Sex and Sects: The Story of Mormon Polygamy, Shaker Celibacy, and Oneida Complex Marriage

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With a revolution behind them, a continent before them, and the First Amendment protecting them, religio-sexual pioneers in antebellum America were free to strike out on their own, breaking with the orthodoxies of the past. Shakers followed the ascetic path; Oneida Perfectionists accepted sex as a gift from God; and Mormons redefined marriage in light of new religious revelations that also redefined God, humankind, spirit, and matter. Sex became a powerful way for each group to reinforce their sectarian identity as strangers in a strange land.

Sex and Sects tells the story of these three religiously inspired sexual innovations in America: the celibate lifestyle of the Shakers, the Oneida Community’s system of controlled polyamory, and plural marriage as practiced by the Mormons. Stewart Davenport analyzes why these bold experiments rose and largely fell over the course of the nineteenth century within the confines of the new American republic. Moving beyond a social-scientific lens, Davenport traces for the first time their fascinating shared trajectory as they emerged, struggled, institutionalized, and declined in tandem—and sheds historical light on the way in which Americans have discussed, contested, and redefined the institutions of marriage and family both in our private lives and in the public realm.

Author(s): Stewart Davenport
Series: American Spirituality
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Year: 2022

Language: English
Pages: 361
City: Charlottesville

Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue: The Perfectionist Snow-Bound Funeral Orgy of 1839 and What This Book Is Not About
Introduction
Part I. Context and Ideas
1. More
2. Metanarrative
3. Marriage
Part II. Geneses
4. Spiritual
5. Sexual
6. Institutional
Part II. Early Crises
7. Shaker Family Drama
8. Polygamy and Persecution at Nauvoo: The Mormons, 1842–1844
9. “A Scatteration at Oneida”
10. Succession, Relocation, and Proclamation: The Mormons, 1844–1852
Part IV. Practices and Enforcements
11. Selfishness and Status
12. Control
13. Revival
14. Gender
15. Children
Part V. Sectarian End Times
16. The Shakers, from Revolution to Refuge
17. The Triumph of Bread and Butter at Oneida
18. The War on Polygamy and the Temporal Salvation of the Mormon Church
Epilogue
Notes
Index
American Spirituality