{"id":482,"date":"2005-08-05T02:08:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-05T02:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=482"},"modified":"2005-08-05T02:08:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-05T02:08:00","slug":"482","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=482","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The sacred prostitute<\/strong><\/p>\n

In recent decades, two groups have attempted to rehabilitate the so-called “sacred prostitutes” of the ancient Mediterranean world. Part of what we think we know of these alleged customs of temple prostitutes–either women dedicated their virginity to a deity and\/or possibly slaves–comes from the Greek geographer and historian Strabo, who lived about 2,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

One group did so in the interest of improving the image and social standing of today’s sex workers, as does this site<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[M]any contemporary prostitutes turn to the iconography of the \u201csacred prostitute,\u201d a quasi-historical construct providing a \u201cgolden age\u201d when the prostitute\u2019s unique power was honored rather than reviled. Relying on mythology and animal imagery of Near Eastern goddesses, particularly Lilith and Inanna, this strain of discourse constructs a position of political and spiritual sovereignty within which prostitutes can contextualize their work and their political struggles.<\/em><\/p>\n

Others seek to meld the commercial and sacred roles<\/a>. They may seek to expand the boundaries of how we express spirituality<\/a> or view prostitution as http:\/\/www.sexuality.org\/l\/workers\/wsclcint.html”>service to the Great Goddess<\/a>. As part of the larger work of Goddess spirituality, the “prostitute” is redefined as “priestess.”<\/a><\/p>\n

The “holy whore” may express a form of gnostic spirituality<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

Some followers of revived ancient Egyptian religion take a similar line<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Egyptian sacred ‘prostitute’ (who was probably a highly regarded as a member of Egyptian society because of her association with different gods or goddesses (such as Bes and Hathor), rather than the street walker that the modern mind imagines) advertised herself through her clothing and make up.<\/em><\/p>\n

However, this article<\/a> in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz<\/em> is more skeptical, at least about Egypt:<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, the minute one sets aside the Judeo-Christian moral code and excises from the list of “harlots” those who engaged in a provocative line of work such as erotic dancing, there is no evidence, in all the historical findings from the days of the Pharaohs, that sex could be bought for money in the Land of the Nile.<\/em> (Link via Paleojudaica<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Clearly the combination of women + sex + religious worship is still a potent one, even to another writer who wants partially to debunk it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kama, working name of an Indian-born London prostitute who considers herself to be a devadasi<\/em><\/a>, or sacred prostitute in the Hindu tradition, has a blog<\/a> too, where she has mentioned that she felt looked down on by British sex-worker activists, who considered her to be a “trafficked woman<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

She writes elsewhere<\/a>, <\/p>\n

Being a Devadasi allows me a world view that legitimizes my sexual behaviour so I can enjoy myself without any sense of guilt or regret, it gives me the processes that allow me to genuinely have affection for the men I meet, and a lifestyle that allows me to live independently of South Asian patriarchy while yet maintaining a South
Asian identity.<\/em><\/p>\n

So there is the new sacred prostitute: economically on her own and framing her life in terms of identity politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sacred prostitute In recent decades, two groups have attempted to rehabilitate the so-called “sacred prostitutes” of the ancient Mediterranean world. Part of what we think we know of these alleged customs of temple prostitutes–either women dedicated their virginity to a deity and\/or possibly slaves–comes from the Greek geographer and historian Strabo, who lived about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-482","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":467,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=467","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":0},"title":"Sacred sitesSome evocative photos of\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Sacred sitesSome evocative photos of sacred sites in the UK and Iceland are on view in the Sacred Sites, Contested Rights\/Rites project's photo gallery.Visit the main page too.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":426,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=426","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":1},"title":"DevadasiIt's not just the Pagans\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"DevadasiIt's not just the Pagans talking about sacred sex--and its potential spinoff, sacred prostitution.Here is an articulate Hindu practitioner. (Notice her shrine page.) She blogs as well.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5809,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5809","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":2},"title":"Defining Paganism (1)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of a weeks ago, on another blog, a commenter, wishing to insist that his sort of Paganism was different from some other people's Paganism, concluded his comment by asserting that there was no overall definition of Paganism anyway. I decided to step in and disagree, since I could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10588,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10588","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":3},"title":"Religion News Service: Baltic Pagans Spurred by Conservation","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A new article from the Religion News Service, which does not normally acknowledge polytheists, describes the long-standing Pagan revivals in the Baltic republics: The pagan [sic] religions have been spurred especially by a growing awareness of climate change and the rise of conservation movements that tap into a deep local\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Estonia\"","block_context":{"text":"Estonia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=estonia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":485,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=485","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":4},"title":"Church, state, and sacred sitesNo\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 8, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Church, state, and sacred sitesNo insightful comment here, just a link to a Christian Science Monitor piece on the difficulties of applying law to sacred sites. Kennewick Man gets a mention too. (Remember, boys and girls, \"Caucasian\" is not the same as \"Caucasoid.\" Even the CSM fumbles that term.)","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":97,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=97","url_meta":{"origin":482,"position":5},"title":"An interested bystander . .\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"An interested bystander . . . is all that I am in the Kennewick Man case, but I enjoyed this post from Moira Breen's Inappropriate Reponse blog. You might like this post as well on the whole sacred-lands issue. 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