University of Puget Sound Sound Ideas Sociology & Anthropology Theses Sociology & Anthropology May 2014 Yoga in the Modern World: The eS arch for the "Authentic" Practice Grace Heerman University of Puget Sound Follow this and additional works at: https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/csoc_theses Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons, and the South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Heerman, Grace, "Yoga in the Modern World: The eS arch for the "Authentic" Practice" (2014). Sociology & Anthropology Theses. 5. https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/csoc_theses/5 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Sociology & Anthropology at Sound Ideas. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology & Anthropology Theses by an authorized administrator of Sound Ideas. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Yoga in the Modern World: The Search for the “Authentic” Practice Grace Heerman Asia 489, Independent Research Project Advisor: Prof. Sunil Kukreja 13 April, 2012 Heerman, 2 Introduction Since its early twentieth century debut into Western consciousness, yoga has quickly gained widespread appeal, resonating in the minds of the health-conscious, freedom-seeking American public. Considered to be the “spiritual capital” with which India hoped to garner material and financial support from the West, yoga was originally presented by its Eastern disseminators as “an antidote to the stresses of modern, urban, industrial life” and “a way to reconnect with the spiritual world” without having to compromise the “productive capitalist base upon which Americans [stake] their futures.”1 Though exact practitioner statistics are hard to come by, it is clear that the popularity of yoga in the U.S.