I'm still working on finishing the 2020 Academic Reading challenge before 2020 is over. I just have a few categories to go and am hoping to squeeze them in around some other "for work" reading that I also want to do before the year is up. This morning I started what seems like it will be a fascinating account of field work in the Hare Krishnas in the 1970s from sociologist E. Burke Rochford Jr., Hare Krishna in America.
According to his introduction, he began doing research as a graduate student in the mid-1970s, but was unable to get the group to treat him as a researcher:
Instead of accepting my repeated assertions that I was a researcher, the devotees invariably refused to accept my explanation, seeing me instead as a 'spirit-soul' who had been sent by Krishna. I saw myself as being there to conduct research, that was my problem, and was of little or no concern to them.
What is a better pairing for this spiritual enthusiasm that the author experienced that George Harrison's Hare Krishna paean, "My Sweet Lord". By the time I get to the end, "I Am the Walrus" may be the best pairing, but I guess I'll find out.
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