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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Fabbrini, Marco (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage [2017]
In: Critical research on religion
Year: 2017, Volume: 5, Issue: 1, Pages: 62-78
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
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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.
ISSN:2050-3040
Contains:Enthalten in: Critical research on religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/2050303216676518