Publication year
2012Publisher
New York : Fordham University Press
ISBN
9780823239467
In
Houtman, D.; Meyer, B. (ed.), Things: Religion and the question of materiality, pp. 215-231Publication type
Part of book or chapter of book
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Editor(s)
Houtman, D.
Meyer, B.
Organization
FSW_Institute for Gender Studies (IGS)
Leerstoel Empirische en praktische religiewetenschap
Former Organization
Kernleerstoel Empirische Religiewetenschap
Languages used
English (eng)
Book title
Houtman, D.; Meyer, B. (ed.), Things: Religion and the question of materiality
Page start
p. 215
Page end
p. 231
Subject
Anthropology and Development Studies; Research Program in Religious Studies; Onderzoeksprogramma ReligiewetenschappenAbstract
This chapter discusses the religious meanings of blood and milk in Christianity and Islam. It is demonstrated that these meanings matter in the construction of men and women as differently and hierarchically placed religious and social subjects. Whereas male blood, as in the passion of Christ or Islamic blood sacrifices, has historically been valued as holy, female blood, in particular that of menstruation and childbirth, was considered impure and polluting and an argument to exclude women from religious leadership or certain religious practices. Milk, another bodily and quintessentially female fluid, mattered differently. In early Christianity Mary's milk was sacralised as a symbol of passing on the Word of God and adored in the Maria Lactans. But whereas the religious values attached to blood only increased in Christian history, that of milk declined. In Islam however, the high value attached to mothers' milk still can be seen in the ideas on milk kinship.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [238441]
- Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies [11426]
- Faculty of Social Sciences [29483]
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