We know that human beings are part of nature yet Philosophical systems around the world deny or minimize this fact. As the first book to take a systematic account of the universal human tendency to deny or minimize biology, this book considers a wide variety of these anti-biological systems and their relation to larger issues, particularly gender studies. Discussed in this book are a wide variety of expressions of the antithesis between human beings and natural processes in which the latter are denied, denigrated, or minimized. Contents: Introduction, Warren Shapiro; Sexual Imagery in Spanish Carnival, David D. Gilmore; Symbolic Reproduction and Sherpa Monasticism, Robert A. Paul; Witches and Wizards: A Male/Female Dichotomy?, James L. Brian; Coping with the Dilemmas of Masculinity and Female Disempowerment in Icelandic Mythology, Uli Linke; The Quest for Purity in Anthropological Inquiry, Warren Shapiro; Procreation, Gender, and Pollution, Ward H. Goodenough; Bibliography, Index.