Wicazo Sa Review

Smith, Andrea, 1966-
Spiritual Appropriation As Sexual Violence
Wicazo Sa Review - Volume 20, Number 1, Spring 2005, pp. 97-111

University of Minnesota Press

Andrea Smith - Spiritual Appropriation As Sexual Violence - Wicazo Sa Review 20:1 Wicazo Sa Review 20.1 (2005) 97-111 Spiritual Appropriation As Sexual Violence Andrea Smith The Hebrew word YDH, which translates as "to know a person, carnally, of sexual intercourse" according to the Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, is used frequently in the Hebrew scriptures to connote sexual relations. For instance, Genesis 4:1 (NRSV) states: "now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain saying, 'I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.'" YDH colloquially refers to engagement in sexual relations. Inherent in this double meaning of "to know" is the sense that (1) sexual intimacy conveys an intimate knowledge of a person but also that (2) knowing a person intimately conveys a sense of sexual relatedness. Consensual sexual relationships require the loosening of the boundaries of one's physical and psychic space-it involves allowing another person to not only become close to you physically, but allowing her or him to know more about you. Sexual violence then suggests the violation of these boundaries on not only the physical but the spiritual and psychic level as well. In addition, sexual violence is ultimately structured around power relations-it entails establishing the power to control someone's life. Similarly, "knowledge" about someone also gives one power over that person. Withholding knowledge, then, is an act of...