Elisa Janine Sobo

Sandra Bell

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 towards understanding the functions and meanings of sexuality.

The Anthropology of Sexual Abstinence

Celibacy, Culture, and Society

Gill Green

"To date, the majority of HIV/AIDS research has concentrated on education and prevention for those with a seronegative status, and studies of HIV positive individuals have been concerned with their potential to infect others. The Endangered Self, however, focuses on how the discovery of an HIV-positive status affects the individual's sense of identity and on the experience of living with HIV, and its effects on the individual's social relationships." "Drawing upon the concepts of stigma, dangerous identities, and health risk, the authors describe the revaluation that people living with HIV and AIDS must make of the risks entailed by everyday social interactions, and examine their negotiation of these interactions. In this study, which combines a UK/US perspective, Green and Sobo explore identity change and the stigma attached to an HIV-positive status within the context of the sociology of risk."--Jacket.

Elisa Janine Sobo

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