When the World Becomes Female: Guises of a South Indian Goddess

When the World Becomes Female is a great addition to the academic literature on South Asian religious, ritual, devotional, and goddess traditions. It is accessible enough for use in undergraduate courses on the same or as an example of ethnographic methodology. It is always in-depth enough for graduate courses and as a resource for scholars’ and universities’ libraries.

― newbooks.asia

Joyce B. Flueckiger’s new book When the World Becomes Female . . . is a rich and colorful analysis of the goddess Gangamma’s festival and her devotees.7/3/15

― New Books in South Asian Studies

[Joyce Flueckiger addresses] directly questions of the relationships between a goddess and her devotees, and the ways that those devotees play with gender.April 2015

― H-Asia

This is a carefully crafted ethnography on the South Indian festival of the village goddess Gangamma in the pilgrimage town of Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. . . . Recommended.

― Choice

Flueckiger’s rich and colorful descriptions of the stories, festivals, and worshipers connected with the goddess Gangamma evoke a world that previously had been accessible to very few living outside southern India. This work makes available to readers a close-up view of an extremely fascinating aspect of living Hinduism.

— David L. Haberman