Research Catalog

Title

Sacred pleasure : sex, myth, and the politics of the body / Riane Eisler.

Author

Eisler, Riane Tennenhaus.

Publication

[San Francisco, Calif.] : HarperSan Francisco, ©1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

495 pages; 25 cm

Summary

Eisler's absorbing epic exposes the truths about sex that have been swept under the rug of religious dogma and scientific jargon. Showing what has gone wrong between the sexes, it reveals a whole new history of intimate relations - and how these affect and are in turn affected by all our relations, whether in the public or private sphere. It charts our course from prehistory, when sex was a celebrated mystery linked to all that is sacred, through the invasion of Europe by nomadic warriors, when sex became a means of domination, to the earliest Western civilizations, the reign of the church, and into our time of "culture wars"--When women and men all over the world are searching for new ways of living and loving. Along the way, it looks at the economics and politics of sexual and other intimate relations, the modern revolution in consciousness, the epidemic of AIDS, the failure of traditional morality, and the emerging new ethics for sex and spirituality.

Subject

• Sex customs > History
• Sex > Religious aspects
• Human body > Religious aspects
• Religion and Sex
• Sex customs
• Seksualiteit
• Menselijk lichaam
• Religieuze aspecten
• Culturele aspecten

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [464]-483) and index.

Contents

From ritual to romance : sexuality, spirituality, and society -- Animal rites and human choices : the roots of dominator and partnership sex -- Sex as sacrement : the divine gifts of life, love, and pleasure -- Sex and civilization : the early roots of Western culture -- From Eros to chaos : sex and violence -- The reign of the phallus : war, economics, morality, and sex -- The sacred marriage in a dominator world : the metamorphosis of sex, death, and birth -- The last traces of the sacred marriage : mysticism, masochism, and the human need for love -- From ancient to modern times : setting the stage -- Waking from the dominator trance : the revolution in consciousness and the sexual revolution -- Bondage or bonding : sex, spirituality, and repression -- Making love or making war : eroticizing violence -- Sex, gender, and transformation : from scoring to caring -- Getting out of Prince Charming's slipper : sex, femininity, and power -- Sex, lies and stereotypes : changing views of nature, the body, and truth -- Morality, ethics, and pleasure : sex and love in the age of AIDS -- Sex, power, and choice : redefining politics and economics -- Toward a politics of partnership : our choices for the future -- The new Eves and the new Adams : the courage to question, the will to choose, and the power to love.

ISBN

• 006250293X
• 9780062502933
• 0062502832
• 9780062502834

LCCN

95005861

OCLC

• ocm32087290
• 32087290
• SCSB-14697684

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library