Sad: a PBS video about the Devadasi practice in India — religiously sanctioned prostitution.
Funny: a graphic economic argument against the reality of supernatural phenomena.
(thanks, Clare, for letting me know about these)
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Yes, sad indeed.
Religion has always sanctioned prostitution,
but, most generally, of its spiritual higher ground.
This is a summary of things I looked into
yesterday:
Organized religions and money/economy have always been the coziest of bedfellows. As soon as religious organizations get property and money it is almost impossible for them NOT to take a header down the ol’ slippery slope and enter The DarkSide.
About Devadasi —
A long, long time ago in the ancient world there were temple priestesses. At one time, women were the ritual interface, divination and other shamanistic, healing duties. As time passed and Kingships developed, and wars therefrom, these positions of power in the temple were assumed by priests, and the woman demoted to dancing and singing. As more time passed raids and female captives taken from burned and pillaged villages came into the temple towns and found about the only way they could survive was prostitution. This generally happened right near the city/town center near the temples. Well it was not long before the distinction between dancing girls and displaced females turned sex workers became very blurred. This devaluation of the (feminine) divination tradition and the development of patriarchy in general lead to the disintegration of an earlier, and probably celibate, tradition— probably in India as well.
Jon