Plants and People: Karnataka Rites of Passage

Plants and People is a close examination of the ways in which plant life and human life are intertwined in two rural villages of Hassan District, Karnataka State, India, via the symbolic uses of plants in of rites of passage. After presenting a general overview of South Asian cultural traditions related to symbolic uses of plants and basic ethnobotany concepts, the book describes rites of passage of multiple castes – birth, maturation, marriage, pregnancy, death, and rituals for ancestors a...