In Pornographic Archaeology: Medicine, Medievalism, and the Invention of the French Nation, Zrinka Stahuljak explores the connections and fissures between the history of sexuality, nineteenth-century views of the Middle Ages, and the conceptualization of modern France. This cultural history uncovers the determinant role that the sexuality of the Middle Ages played in nineteenth-century French identity. Stahuljak's provocative study of sex, blood, race, and love in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century medical and historical literature demonstrates how French medicine's obsession with the medieval past helped to define European sexuality, race, public health policy, marriage, family, and the conceptualization of the Middle Ages. Stahuljak reveals the connections between the medieval military order of the Templars and the 1830 colonization of Algeria, between a fifteenth-century French marshal and the development of Richard von Krafft-Ebing's theory of sadism, between courtly love and the 1884 law on divorce. Although the developing discipline of medieval studies eventually rejected the influence of these medical philologists, the convergence of medievalism and medicine shaped modern capitalist French society and established a vision of the Middle Ages that survives today.

First reference work to explore the research on gender in archaeology.

Investigates the spiritual anatomy and evolution of animals • Examines the anatomy of the spiritual bodies of animals, including their aura, etheric fields, chakras, and mental, astral, and buddhic bodies • Details how reincarnation and karma work in the animal kingdom, including how the way that animals die can have different effects on their spiritual bodies in the astral realms • Explores the spiritual, energetic, and psychic abilities of many animals and insects Where do the spirits of animals go after they die? Do animals have chakras or auras? Why were animals worshipped in ancient religions? Exploring these questions and more, David Barreto presents a deep investigation into the spiritual evolution of the animal kingdom, from ants and cockroaches to cats, dogs, owls, pigeons, dolphins, and whales. He examines the spiritual anatomy of animals, including their aura, etheric fields, chakras, and mental, astral, and buddhic bodies. Detailing how reincarnation works among various species, Barreto explores their experiences between physical lives, how they accrue karma, and how the way that animals die can have different effects on their spiritual bodies in the astral realms. Drawing on both modern physics and metaphysics, he reveals, for example, how dogs can love unconditionally because of their large electromagnetic field, which nourishes the etheric bodies of those around them, and how cats can detect subtle energy shifts and disharmonies and conduct etheric filtration while they sleep. Examining esoteric schools as well as ancient spiritual traditions around the world, the author explores how animals are viewed and worshipped in different religions and how animal adoration and animal-connected gods arose in ancient Egypt, India, and China. He looks at animal totems, animal archetypes, animals in alchemy, and the astral connections between animals and elementals. The author also examines the spiritual and energetic repercussions of meat consumption and animal sacrifice, revealing the astral and etheric components of slaughterhouses. Detailing the role of the animal kingdom in the Age of Aquarius, the author shows how, with the awakening of this new astrological era, animals will have their earthly lives elevated with lasting worth and dignity, equal to the love and respect they have been transmitting for millennia.

An introduction to medievalism offering a balance of accessibility and sophistication, with comprehensive overviews as well as detailed case studies.

This collection reframes the debate around Islam and women's rights within a broader comparative literature that examines the complex and contingent historical relationships between religion, secularism, democracy, law, and gender equality.

The Archaeology of Identities brings together seventeen seminal articles from this exciting new discipline in one indispensable volume for the first time. Editor Timothy Insoll expertly selects a cross-section of contributions by leading authorities to form a comprehensive and balanced representation of approaches and interests. Issues covered include: gender and sexuality ethnicity, nationalism and caste age ideology disability. Chapters are thematically arranged and are contextualized with lucid summaries and an introductory chapter, providing an accessible introduction to the varied selection of case studies included and archaeological materials considered from global sources. The study of identity is increasingly recognized as a fundamental division of archaeological enquiry, and has recently become the focus of a variety of new and challenging developments. As such, this volume will fast become the definitive sourcebook in archaeology of identities, making it essential reading for students, lecturers and researchers in the field.

How secularism has been used to justify the subordination of women Joan Wallach Scott’s acclaimed and controversial writings have been foundational for the field of gender history. With Sex and Secularism, Scott challenges one of the central claims of the “clash of civilizations” polemic—the false notion that secularism is a guarantee of gender equality. Drawing on a wealth of scholarship by second-wave feminists and historians of religion, race, and colonialism, Scott shows that the gender equality invoked today as a fundamental and enduring principle was not originally associated with the term “secularism” when it first entered the lexicon in the nineteenth century. In fact, the inequality of the sexes was fundamental to the articulation of the separation of church and state that inaugurated Western modernity. Scott points out that Western nation-states imposed a new order of women’s subordination, assigning them to a feminized familial sphere meant to complement the rational masculine realms of politics and economics. It was not until the question of Islam arose in the late twentieth century that gender equality became a primary feature of the discourse of secularism. Challenging the assertion that secularism has always been synonymous with equality between the sexes, Sex and Secularism reveals how this idea has been used to justify claims of white, Western, and Christian racial and religious superiority and has served to distract our attention from a persistent set of difficulties related to gender difference—ones shared by Western and non-Western cultures alike.