REAL WOMEN, GLOBAL VISION
The female cultural record is far richer than textbooks or the media let us know. Let's get to the juicy stuff:
the creative, inspired, valiant women; and cultures that honor their female achievers, wisewomen, artists, leaders...Women's Power Women have determined the course of events and the forms of culture. We originated, founded, governed, prophesied, built, invented, created great art, defended our peoples, fought for our rights...
New ::: Women's Power DVD Political, social, economic, technical, artistic and spiritual power... Study Guide for Women's Power
Restoring Women to Cultural Memory Excerpt from Women's Power DVD
Priestesses, Power and Politics When hierarchies and dominance are at stake -- of men over women, rich over poor, conquerors over aboriginal peoples, or one religion over others-- spiritual leadership has political ramifications...
Woman Shaman Images, oral traditions, and historic accounts show women as invokers, diviners, seers, ecstatic dancers, shapeshifters, shamanic journeyers, healers, and messengers of the ancestors...
Re-evaluating History in Global Perspective Beyond the old boring orthodox History, exist indigenous oral histories and folk traditions with a wealth of information about female leaders and heritages...
UNCODING THE SCRIPTS OF DOMINATIONRacism, History and Lies Classic doctrines of white supremacy; the power of names, and of distorted images... we've heard all the warnings about barbarians at the gates, but who are the real barbarians?
Patriarchies "If a man carry off a maiden by force, let him pay 50 shillings to the owner, and afterwards buy his will of the owner." --82nd law of king Aethelbert, early medieval England. Excerpts from the presentation on structural male supremacy ...
Origins and uses of the veil It didn't start with the Arabs. Females in public space -- mobility, visibility, "decency"—and the parameters of choice and coercion...
Empires are doomed to fall as Rome went, so goes the current dominion. Down. Let's find ways to create profound change, any way we can...
DOCTRINES UNDER SEIGE
Thinking about the gender politics of culture is shifting. Indignant harangues about the non-existence of "matriarchy" are giving way to more substantive discussion of living egalitarian societies. Nor can Goddess talk (anathema to theologians for two millennia) continue to be treated as heresy in academia. Less reductionism, more complexity...Matrix Cultures What about gender-egalitarian cultures? Not the reverse of patriarchy, nor a utopian fantasy, but an entirely different paradigm, founded on mother-right and the life matrix.
Icons of the Matrix Signs of the sacred woman recur on a global scale: vulva signs, female figurines, ancestor megaliths, and ceremonial vessels in the form of women or female breasts. These recurring symbols reflect the spiritual concerns and ritual life of the people who created them...
Knocking Down Straw Dolls: A Critique of Cynthia Eller's The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory All the heated rhetoric avoids the real issue, which is the existence of cultures that did not enforce a patriarchal double standard or make females legal minors ruled by fathers, brothers, and husbands...
Review: Witches and Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft Think of Portuguese inquisitors and French magistrates pressing accused women to tell of painful sex with the devil, of the size of his icy member. Recall the infamous “Ja” confessions, in which boilerplate diabolist questionnaires required mere assent from the tortured prisoners.
NUGGETS
New ::: Riches of the Mississippian Civilization Especially the little-seen female statuettes in pipestone...
New ::: The Nyabingi Oracles of East Africa The legend of Nyabingi began with the amazon queen Kitami and a sacred drum...
New ::: The Libyan Connection Another perspective on the roots of Greek civilization: archaeology, not theory..
What She Said, And Did Wider and wilder female horizons: seers, healers, warriors and resisters...
Respect and Responsibility Against appropriation of indigenous cultural heritage: insult to injury. Better to find your own...
Liberators Women who fought for freedom, led insurrections, labor risings and defended their homelands....
African Queens and Warrior Women Swazi, Ashanti, Igbo, Lovedu; and Jamaica, Ohio, Brazil ...
Ancestral Mothers of the BaPende A gallery of some beautiful wooden sculpture from southern Congo...
Khokhmah and Sophia the Judaic Wisdom Goddess and her "fall" according to Gnostic texts
Suppressed Histories? Overturning the stale gender, racial, colonial and literate biases ....
MORE REVIEWS
Lesley Hazelton's Jezebel: the Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen
Barbara Mann's Iroquoian Women: the Gantowisas No review yet -- but a must-read, highly recommended...
Ronald Hutton's The Pagan Religions of the British Isles But this one you could easily skip....
New ::: “The Black Doves,” Interview with Dr. Tonya K. Freeman, Wisdom Talks program 64 minutes.
(Scroll down to June 8, 2008)New ::: Rain and Thunder interview with Garine Roubinian (2007)
Machete interview (2001)
All Copyright 2000 Max Dashu