Religion and Sexuality in Cross-Cultural Perspective

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, the essays collected here 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. The scope of the collection is truly global, with essays covering Nigeria, Japan, India, Mexico, Sudan, South Africa, and Newark, New Jersey. Contributors examine an array of sexual practices in a wide range of traditions, including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and indigenous religions in Mesoamerica and other locales. Taken together, these essays illuminate the function ofreligions as systems of meaning and ethics for individuals and communities struggling to make sense of human embodiment and sexual difference.