COVID-Curing Kali Syrup and the Stubborn Subaltern: Resisting Elite Restrictions with a Popular Goddess.

When Sri Lanka entered a lockdown at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a frustrated public was forbidden from engaging in customary pilgrimages and temple visits, with access reserved only for political elites. In the process, the government created a large religious subaltern class in need of div...

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Publicado en:Asian Ethnology Vol. 84; no. 2; pp. 335 - 358
Autor principal: McKinley, Alexander
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Nanzan University 2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: COVID-Curing Kali Syrup and the Stubborn Subaltern: Resisting Elite Restrictions with a Popular Goddess.
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        au: McKinley, Alexander
        affil: Theology, Loyola University Chicago
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        Coronavirus diseases
        Pandemics
        Goddesses
        Kālī (Hindu deity)
        Traditional medicine
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          Coronavirus diseases
          Pandemics
          Goddesses
          Kālī (Hindu deity)
          Traditional medicine
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        Buddhism
        Covid-19
        miracle cures
        popular religion
        Sri Lanka
        subalternity
      ab: When Sri Lanka entered a lockdown at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a frustrated public was forbidden from engaging in customary pilgrimages and temple visits, with access reserved only for political elites. In the process, the government created a large religious subaltern class in need of divine intervention. In late 2020, this void was filled by a Buddhist priest to the goddess Kali who concocted a miraculous elixir that purportedly prevented and cured COVID-19. Although elites initially supported the indigenous medicine, they denounced it once Kali began speaking through the medium and challenging authority. But the agency of the goddess could not be put back in the bottle. Crowds continuously amassed outside the Kali shrine in a rejection of lockdown orders to seek aid outside the foundering efforts of their government. The goddess thereby became a vehicle for speech by subalterns whom elites scolded for their stubbornness.
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