Paper short abstract:

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in France, this paper explores the transmission of yoga as an experience of body-self connection and transformation in 3 modern yoga styles - Bikram, Forrest and Iyengar - that differ in philosophy and form as much as in their history, circulation and reception.

Paper long abstract:

In the past decade, a new wave of US-born yoga styles has hit France, drastically reshaping both the general perception of yoga in this country and its underlying economy and sociology.

While such styles explicitly mention the very localised -even individualised - context of their genesis and detail the rationale of their re-interpretation of (traditional) yoga (philosophy and practice) into an adapted modern western experience, they implicitly construe the 'West' to be a homogeneous cultural unit. In other words, that experience is construed as directly translatable and equally adapted throughout the 'West', irrespective of the epistemological and sociological frames of reference they are being transplanted into.

This paper will explore what is lost and what is found in the translation of two such US-born, second-wave yoga styles - Bikram and Forrest yogas - in relation to body-self connection and self-realisation, as they meet a new audience in France. These styles will be contrasted against the discourses and representations circulating in an Iyengar circle of practice, which is a more established yoga brand in the country, both first-wave and indian-labeled. Drawing on participant observation ethnographic fieldwork and on the imagined worlds of yoga circulating in the french media, I will focus on how body-self connection and transformation are articulated both linguistically and experientially in transmission (by teachers and media), and in reception (by practicioners).