Religion and Sexuality: The Shakers, the Mormons, and the Oneida Community"Most writers have treated these three groups and the social ferment out of which they grew as simply an American sideshow. . . . In this book, therefore, I have attempted to go beyond the conventional focus on what these groups did; I have also sought to explain why they did what they did and how successful they were in terms of their own objectives. By trying sympathetically to understand these extraordinary experiments in social and religious revitalization, I believe it is possible to come to terms with a broader set of questions that affect all men and women during times of crisis and transition."--From the preface Winner of the Best Book Award, Mormon History Association |
Contents
A New Heaven and a New Earth The Millennial Impulse and the Creation of Alternative Family Systems | 3 |
Anthropological Perspectives | 6 |
The Social Context | 10 |
The Millennial Response | 15 |
The Structure of This Study | 18 |
They Neither Marry Nor Are Given in Marriage The Origins and Early Development of Celibate Shaker Communities | 21 |
English Origins of Shakerism | 23 |
Early Growth of the Shakers in America | 26 |
The Pivotal Period in Nauvoo | 139 |
The Revelation on Plural Marriage and Eternal Family Relationships | 142 |
Reactions to Polygamy | 146 |
Joseph Smiths Plural Wives | 151 |
Irregularities and Forgotten Practices | 159 |
Liminality and Communitas | 166 |
The Bennett Scandal | 169 |
A Pamphlet Defense of Polygamy | 174 |
Hostility toward the Shakers | 30 |
Organizing the Movement | 35 |
Tensions of Transition | 41 |
The Second Wave of Expansion | 44 |
Impressionistic Perspectives | 48 |
A Quantitative Analysis | 54 |
Daily Life among the Shakers | 58 |
Crisis and Renewal | 62 |
That All May Be One John Humphrey Noyes and the Origins of Oneida Community Complex Marriage | 72 |
John Humphrey Noyes and His Religious Quest | 75 |
Rethinking Relations between the Sexes | 79 |
Noyess Marriage and the Move toward Community | 82 |
The Ideological Underpinnings | 88 |
Male Continence and Mutual Criticism | 93 |
First Steps toward Group Marriage at Putney | 100 |
Reorganizing Relations between the Sexes at Oneida | 102 |
The Institutionalization of Complex Marriage | 107 |
The Temporary Discontinuance of Complex Marriage | 111 |
Daily Life at Oneida | 116 |
Stirpiculture and the End of Complex Marriage | 118 |
Noyes in Retrospect | 120 |
A New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy 18311844 | 123 |
Four Approaches to the Origins of Mormon Polygamy | 125 |
Joseph Smiths Sense of Religious Mission | 128 |
Intellectual Origins of Polygamy before Nauvoo | 130 |
The Parting of the Ways | 177 |
Puritan Polygamy Brigham Young and the Institutionalization of Mormon Polygamy 18441852 | 181 |
The Role of Brigham Young | 183 |
Schismatic Challenges to Brigham Young | 186 |
The Prophet Who Failed | 190 |
The Westward Migration and the Law of Adoption | 195 |
The Public Announcement of Plural Marriage | 199 |
The Practice of Polygamy | 204 |
Status Advantages for Women under Polygamy | 211 |
Divorce and Polygamy in Utah | 216 |
The Crusade against Polygamy | 220 |
Radical Products of the Great Revivals Reflections on Religion the Family and Social Change | 226 |
Women and the Structure of Religious Authority | 228 |
Women and Economic Life | 231 |
Women and Sexual Expression | 234 |
Ideals of the Family Motherhood and Childrearing | 237 |
Relations with the Larger Society | 240 |
Causes of Decline | 243 |
A Permanent Revolution? | 245 |
Appendix | 249 |
Notes | 257 |
Essay on Sources | 341 |
| 353 | |
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Common terms and phrases
accounts activities allegations American antebellum appears associated attempt authority beliefs and practices Bennett Book of Mormon Brigham Young celestial marriage celibacy Christ commitment complex marriage concerns divorce Doctrine and Covenants early Mormon early Shaker early Utah economic emotional eternity eventually experience followers heaven husband ideals important individuals intellectual John Humphrey Noyes Joseph Smith Journal Kimball Kingdom larger Latter-day Saints leaders leadership Lebanon letter living Lord male continence manuscript married Mary membership ment millennial Mormon Church Mormon Polygamy Mother Ann Lee movements Nauvoo non-Mormon Noyes's Oneida Community Oneida Perfectionists organization original period plural marriage plural wives polygamy practice of polygamy printed problems Prophet Putney relations relationship religious and social revelation revival revivalistic Rigdon role Salt Lake City sealed sense sexes sexual Shaker communities Shakers Sidney Rigdon society sources spiritual spiritualist statement Strang suggest tensions tion Univ unto Utah wife woman women York