Dr Patrick McCartney

Independent Scholar Fellow 2022-23

Ancient Street Performers, Espionage and “Yoga”: Across and Beyond South Asia

This project builds upon my previous research, which began four years ago, regarding the possible links between medieval yoga postures and royal wrestlers in southern India. This shows how the 12th century ce training apparatus, known as the “wrestler’s pole”, was borrowed from bamboo pole-dancing “street performers”. There are many leftover questions. Therefore, I will focus between the 8th to 18th centuries when the commercial guilds of yoga akhāḍās (“gymnasiums”) controlled much of south Asia’s pilgrimage/trade routes and mercantile centers and the espionage and information networks.

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Areas of interest

Yoga Japan East Asia Sociology Spirituality Religion Anthropology Ethnography

Cohort

ISF9

Biography

Dr Patrick McCartney is currently a JSPS Post-Doctoral Fellow at Kyoto University, Japan; a Research Associate at Nanzan University Anthropology Institute, Japan; and a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, Canberra.

Patrick's post-doctoral project, titled: “Yoga Scapes: The Economics of Imagination and Utopian Aspirations of Transglobal Yoga in Japan” works at the intersection of the politics of imagination, the economics of desire, the sociology of spirituality, and the anthropology of religion. Patrick focuses on the global yoga and spiritual tourism industries, which exist within the multi trillion-dollar global wellness industry.

Biographical details correct as of 14.01.25