Symbolic subject, subjected symbol: Mizuko Kuyo, gender and the social order in Japan

The term mizuko kuyo describes a relatively new (mid-19th century) Japanese ritual performed by women who have had abortions or have lost infants in childbirth. The ritual, which takes place in Shinto, Buddhist, new- and new-new-religious settings, involves propitiatory offerings to the bodhisattva...

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主要作者: Landres, J. Shawn (Author)
格式: 電子 Article
語言:English
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出版: Carfax Publ. [1996]
In: Journal of contemporary religion
Year: 1996, 卷: 11, 發布: 1, Pages: 57-67
在線閱讀: Volltext (Resolving-System)
實物特徵
總結:The term mizuko kuyo describes a relatively new (mid-19th century) Japanese ritual performed by women who have had abortions or have lost infants in childbirth. The ritual, which takes place in Shinto, Buddhist, new- and new-new-religious settings, involves propitiatory offerings to the bodhisattva Jizo, believed to be the protector both of the pregnancy-childbirth process, and of fetuses and infants themselves. This study classifies the existing literature on mizuko kuyo according to Robert Wuthnow's (1981) consistency-coherence typology. Following a re-examination of English-language primary source literature based on Caroline Walker Bynum's (1986) gendered structural-symbolic methodology, it offers a reinterpretation of the ritual process, which suggests that mizuko kuyo rituals do not signal a more egalitarian relationship between the sexes, but rather serve to reinforce traditional Japanese gender roles.
ISSN:1469-9419
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of contemporary religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13537909608580755