Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers: Women's Roles in New Religions (Women and Gender in North American Religions) [Hardcover]

Susan J. Palmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1994 | Series: Women and Gender in North American Religions

A study of women's roles and alternative patterns of sexuality in seven contemporary communal and millenarian movements. Based almost exclusively on interviews and first-hand data, this book will be of interest to scholars and students in communal and utopian studies, American religious history, and new religious movements. 10 illustrations. Index.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What are women looking for or rebelling against when they join new religious movements? Susan Palmer focuses on seven different new religions that differ dramatically in the roles they offer women. She looks at sex, family structure and the power accorded women. And in the process she gives us a peek inside the sometimes exotic, sometimes appealing, sometimes dizzying world of these unfamiliar religions. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Palmer's splendid investigation of the deep bonds between women's spiritual identity and women's sexual identity inaugurates a significant new series on Women and Gender in North American Religions. Drawing on case studies and interviews with members of a variety of new religious movements ranging from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and the Rajneesh Movement to the Unification Church and the Institute for the Development of the Harmonious Human Being, Palmer demonstrates that women's participation in such religions often allows them to redefine their traditional social roles through a playful reinterpretation of their sexual roles. The religious movements are grouped according to the extent to which they promote models sexual polarity, sexual complementarity or sexual unity. Palmer's dense, often academic, jargon is nicely balanced by the stories of the women themselves. The result is a study groundbreaking in its clarity in recording for the first time the voices of women interpreting the almost palpable bond between the sacred and the sexual.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 287 pages
• Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr (Sd); 1st edition (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815602979
• ISBN-13: 978-0815602972
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,784,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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