LAS 316: Sex and Salvation in Latin America (Crosslisted: ANTH, GWS)

What do witches in colonial Guatemala, Mexican nuns, born-again gang members in Honduras, Catholics undergoing in-vitro fertilization in Ecuador, and lesbian Afro-Brazilian Candomblé practitioners have in common? Their experiences tell us something about the complex intersection of sex, gender, and religion in Latin America. This course takes an anthropological approach to consider two central questions: (1) What role do religious ideologies and institutions play in the social construction of sexuality and gender in Latin America? (2) How do Latin Americans enact and contest gender power relations through their religious practices, thus contributing to processes of social change in the region? To address these questions, this class focuses on gender and its relationship to sexual desires and transgressions across diverse religious traditions from the pre-Columbian period to the present.