Yoga in Modern India: The Body between Science and Philosophy

A breathtaking book for learning about the history of Hatha Yoga for folks who are curious about how Yoga came to be what it is today. Alter's work is so thorough that I believe most of the current anthropological research on modern Hatha Yoga and its roots in British India is propelled by his work. It's a worthy addition to all libraries, and I hope to find more by this author in the near future.

Great book by a great writer!

I had to get this class for a class, it was a somewhat complicated read due to not knowing the terminology. If you want to know the "why" and how imperialistic perspective has gone about trying to classify yoga then this is the book for you.

I got this one out of the stacks to see if anyone has learned more about the relations of "gymnastics" and "yoga" since I last went looking oh about 1970. Joseph Alter's book reminded me that no one in the field we share, medical anthropology, is about to answer a straightforward question like that but when you start reading you don't care. This way to the egress -

Si tratta di un libro meno noto di altri, ma interessantissimo sulla realtà del modern yoga in India, tra scienza, spiritualità, politica.Assai utile.