Abstract:In October of 1776 Jemima Wilkinson of Cumberland, Rhode Island, claimed to have died and been resurrected by the Spirit of the Lord as a genderless spirit, renamed the “Publick Universal Friend.” As a resurrected spirit, the Friend defied the line between living and dead, body and spirit, divine and human, and male and female. The Friend performed this spiritual state by mixing worldly category signifiers, dressing in a combination of male, female, and priestly clothing. Followers used genderless language for… Show more
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.