Name Susan Barton Young
School Deering High School
Project Title Kali: Cross-Cultural (Mis)Understandings

 

Lesson Plan for Understanding Kali

Objectives:

  1. Students will be able to observe and describe pictures and statues objectively
  2. Students will be exposed to the basics of Hindu iconography (symbols & stories)
  3. Students will be able to compare and contrast their first impressions of Kali-imagery with what they come to understand of a Hindu worldview
  4. Students will come to understand how cultural assumptions can lead to drastic misinterpretation of another culture’s art/iconography

This lesson plan involves four 40-minute segments:

Segment 1:  First Impressions from Iconography
Segment 2:  Textual Understanding
Segment 3:  How the West Views Kali
Segment 4:  Kali in Western Poetry

 

 

This site was created by (Susan Barton Young) at the NEH Summer Institute "Cultures and Religions of the Himalayan Region," held at the College of the Holy Cross, Summer 2006