A01=Kimberley C. Patton
Author_Kimberley C. Patton
Category=JBSF1
Category=JHBK
Category=QRAC
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Product details
- ISBN 9781788311052
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 18 Dec 2018
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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The bond between mother and child has always been viewed as something profound. It is one that has engaged religious tradition and sacred ritual since the Stone Age. Though in the modern era childbirth has mostly been defined and explained in medical terms, Kimberley Patton demonstrates here that human beings have consistently explained the maternal relationship – as well as the real dangers and liminal risks involved in giving birth – in terms other than the anatomical or reductionist. Creatively using comparative religion and mythic stories to bring fresh insights to her subject, the author reveals how ancient rites, sacred histories and religious narratives all present the mother-child bond as extraordinary, blurring the lines of individualism throughout the lives of both. Patton shows here that the biological process whereby a mother and her child are `enjoined’ through a complex cell exchange reinforces a deep, atavistic belief that people are forever implicated in each other’s existences. This has vital implications for understanding human identity, and boldly challenges hegemonic Western ideas about separateness.
Kimberley C Patton is Professor of the Comparative and Historical Study of Religion at Harvard University. Her book Religion of the Gods: Ritual, Paradox and Reflexivity (2009) won the 2010 American Academy of Religion Book Award for Excellence in Religious Studies in the Analytical-Descriptive category. She has likewise authored The Sea Can Wash Away All Evils: Modern Marine Pollution and the Ancient Cathartic Ocean (2006) and is the co-editor of three other volumes.
