Tantra. Sex, Secrecy, Politics and Power in the Study of Religion.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003. First Edition. Hardcover. Large Octavo. xvi + 372pp. Black cloth with silver titling to spine, endnotes, biblio and index, b&w illustrations. A scholarly study. Presumed first edition - complete number and date lines on verso of title-page. From the publisher: "Tracing the complex genealogy of Tantra as a category within the history of religions, Hugh B. Urban reveals how it has been formed through the interplay of popular and scholarly imaginations. Tantra emerges as a product of mirroring and misrepresentation at work between East and West--a dialectical category born out of the ongoing play between Western and Indian minds. Combining historical detail, textual analysis, popular cultural phenomena, and critical theory, this book shows Tantra as a shifting amalgam of fantasies, fears, and wish-fulfillment, at once native and Other, that strikes at the very heart of our constructions of the exotic Orient and the contemporary West." A few faint marks to cloth from handling, spine ends lightly bruised, ISBN sticker on rear cover, otherwise a tight, clean VG+ copy (no dust jacket). Item #74466
ISBN: 9780520230620
Sold