Gender Rituals

Gender Rituals PDF Author: Nancy Lutkehaus
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136657355
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
This volume draws together ethnographies of female initiation rites in Melanesia which require anthropologists to rethink their analysis of initiations and their perceptions of gender. The contributors argue that female initiation rites express more than cultural notions of femininity, narrow definitions of reproduction, or coming of age rituals - instead they play an important role in other life cycle rituals and in the political and economic organization of society.

Gender Rituals

Gender Rituals PDF Author: Nancy Lutkehaus
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136657355
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume draws together ethnographies of female initiation rites in Melanesia which require anthropologists to rethink their analysis of initiations and their perceptions of gender. The contributors argue that female initiation rites express more than cultural notions of femininity, narrow definitions of reproduction, or coming of age rituals - instead they play an important role in other life cycle rituals and in the political and economic organization of society.

Gender Rituals

Gender Rituals PDF Author: Nancy Lutkehaus
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136657428
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
This volume draws together ethnographies of female initiation rites in Melanesia which require anthropologists to rethink their analysis of initiations and their perceptions of gender. The contributors argue that female initiation rites express more than cultural notions of femininity, narrow definitions of reproduction, or coming of age rituals - instead they play an important role in other life cycle rituals and in the political and economic organization of society.

Promising Rituals

Promising Rituals PDF Author: Beatrix Hauser
Publisher: Routledge India
ISBN: 9780415625852
Category : Brahmapur (India)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
With reference to Brahmapur, Orissa, India.

Performing Islam

Performing Islam PDF Author: Azam Torab
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004152954
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"Performing Islam" focuses on a wide spectrum of ritual activities in Iran today as a key for elucidating social, cultural and political processes, but in particular the values and beliefs underpinning gender constructions in a rapidly changing complex society.

Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women

Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women PDF Author: Isaac Jack Lévy
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252026973
Category : Europe
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Winner of the Ellii Kongas-Maranda Prize from the Women's Section of the American Folklore Society, 2003. Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women preserves the precious remnants of a rich culture on the verge of extinction while affirming women's pivotal role in the health of their communities. Centered around extensive interviews with elders of the Sephardic communities of the former Ottoman Empire, this volume illuminates a fascinating complex of preventive and curative rituals conducted by women at home--rituals that ensured the physical and spiritual well-being of the community and functioned as a vital counterpart to the public rites conducted by men in the synagogues. Isaac Jack Lévy and Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt take us into the homes and families of Sephardim in Turkey, Israel, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, and the United States to unravel the ancient practices of domestic healing: the network of blessings and curses tailored to every occasion of daily life; the beliefs and customs surrounding mal ojo (evil eye), espanto (fright), and echizo (witchcraft); and cures involving everything from herbs, oil, and sugar to the powerful mumia (mummy) made from dried bones of corpses. For the Sephardim, curing an illness required discovering its spiritual cause, which might be unintentional thought or speech, accident, or magical incantation. The healing rituals of domesticated medicine provided a way of making sense of illness and a way of shaping behavior to fit the narrow constraints of a tightly structured community. Tapping a rich and irreplaceable vein of oral testimony, Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women offers fascinating insight into a culture where profound spirituality permeated every aspect of daily life.

Women, Ritual, and Power

Women, Ritual, and Power PDF Author: Elizabeth Ursic
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438452861
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Many Christians do not know the Bible contains female images of God because they have never heard nor seen them in church. In Women, Ritual, and Power, Elizabeth Ursic gives the reader insight into four Christian communities that worship God with female imagery, both as a worship focus and a community identity. These Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Catholic congregations operate within their established church denominations and are led by either ordained Protestant ministers or vowed Catholic sisters. Because expressing God-as-She can expose strident claims for maintaining God-as-He, this book shows not only how patriarchy continues to operate in churches today, but also how it is being successfully challenged through liturgy.

Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space

Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space PDF Author: Susan Guettel Cole
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520929322
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
The division of land and consolidation of territory that created the Greek polis also divided sacred from productive space, sharpened distinctions between purity and pollution, and created a ritual system premised on gender difference. Regional sanctuaries ameliorated competition between city-states, publicized the results of competitive rituals for males, and encouraged judicial alternatives to violence. Female ritual efforts, focused on reproduction and the health of the family, are less visible, but, as this provocative study shows, no less significant. Taking a fresh look at the epigraphical evidence for Greek ritual practice in the context of recent studies of landscape and political organization, Susan Guettel Cole illuminates the profoundly gendered nature of Greek cult practice and explains the connections between female rituals and the integrity of the community. In a rich integration of ancient sources and current theory, Cole brings together the complex evidence for Greek ritual practice. She discusses relevant medical and philosophical theories about the female body; considers Greek ideas about purity, pollution, and ritual purification; and examines the cult of Artemis in detail. Her nuanced study demonstrates the social contribution of women's rituals to the sustenance of the polis and the identity of its people.

Varieties of Atheism in Science

Varieties of Atheism in Science PDF Author: Elaine Howard Ecklund
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197539165
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Why study atheism among scientists? -- "Tried and found wanting" : how atheist scientists explain religious transitions -- "I am not like Richard:" modernist atheist scientists -- Ties that bind : culturally religious atheists -- Spiritual atheist scientists -- What atheist scientists think about science -- How atheist scientists approach meaning and morality -- From rhetoric to reality : why religious believers should give atheist scientists a chance.

Iron, Gender, and Power

Iron, Gender, and Power PDF Author: Eugenia W. Herbert
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253115966
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
"[Herbert] has constructed a model of power relationships structured upon gender and age, and derived from male transformative processes, and in so doing has written a notable, and most enjoyable, book." -- African History "Herbert examines with great care and thoroughness the relationships between gender and power and the rationales that give them social form.... [Her] analytical ability is outstanding." -- Patrick McNaughton "This book is a well-written and essential study of the place of belief in African material culture." -- International Journal of African Historical Studies Herbert relates the beliefs and practices associated with iron working in African cultures to other transformative activities -- chiefly investiture, hunting, and pottery making -- to propose a gender/age-based theory of power.

Promising Rituals

Promising Rituals PDF Author: Beatrix Hauser
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000059227
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This book shows how the performance of rituals influences the understanding that Hindu women form of their own selves, their sense of femininity, identity as well as their role and position in the lived-in world, and vice versa. Drawn from an intensive ethnographic fieldwork in southern Orissa, each section of the book takes a close look at a specific ritual practice, in exploring concepts such as purity/pollution, religious observances (such as fasting), deity possession, associated beliefs and attitudes, as also celebrated traditions such as Thākurānī Yātrā, local processions, and the role of female ritual specialists. The study uses the premise that religious practices in themselves are neither restricting nor liberating; rather rituals provide a perceptual context with the ability to affect the self-understanding of participants, as also their conception of agency, in a way that spills across non-ritual spheres. Conceptualizing gender identity as resulting from seen, but mostly unnoticed, everyday activities and approaching cultural performances as sites of collectively defining the self, the author offers a telling and vivid account of how women perceive, realize and reflect on religious ideas, while engaging in rituals and, by doing so, negotiate complex gender norms. The book also examines the assumptions of recent theories on the social construction of identities, often-debated impact of religion on women, performativity, self-identity, and ritual agency in considering ‘doing’ gender in a traditional, non-Western context. This book will serve as essential reading for scholars of sociology, anthropology, gender studies, cultural studies, history, religion, performance, and folklore studies.