Religion and Sexuality in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Download or read book Religion and Sexuality in Cross-Cultural Perspective written by Stephen Ellingson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Issues of sexuality and gender are hotly contested in both religious communities and national cultures around the world. In the social sciences, religious traditions are often depicted as inherently conservative or even reactionary in their commitments to powerful patriarchal and pronatalist sexual norms and gender categories. In illuminating the practices of religious traditions in various cultures, these essays expose the diversity of religious rituals and mythologies pertaining to sexuality. In the process the contributors challenge conventional notions of what is normative in our sexual lives.