Scholars in the humanities have seen an “Animal Turn” in contemporary Western-language scholarship in the past two decades. In particular, there has been a boom in the study of the relationship between animals and religions, mostly with regard to the Abrahamic religions. However, for a comprehensive understanding of the sophisticated relationships between animals and religions, more studies of this topic are needed in the so-called Global South. Reiko Ohnuma's new book, Unfortunate Destiny, makes a crucial contribution to current discussion on animals in religions, particularly Buddhism.
Ohnuma demonstrates how a close reading of Buddhist narratives as a method of traditional textual study can reveal the complexity of animals’ participation in human religious life. She successfully introduces some new issues from the perspectives of material culture and effect studies, discussing the roles the description of colors and sounds of animals have in Buddhist narratives for invoking religious feelings and emotions....
