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March 2015 ‘Shrew or Rat’ – Will Tuladhar-Douglas

image courtesy of Will Tuladhar-Douglas

image courtesy of Will Tuladhar-Douglas

Shrew or Rat?
How ethnobiology reveals
a god hidden in plain sight

Dr Will Tuladhar-Douglas

University of Aberdeen

While ethnobiology and religious studies might seem to have little to do with each other, I will show that the use of research methods from ethnobiology—and Indology, anthropology, and history of art—reveal a wholly unknown deity with a distinct cult and history in one of the most intensively studied sites in Asia, Kathmandu. Further, the social anthropology of this deity exposes an indigenous critique of the state religion used to control Newar society.

Pathfoot B2 – Friday, 13 March 2015, 15:00 – all welcome!