The Spirits of Crossbones Graveyard: Time, Ritual, and Sexual Commerce in London

Every month, local playwright John Constable leads a gathering at London’s Crossbones Graveyard to celebrate the souls of the “Winchester Geese,” a group of medieval prostitutes thought to be buried there. In The Spirits of Crossbones Graveyard (Indiana University Press), Hausner offers an ethnographic study of the Crossbones rites that examines the historical practice of sex work, the relation the Church had with it, and its representation in the present. Hausner is associate professor in the Study of Religion at the University of Oxford.