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Embodying asana in All New Places: Transformational Ethics, Yoga Tourism and Sensual Awakenings by Angélique Maria Gabrielle Lalonde MA, University of Victoria, 2007 BA, University of Victoria, 2002 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology ©Angélique Maria Gabrielle Lalonde, 2012 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. Supervisory Committee Embodying asana in All New Places: Transformational Ethics, Yoga Tourism and Sensual Awakenings by Angélique Maria Gabrielle Lalonde MA, University of Victoria, 2007 BA, University of Victoria, 2002 Supervisory Committee Dr. Margo L. Matwychuk, (Department of Anthropology) Supervisor Dr. Hülya Demirdirek, (Department of Anthropology) Departmental Member Dr. Martha McMahon (Department of Sociology) Outside Member Dr. Lianne McLarty (Department of History in Art) Outside Member ii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. Margo L. Matwychuk, Department of Anthropology Supervisor Dr. Hülya Demirdirek, Department of Anthropology Co-Supervisor or Departmental Member Dr. Martha McMahon, Department of Sociology Outside Member Dr. Lianne McLarty, Department of History in Art Additional Member Yoga has been an organizing feature of community for thousands of years, shaping and being hsaped by the bodies, minds, spiritual worlds and social relationships of its practitioners .Over the course of the last century, it has become a global celebrity-endorsed exemplification of how to live a “good” life and been transformed from the “exotic,” grotesque menageries of ascetic “sinister yogis” and itinerant sages, to define the fit, graceful, radiant, blissful personages o fAmerican supermodels and pop-stars. Yoga has moved from the ashrams of India to gyms, church basements and specialized studiso of Europe, North America and Australia, and from these centers of economic and political power, to “exotic” peripheries through the global and bodily movements of world-travelers seeking self-discovery, health, spiritual transformation, and connection with the natural world in “less developed” locales. This dissertation explores and documents the movement of yoga-motivated travelers to tourism locales with no historical connection to yoga, asking questions about 1) how yoga travelers’ activities fit in larger contexts of ethical tourism and cross-cultural consumption as yoga travels across borders, 2) the role yoga plays in practitioners’ lives, shaping health, gender, sexuality, and lifestyle, 3) outcomes of sustained contemporary yoga practice on the bodies of practitioners, including affective transformation through bodily manipulation, the expansion of sensual awareness through breath, auditory techniques, meditation and mind-body synthesis, 4) how these bodily transformations are interpreted and applied to contemporary life through syncretic adaptations of yoga ethics from classical yoga texts with contemporary ethical discourses of environmentalism and consumer choice, and 5) how yoga tourists and the owners of yoga tourism locales view, interact with, and mobilize “foreign” locals and locales through sustainable development narratives and ideas of global community and universal spirituality. I apply contemporary anthropological agendas to yoga as a means to explore different ways of being alive, paying particular attention to how sensual potentials are brought to conscious experience by relational engagement with nature and culture, thus shaping our affective worlds. This dissertation charts intimate bodily and cross-cultural human relationships played out through yoga. It considers the spiritual, economic, political and cultural impacts of globalized iii yoga and yoga tourism. Close attention is paid to the experiential aspects of yoga and how yoga enlivens and relates to larger social narratives of nature sanctity under contemporary stresses of neoliberalism, including how yoga practitioners engage with the ethics of yoga and consumption to make lifestyle choices that align with political and economic concerns for viable ecological, social and cultural futures. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee……………………………………………………………………. ....... ii Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………. ...... iii Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………. ....... v List of Tables………………………………………………………………………………. .... vii List of Figures and Images…………………………………………………………………….viii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………..ix Dedication……………………………………………………………………………………....x Introduction Floating in the River……………………………………………………………...1 Chapter 1 Anthropological Approaches to Yoga: History, New Religious Movements, Magical Consciousness and Nature………………………………………………………………….........4 Modern Yoga Studies…………………………………………………………....