The Madonna's body: The social construction of a neutralized body
This paper deals with the statue without female forms of Our Lady of Maidens, kept in the parish church of Civitella Roveto in the Abruzzo region, in Italy. After describing the religious rituals involving the statue of this Virgin in order to shed light on her title, the study goes on to analyze ve...
| Published in: | Critical research on religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
[2017]
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| In: |
Critical research on religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Italy
/ Folk religion
/ Marian image
/ Body
/ Sex differentiation
/ Neutralisierung
B Santa Maria del Monte (Civitella Roveto) / Folk religion |
| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture CE Christian art KBJ Italy NBJ Mariology |
| Further subjects: | B
Virgin
B Folk Religion B Ritual B Taboo B Christianity B Gender B Body |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | This paper deals with the statue without female forms of Our Lady of Maidens, kept in the parish church of Civitella Roveto in the Abruzzo region, in Italy. After describing the religious rituals involving the statue of this Virgin in order to shed light on her title, the study goes on to analyze vernacular discourses about her and explore the prohibition regarding the touching of her body. The symbolic aspects of the shapeless body of the statue are then investigated and discussed in the light of Marian, anthropological, sociological, and feminist literature, considering them a specific device for expelling female sexual desire from the domain of fertility. The article, focused on the body of the Madonna, hopes to contribute to studies in religious materiality as well as to studies in the social construction of gender inequality. |
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| ISSN: | 2050-3040 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Critical research on religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/2050303216676518 |