Barn och ritualer Religiös traditionsförmedling i tre hinduiska hem

Abstract

The aim in this bachelor thesis is to describe and analyze ritual performance and transference of religious traditions in some Hindu homes in Varanasi (India). In particular from the children’s perspective. The curriculum of Religious Education in the Swedish schooling system focuses on religious life, expression and practice. Thus, this thesis is about “lived Hinduism”, ritual performance and religious practices. This focal point can also be understood from the theory of Catherine Bell, seeing religion first and foremost as collection of practices instead of coherent belief systems (1992, s. 185) and the common thought that Hinduism is a ritual orientated religion (Jacobsen, 2004, s. 279). Compared to an earlier study of transference of religious traditions to children in Varanasi, done by Marc J. Katz (1993), does this study focus on the processes in the domestic area instead of Katz’s interest of transference of tradition in the public area. The study is an ethnography and the methods being used are interviews, observations and informal conversations during a four week long fieldwork in Varanasi. Three different families with a total number of five children were studied. Every family was visited between five and six times, all the children was interviewed, and ritual performance (puja) was observed in two of the families. All three families in the study perform puja daily, both morning and evening. Specific rituals are also performed in all the families during festivals. All the children in the study participate in puja. Several children do it or have done it daily. The performance of puja is not learned through books, but through older family members and more specific through participation. All the children mention one person who has taught them most about gods, goddesses and puja. For almost everyone this is a woman. The study shows that the children learn puja through sitting by, observing, helping, questioning and imitating during the ritual. Beside the rituals, the study show that religious traditions also is transferred to the children through storytelling, common pictures of godheads, religious books and especially through the popular TV-serials about gods and goddesses.