Professor Doniger has received the American Academy of Religion’s Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion, and the South Asian Literary Association’s Distinguished Scholar Award.

Reception to follow.  This lecture is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Religious Studies Program.