Karma and Rebirth : A Cross Cultural Study

Contents: Preface. 1. Karma and rebirth in Indic religions: origins and transformations. 2. Non-Indic theories of rebirth. 3. The imaginary experiment and the Buddhist implications. 4. The Buddhist Ascesis. 5. Eschatology and soteriology in Greek Rebirth. 6. Rebirth and reason. 7. Imprisoning frames and open debates: Trobriander, Buddhist, and Balinese rebirth revisited. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

"With Karma and Rebirth: A Cross Cultural Study on the very first comparison of rebirth concepts across a wide range of cultures. Exploring in rich detail the beliefs of small scale indigenous societies of West Africa, Melanesia, and North America, Obeyesekere compares their ideas with those of the ancient and modern Indic Civilizations and with the Greek rebirth Theories of Pythagoras, Empedocles, Pindar, and Plato. His groundbreaking and authoritative discussion decenters the popular notion that India was the origin and locus of ideas of rebirth. As Obeyesekere compares the responses of geographically disparate religious to the most fundamental questions of human existence, he challenges readers to reexamine accepted ideas about morality, death, eschatology, and cosmology." (jacket)