…….....4 Ambivalence, Authenticity and Various Interpretations of the Past in Contemporary Yoga…………………………………………………………………………………. .. 11 Choices for the Self in New [Age] Markets……………………………………………..14 Magical Consciousness, Self-transformation, and the Sacralization of the Body/World as Nature…………………………………………………………………………. ............. 27 Chapter 2 Methodology: Autoethnography of the Body, Multi-siting Yoga Tourism, and Virtually doing Yoga Online……………………………………………………………………………. ... 33 My Body as Field [and] Site of Experiential Knowledge…………………………..…. .... 38 Data…………………………………………………………………………………….50 Multi-sited Research: the Flowing Field of Yoga Tourism………………………..……...52 Virtually “doing” Yoga: Online Yoga Sites, Blogs, Practice Pages……………………. .... 60 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..…. .... 63 Chapter 3 Case Studies: What does Yoga Tourism Outside of India Look Like? ……….64 Where is Yoga Tourism Located?..……………………………………………….……..65 Ethnographies of Travel………………………………………………………….…….68 What is the Difference between a Yoga Holiday and a Yoga Retreat?…………….……..71 Yoga Tourism and the Comforts of “home” in unique Places…………………….…….73 Case Study 1: Eco Yoga Retreat, Costa Rica…………………………………………...81 A bit of background about the Eco Yoga Retreat………………………...……..81 Who are the owners and operators of the EYR and why are they there?....……...85 What is the EYR about?………………………………………………………...86 Different types of travelers that stay at the EYR………………………………..90 Case Study 2: Yasodhara Ashram, Kootenay Lake, Canada……………………. .……...94 A brief history of the Yasodhara Ashram………………………………...…….95 What was daily life like at the ashram?………………………………........……...98 Karma Yoga and the Young Adult Program…………………………........……..98 How does the ashram fit into the larger yoga tourism landscape?.................…….100 How is a yoga community structured? Organization of the Yasodhara Ashram……………………………………………………………..…...............103 My experience at the YA…………………………………………………....…..107 Case Study 3 Spiritual Retreat Centre, Italy: Holistic Energy Spiral…………………….. ..109 Dairen’s Vibrant Health, and Beatrice’s Fall…………………………....…........…112 When a Yoga Holiday becomes a Tragedy………………………………….…..114 Case Study 4 Guesthouse yoga, Bulgaria: Spirit Yoga Villa…………………………….. .120 Organization of Spirit Yoga Villa……………………………………………….. 130 Case Study 5 Hotel Garden Yoga: Turkey and the Yoga Tourism Master Narrative……...134 v Being a Yoga Tourist in Side………………………………………………..…...141 Case Study 6 Maison dans la Campagne: France (Pastoral Yoga)………………………….149 Being at the Maison dans la Campagne……………………………………..…...157 Case Study 7 Professional Yoga: The Vancouver Yoga Conference and Show…….…. .. 159 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..165 Chapter 4 Embodying Yoga as Neoliberal Esprit or Chance for life?……………………………...166 Posture Study 1: Tortoise posture Kurmasana…………………………………………..…...168 Embodiment………………………………………………………………………..…...170 Point of Access into Questions of Force, Affect and Embodiment through Self-cultivating practices in Neoliberal Milieus…………………………………………...175 Embodying Yoga as Chance for life …………………………………………………..…. .. 183 Neoliberalism à la Bourdieu………………………………………………………....…...184 Embodying Yoga through the Senses: Developing affective clarity through self-body practices………………………………………………………………………...........…..188 Posture Study 2: Crane Posture/Bakasana…………………………………….............…..200 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..202 Chapter 5 Consuming Yogis: Better Bodies and Ethical Encounters………………….…...204 Better Bodies…………………………………………………………………………..205 What is meant by ethical consumption?……………………………………..…...205 Yoga and the Paradox of Ethical Consumption……………………………..…...208 Bodies: Yoga as Big Business and Lifestyle of Self-Betterment……………...…...210 Developing Yoga Online: yogajournal.com, Lifestyle Yoga and contestations in the Yoga blogosphere……………………………………………………..….212 Yoga Teachers and the Transmission of Yogic Knowledge………………….…..222 Conclusion 1…………………………………………………………………………...225 Ethical Encounters…………………………………………………………….....…....227 Conclusion 2…………………………………………………………………………...232 Conclusion 3 Tying Things Together………………………………………………...234 Chapter 6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..….235 Reflecting on Relationality, and Becoming a Magical Yogic Cyborg through the Domestication of the Body…………………………………………………………. .. 253 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………...264 Glossary………………………………………………………………………………...…..........282 Appendix A………………………………………………………………………………...…. ... 