Celibacy, Culture and Society: The Anthropology of Sexual Abstinence
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What does celibacy mean for individuals and for the people around them? What function does it serve? This is the first cross-cultural inquiry into the practice of celibacy around the world and through the ages, among groups as diverse as Kenyan villagers and U.S. prisoners, Mazatec Shamans and Buddhist nuns and monks, Shaker church members and anorexic women. The examples of celibacy described here illustrate the complex relationship between human sexuality and its particular sociocultural context. Ideas about the body, gender, family, work, religion, health, and other dimensions of life come sharply into focus as the contributors examine the many practices and institutions surrounding sexual abstinence. They show that, though celibacy is certainly sometimes a punishment or a deliberate ritual abstinence, it also serves many other social and material functions and in some cases contributes to kin-group survival and well-being. Celibacy, Culture, and Society represents a significant step toward understanding the functions and meanings of sexuality. Publishers Weekly In Celibacy, Culture, and Society: The Anthropology of Sexual Abstinence, editors Elisa J. Sobo (Choosing Unsafe Sex) and Sandra Bell (Female Sexuality) examine theories of celibacy and celibate practices the world over. In her portrait of Buddhist nuns in northwest India, Kim Gutschow suggests celibacy as freedom from "commodification"; Peter Phillimore studies celibacy as a form of social control in a another group of Hindu women in the region. Michael Duke looks at ritual abstinence among the Mazatecs of Mexico "in association with hunting, agricultural production, metaphysical activities, and curing rituals." These astute, scholarly essays provide fascinating glimpses into an ancient, multifaceted cross-cultural phenomenon. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
ForewordCelibacy in Cross-Cultural Perspective: An Overview3Pt. ICelibacy, Kinship, and Social Organization1Private Lives and Public Identities: An Example of Female Celibacy in Northwest India292The Women Who Refuse to Be Exchanged: Nuns in Zangskar, Northwest India473The Maintenance and Reinforcement of Celibacy in Institutionalized Settings654The Chaste Adolescent875Virgins in the Spirit: The Celibacy of Shakers104Pt. IICelibacy in Cultural Systems6Staying Clean: Notes on Mazatec Ritual Celibacy and Sexual Orientation1257Can Women Be Celibate? Sexuality and Abstinence in Theravada Buddhism1378Sexual Fluids, Emotions, Morality: Notes on the Gendering of Brahmacharya1579Ritualizing Celibacy: The Poetics of Inversion in Chile and Kenya180Pt. IIICelibacy, Choice, and Control10Like a Natural Woman: Celibacy and the Embodied Self in Anorexia Nervosa19711Cultural Schemas of Celibacy21412Celibacy in American Prisons: Legal and Interpretive Perspectives22913A Swallow in Winter: A Catholic Priesthood Viewpoint246Contributors267Index270
