Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles

Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles PDF Author: Anita Spring
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1468424009
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
This volume of essays grew out of a symposium organized by Judith Hoch-Smith and Anita Spring for the 1974 American Anthropological Association meetings in Mexico City. The two-part symposium was enti tled "Women in Ritual and Symbolic Systems: I. Midwives, Madonnas, and Mediums; ll. Prostitutes, Witches, and Androgynes. " The sym posium participants were asked to explore theological, ritual, and sym bolic aspects-both positive and negative-of the feminine cultural do main, using ethnographic materials with which they were familiar. The resulting papers have been revised, edited, and gathered together in Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles. The theoretical importance of these papers for the study of women's participation in culture and society rests on the assumption that reli gious ideas are paramount forces in social life, that relationships be tween the sexes, the nature of female sexuality, and the social and cul tural roles of women are in large part defined by religious ideas. That this proposition remains valid long after religion itself has ceased to be a living truth in the lives of many people can be seen from the tenacious ness of Judeo-Christian ideas about women in the contemporary West ern world. Both the expansion of life options for women and the creation of more positive cultural images of the female are intimately related to changes in the my tho-symbolic portraits that people carry around in their heads. These portraits are almost exclusively constructed from mythological and religious conceptions inherent in all facets of culture.

Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles

Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles PDF Author: Anita Spring
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1468424009
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 375

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume of essays grew out of a symposium organized by Judith Hoch-Smith and Anita Spring for the 1974 American Anthropological Association meetings in Mexico City. The two-part symposium was enti tled "Women in Ritual and Symbolic Systems: I. Midwives, Madonnas, and Mediums; ll. Prostitutes, Witches, and Androgynes. " The sym posium participants were asked to explore theological, ritual, and sym bolic aspects-both positive and negative-of the feminine cultural do main, using ethnographic materials with which they were familiar. The resulting papers have been revised, edited, and gathered together in Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles. The theoretical importance of these papers for the study of women's participation in culture and society rests on the assumption that reli gious ideas are paramount forces in social life, that relationships be tween the sexes, the nature of female sexuality, and the social and cul tural roles of women are in large part defined by religious ideas. That this proposition remains valid long after religion itself has ceased to be a living truth in the lives of many people can be seen from the tenacious ness of Judeo-Christian ideas about women in the contemporary West ern world. Both the expansion of life options for women and the creation of more positive cultural images of the female are intimately related to changes in the my tho-symbolic portraits that people carry around in their heads. These portraits are almost exclusively constructed from mythological and religious conceptions inherent in all facets of culture.

Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles

Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles PDF Author: Anita Spring
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9781468424027
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
This volume of essays grew out of a symposium organized by Judith Hoch-Smith and Anita Spring for the 1974 American Anthropological Association meetings in Mexico City. The two-part symposium was enti tled "Women in Ritual and Symbolic Systems: I. Midwives, Madonnas, and Mediums; ll. Prostitutes, Witches, and Androgynes. " The sym posium participants were asked to explore theological, ritual, and sym bolic aspects-both positive and negative-of the feminine cultural do main, using ethnographic materials with which they were familiar. The resulting papers have been revised, edited, and gathered together in Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles. The theoretical importance of these papers for the study of women's participation in culture and society rests on the assumption that reli gious ideas are paramount forces in social life, that relationships be tween the sexes, the nature of female sexuality, and the social and cul tural roles of women are in large part defined by religious ideas. That this proposition remains valid long after religion itself has ceased to be a living truth in the lives of many people can be seen from the tenacious ness of Judeo-Christian ideas about women in the contemporary West ern world. Both the expansion of life options for women and the creation of more positive cultural images of the female are intimately related to changes in the my tho-symbolic portraits that people carry around in their heads. These portraits are almost exclusively constructed from mythological and religious conceptions inherent in all facets of culture.

Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding

Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding PDF Author: Lisa Schirch
Publisher: Kumarian Press
ISBN: 1565491947
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
* Serves as a guide to using ritual acts in peacebuilding efforts * Abundant with examples of symbolic acts that aided the peace process Conflict is dramatic. In theater, literature, story telling, and news reporting, it is a powerful mechanism that draws attention, heightens the senses and evokes emotion. Schirch argues that peacebuilding has the potential to do just the same. Examples of peacebuilding often center on the serious, rational negotiations and formal problem-solving efforts in conflict situations. Schirch argues, though, that what truly bonds adversaries and helps achieve peace are the symbolic, non-verbal ritual acts--shaking hands, sharing a meal, showing a photograph of a loved one. Yet these are often overlooked as deliberate components of peace negotiations. Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding underscores the importance of incorporating symbolic tools, including ritual, into traditional approaches to conflict. Ritual assists in solving complex, deep-rooted conflicts, and helps to confirm and transform worldviews, identities, and relationships. With theories and language to explain the symbolic dimensions of conflict, this text will be useful to scholars and practitioners active in the diverse field of peacebuilding.