285 vi List of Tables Table 3.1 Occurrence of frequently used words describing yoga retreats…………………..76 Table 3.2 Comparative Chart of Different “Types” of Yoga Retreats……………………...78 Table 3.3 Yoga retreat locations visited and players comprising the scene………………. ... 79 Table 3.4 Comparing Yoga Travel Experiences: Yoga, Accommodation, Food………….....80 Table 3.5 Daily Schedule at Ashram……………………………………………………. .. ..98 vii List of Figures and Images Figure 3.1 Hierarchical roles and relationships at Yasodhara Ashram ……………………..105 Image 3.1 Clotheslines, fire pit and fruit orchard, EYC Costa Rica…………………………81 Image 3.2 Main floor of EYR Guest House with detail of floor and lending library……….83 Image 3.3 View from Eco Yoga Retreat Yoga Deck………………………………………..83 Image 3.4 Author doing dishes in the EYR Kitchen………………………………………..88 Image 3.5 Smaller dorm room at EYR……………………………………………………..88 Image 3.6 Rough Sketch of Eco Yoga Retreat Layout……………………………....…….. ..90 Image 3.7 View of Yasodhara Ashram gardens in early October…………………………...94 Image 3.8 View of Yasodhara Ashram Orchard…………………………………………....99 Image 3.9 Lounging in the hammocks at Holistic Energy Spiral…………………………..109 Image 3.10 HES Farmhouse……………………………………………………………. .. 110 Image 3.11 HES Pool overlooking the countryside……………………………………. .... 110 Image 3.12 HES Geodesic dome in forest: yoga practice space…………………………...111 Image 3.13 Inside Geodesic dome………………………………………………………...111 Image 3.14 Spirit Yoga Villa……………………………………………………………. ... 120 Image 3.15 Beach on Black Sea near SYV………………………………………………. .. 124 Image 3.16 View of the pool and deck where we practiced yoga at SYV.………………. .... 127 Image 3.17 Unfinished Village House…………………………………………………. .... 127 Image 3.18 Photo of author at yoga photo shoot at Apollo Temple, Side Turkey………. ... 134 Image 3.19 Yoga Deck, Side Turkey…………………………………………………. ....... 134 Image 3.20 View of surrounding 3-star hotel complexes in Side Turkey……………. ......... 136 Image 3.21 View of pool and hotel from hotel room window, Side Turkey……………. .... 141 Image 3.22 Beach in Side…………………………………………………...…………. ..... 142 Image 3.23 Paragliders, beachgoers and motorboats at the Side beaches…...…………. ...... 142 Image 3.24 Jaeda in a modified wheel posture at the Apollo Temple in Side…...………….147 Image 3.25 Peter Biela demonstrating Tree Pose at Mt. Deborah, Mbezi Beach, and Moscow…...……………………………………………………...148 Image 3.27 Maison Yoga Holiday in Southeast France…………………………………….149 Image 3.28 Agricultural parade in Midi-Pyrenees region of France………………………..153 Image 3.29 Yoga Show Logo and Banner……………………………………………..…...159 Image 3.30 “Yogalution” Banner...………………………………………………………...159 Image 4.1 Author in Variation 1 of Kurmasana.………………………………………. ...... .168 Image 4.2 Author in Variation 2 of Kurmasana…………………………………………. ... .168 Image 4.3 Author in Bakasana……………………………………………………………. 200 viii Acknowledgements First and foremost I would like to acknowledge my supervisor, Dr. Margo Matwychuk, who has shaped my academic journey and provided consistent encouragement, thoughtful critique and many delicious dinners throughout this process. I would also like to thank Dr. Hülya Demirdirek, whose enthusiasm and anthropological curiosity has inspired and guided my own curiosity. Thank you to my committee members, Dr. Martha McMahon and Dr. Lianne McLarty, for reading and engaging with my work throughout the past five years. I am grateful for the intellectual inspiration provided by Dr. Trudi Lynn Smith, who made so many parts of the journey with me, and demonstrated that it was possible. I am also grateful to SSHRC for funding my research, and to the Department of Anthropology at the University of Victoria for providing me an academic home and opportunities to present my work and teach. I am grateful to my mother, Nicole Lalonde and to my father, Guy Champagne, who have always encoura ged me to lea rn, and to my sisters Belle Aube, Marie-Soleil and Catherine, for reminding me to not take myself too seriously. I am grateful to my dogs, JohnBlack and Jobe, who always remind me to walk, and to the many Yoga Teachers and fellow yoga students I have practiced with throughout the years, who consider ways of being differently in the world through m ovement. I would like to thank the many friends that h ave been a pa rt of this process, particularly my Craft Night companions and those who shared their homes with me while I traveled this path, the yoga travelers who shared their time and thoughts with me, the places that we passed through in our journeying, and the breath that unites us all. I would also like to acknowledge the Citation, where many of these ideas fermented, and the farmers at ALM Farm in Sooke who kept me grounded as I wrote this dissertation. ix Dedication Pour maman et papa, et pour la vie. x

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