Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols

Contents: Introduction : the complexity of symbols / Caroline Walker Bynumpt. 1. Gender as culturally constructed meaning: Iranian sofreh : from collective to female ritual / Laal Jamzadeh and Margaret MillsAmbiguous gender : male initiation in a northern Thai Buddhist society / Charles F. KeyesMen, women, and ghosts in Tainwanese folk religion / Stevan HarrellThe priesthood and motherhood in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints / Carolyn M. Wallacept. 2.Gender as polysemic symbol: The portrayal of a female renouncer in a Tamil Buddhist text / Paula RichmanGender and cosmology in Chinese correlative thinking / Alison H. BlackUses of gender imagery in ancient Gnostic texts / Michael A. Williamspt. 3.Gender as point-of-view: Images of gender in the poetry of Krishna / John Stratton Hawley" ... And woman his humanity" : female imagery in the religious writing of the later Middle Ages / Caroline Walker BynumMale and female perspectives on a psychoanalytic myth / John E. Toews.