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The health imaginary of postural yoga

Abstract This paper explores the capacity of yoga narratives and practices to contribute to and relate ideas about health. It adds theoretically to existing literature on yoga by introducing the concept of the ‘health imaginary’ as an analytic lens for considering yoga discourses in late modern times, where personal health care and spiritual ambitions are once again becoming blurred. With this perspective, the paper provides a thorough analysis of how yoga postures (asanas) are conceived to work therapeutically, in yoga’s recent history and in present-day yoga therapy. Taking case studies from India and Germany, it is shown empirically how the application of asanas is rationalized differently in specific geographical and therapeutic environments – particularly regarding the presumed theory of the body. Thus, the concept of the health imaginary not only provides analytic space to explore the implicit logics and goals of healing in different contexts, but also offers clues about the distinct social, cultural/religious, and local influences that draw people into yoga and contribute to its selective appropriation across the globe.