Zoroastrian Rituals in Context

Zoroastrian Rituals in Context PDF Author: Michael Stausberg
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047412508
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 766

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Book Description
Rituals play a prominent role in Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest religious traditions of mankind. In this book, scholars from a broad range of disciplines make the first ever collective effort to discuss Zoroastrian rituals in different historical contexts and geographical settings.

From Every People and Nation

From Every People and Nation PDF Author: David M. Rhoads
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 9781451406184
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
A diverse group of New Testament scholars and theologians offer myriad paths to a better understanding of the Book of Revelation. They discuss topics such as Hispanic / Cuban American and African American perspectives, ecological issues, postcolonial themes, and liberation theology. The book also provides a set of guidelines for intercultural Bible study.The volume's contributors include: Brian K. Blount Justo Gonz lez Harry O. Maier Clarice J. Martin James Okoye Tina Pippin Pablo Richard Barbara R. Rossing V tor Westhelle Khiok-Khng Yeo

Rituals of Fertility and the Sacrifice of Desire

Rituals of Fertility and the Sacrifice of Desire PDF Author: Carol Ann Muller
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226548197
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In this text, Muller breaks new ground in the study of this changing region and along the way she includes details of her own poignant journey, as a young, white South African woman, to the other side of a divided society.

Religion

Religion PDF Author: Meredith B. McGuire
Publisher: Waveland Press
ISBN: 147860963X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
In this insightful examination of religions in their local and global context, the author shows how analyzing religions social context helps us understand individuals lives, social movements, national and ethnic politics, and widespread social changes. Well-researched and theory-based, the text is filled with intriguing anecdotes, empirical data, thought-provoking discussions of both mainstream and nonofficial religions, and historical and contemporary examples that illustrate the interplay between religion and society across cultures. This volume takes an integrated approach to examining religion and includes cross-cultural, historical, and methodological viewpoints. Readers will learn to identify the complex interactions between religion and societal contexts, as well as the ways in which these interactions shape individuals, communities, national politics, and the world.

Women's Religious Experience (RLE Women and Religion)

Women's Religious Experience (RLE Women and Religion) PDF Author: Pat Holden
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317590252
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
Most of the early literature concerning women’s religious experience is about exceptional women; those who diverged from the traditional female role to become nuns, mystics or charismatic leaders. While women were permitted to be prophets and visionaries they rarely played an important part in church organisation. This paradox is explored in this book and a number of themes emerge: in particular, the dominance of male symbolism within the great religions. The question of whether men and women apprehend religious systems and signs in the same way is also explored. In considering the contemporary scene, the book is able to look at the ways in which religion affects the lives of women in different societies and in different historical periods; this gives us a larger view of the ways in which our own perceptions of ‘femaleness’ have been constructed out of the religious world views of both the past and the present. First Published in 1983.

The Lady and the Virgin

The Lady and the Virgin PDF Author: Penny Schine Gold
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226300897
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
Penny Schine Gold provides a bold analysis of key literary and artistic images of women in the Middle Ages and the relationship between these images and the actual experience of women. She argues that the complex interactions between men and women as expressed in both image and experience reflect a common pattern of ambivalence and contradiction. Thus, women are seen as both helpful and harmful, powerful and submissive, and the actuality of women's experience encompasses women in control and controlled, autonomous and dependent. Vividly recreating the rich texture of medieval life, Gold effectively and eloquently goes beyond a simple equation of social context and representation. In the process. she challenges equally simple judgments of historical periods as being either "good" or "bad" for women. "[The Lady and the Virgin] presents its findings in a form that should attract students as well as their instructors. The careful and controlled use of so many different kinds of sources . . . offers us a valuable medieval case study in the inner-relationship between the segments of society and its ethos or value system."—Joel T. Rosenthal, The History Teacher "Something of a tour de force in an interdisciplinary approach to history."—Jo Ann McNamara, Speculum "[A] well-written, extremely well-researched book. . . . The Lady and the Virgin is useful, readable, and well informed."—R. Howard Bloch, Modern Philology

Women as Healers

Women as Healers PDF Author: Carol Shepherd McClain
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813513706
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
In Women as Healers, thirteen contributors explore the intersection of feminist anthropology and medical anthropology in eleven case studies of women in traditional and emergent healing roles in diverse parts of the world. In a spectrum of healing roles ranging from family healers to shamans, diviner-mediums, and midwives, women throughout the world pursue strategic ends through healing, manipulate cultural images to effect cures and explain misfortune, and shape and are shaped by the social and political contexts in which they work. In an introductory chapter, Carol Shepherd McClain traces the evolution of ideas in medical anthropology and in the anthropology of women that have both constrained and expanded our understanding of the significance of gender to healing-one of the most fundamental and universal of human activities. The contributors include Carol Shepherd McClain, Ruthbeth Finerman, Carolyn Nordstrom, Carole H. Browner, William Wedenoja, Marjery Foz, Barbara Kerewsky-Halpern, Laurel Kendall, Merrill Signer, Roberto Garcia, Edward C. Green, Carolyn Sargent, and Margaret Reid.