Abstract
We intend to show the complexity of “prostitution”, as a social phenomenon, specifically in its relations with religion, in two contexts: in the historical institution of sacred prostitution and in the case of prostitutes converted to Pentecostalism nowadays. The intention is to understand how “prostitution” and the figure of the “prostitute” accumulate distinct, distant and even paradoxical layers of meaning. In this way, its rich constitution will not be well translated if you conceive this phenomenon in a flat or simplified form, like a morally condemned activity/identity. Religions, as moral matrices, guide constructions of meaning regarding prostitution that extrapolate this understanding of moral condemnation. Based on sources of different natures (historical, theological, ethnographic), I indicate ways in which this religious appropriation of the theme takes place.
Keywords
"Sacred Prostitution"; prostitute; (neo)Pentecostal; moral