Symposia: The Journal of the Department for the Study of Religion University of Toronto
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Hindu Diaspora as ‘Virtual Community’: Digital Neighborhoods, Electronic Transnationalism
No full textThis article will address the conceptualization of ‘community’, extending it into the virtual community and the diaspora. I focus on the role of computer-mediated communication in facilitating these negotiations and encounters, as well as look at how traditional sites of cultural regrouping (such as the ethnic neighborhood) for the diaspora are presented online to similar effect. A close examination of one such portal, Hindu Universe, will demonstrate how electronic pathways to various cultural sites are presented and accessed, as well as reveal close ties to Hindu nationalist sources which may influence the overall tone of the ‘neighborhood’ as presented online
Subversion and Sexual Violence: A Reading of the Roman System of Punishment and Entertainment in the Hypostasis of the Archons
No full textSexual violence is a vivid trope employed in the Nag Hammadi text the Hypostasis of the Archons. The three female agents within this retelling of the Genesis creation narrative, namely the female spiritual principle, Eve, and Norea, are repeatedly pursued by sexual assaults from the archons. This paper looks to offer a reading of this theme of sexual violence in the text by placing it in conversation with the larger Roman culture that dominated its social world. In doing so, this paper argues that the Hypostasis of the Archons is drawing on the Roman system of punishment and entertainment to create a farce of its textual archons, and by extension all worldly rulers; sexual violence in this text is used to create a social and theological commentary on ancient political powers
