KERALA Of Gods and Men

By Laurent Aubert and translated into English by Jonathan Watts
5 Continents Editions
Pages: 160 Price: $ 28.35 Hard cover
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The music, dance, makeup, and colorful costumes displayed during the religious rituals of the Kerala people are vibrantly exhibited in this collection of photographs taken during moments of great celebration. Kerala's history as the first Indian state to come into contact with Christians and Muslims brings a complicated texture to their religious tradition, which has been influenced by Western contact but still maintains ancestral vestiges such as the Dravid costumes. The balance between good and evil, light and dark, beauty and ugliness, and fire and water are among the tensions that emerge in these photographs.

Fascinating full color photographs show off Kerala’s annual temple festivals - the preparation, rituals, ceremonies, music, dance and costume. This visual record of a five year project in Kerala is well-priced and of high-quality.

Laurent Aubert is curator of the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva and director of the Ateliers d’ethnomusicologie. He is the founder of the journal Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles and the author of La musique de l’autre and Les feux de la déesse. Jonathan Watts is the photographer for the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva.

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