Today's class topic was Religion and Sex, and we talked about norms, ethics, injunctions etc in Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. As part of my class prep last night I actually went and read some of the Kama Sutra for the first time. Contrary to popular belief, the Kama Sutra isn't just some crazed sex manual. There are 7 sections, one of which deals with sex. It's probably not as thrilling as you've been lead to believe, but you can check it out for yourself.
My favorite part was a list of 64 arts in which a woman should be competent. They include:
-Playing on musical glasses filled with water
-Art of knowing the character of a man from his features
-Knowledge of mines and quarries
-Making artificial flowers
-Knowledge of the art of war, of arms, of armies, etc.
-The art of making beds, and spreading out carpets and cushions for reclining
-Storing and accumulating water in aqueducts, cisterns and reservoirs
-Knowledge of dictionaries and vocabularies
-Various ways of gambling
and of course:
-Art of teaching parrots and starlings to speak
Good ol' Kama Sutra.
2 comments:
this reminds me of a book we stumbled across in a second-hand store in new york. it was the homemakers bible and it listed things you had to keep in your cupboard to always be prepared for your husbands boss to show up unexpectatly for dinner. one of these was jello, which i want to know how to just whip that up. it takes 4 hours to even set..... the list was very funny.
This is a great list!! Thanks for sharing.
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