Beyond habitus: researching gender and religion through the ontology of social relations

This chapter examines Bourdieu's practical theory' as the antidote for this determinism and gives concrete examples from research on religion, gender and sexuality where the ontology of social relations rooted in collective practices. Religion is a social structure which both affects and is affected by gender. The relationship is this of mutual susceptibility, which makes it particularly difficult to analyse because we are dealing with two social properties that are both relatively stable and yet in the state of constant flux. The young Christian women described in Sonya Sharma's study are acutely aware of the inequalities and injustices of some religious structures and institutions, and yet constituted by them at the same time. It is clear from Sharma's study that the interaction between religion and gender in this case is not driven by an overarching social structure but by collective norms that are drawn upon and enacted by real individuals in everyday life scenarios.