Undressing Religion: Commitment and Conversion from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

By: Arthur, Linda B.

From Islam to Confucianism to Voodoo, dress plays a pivotal role in religious expression. This book investigates how dress symbolically evidences both religious and social systems across a wide range of cultures - from Africa and South America to Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Caribbean. In some of these cultures, dress is part of a system of social control. Gender issues feature prominently since the control of female sexuality is often of great importance to the world's religions. Members of each ethno-religious group actively construct their own lives, and use dress symbolically. A central tenet for many of these groups is that the soul is visually manifested on the body through dress. Drawing on rich ethnographic case studies, this wide-ranging and interdisciplinary volume represents a major contribution to the study of both religion and dress.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1859734804
• ISBN13: 9781859734803
• Release Date: December 2000
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.2"