Best of
Womens-Studies

1989

The Language of the Goddess


Marija Gimbutas - 1989
    In this volume the author resurrects the world of goddess-worshipping, earth-centred cultures, bringing ancient matriarchal society to life.

I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America


Brian Lanker - 1989
    It charts their achievements and their continued impact on the world. Foreword by Maya Angelou.

Gods in Everyman


Jean Shinoda Bolen - 1989
    Viewing these archetypes as the inner counterparts of the outer world of cultural stereotypes, she demonstrates how men and women can gain an invaluable sense of wholeness and integration when what they do is consistent with who they are. Dr. Bolen introduces these patterns in the guise of eight archetypal gods, or personality types, with whom the reader will identify. From the authoritarian power-seeking gods (Zeus, Poseidon) to the gods of creativity (Apollo, Hephaestus) to the sensual Dionysus, Dr. Bolen shows men how to identify their ruling gods, how to decide which to cultivate and which to overcome, and how to tap the power of these enduring archetypes in order to enrich and strengthen their lives. She also stresses the importance of understanding which gods you are attracted to and which are compatible with your expectations, uncovers the origins of the often-difficult father-son relationship, and explores society's deep conflict between nurturing behavior and the need to foster masculinity.In Gods in Everyman Dr. Bolen presents us with a compassionate and lucid male psychology that will help all men and women to better understand themselves and their relationships with their fathers, their sons, their brothers, and their lovers.

Circle of Stones: Woman's Journey to Herself


Judith Duerk - 1989
    Circle of Stones draws us into a meditative experience of the lost Feminine and creates a space for us to consider our present lives from the eyes of women's ancient culture and ritual. Incorporating the most ancient symbol of spirituality-the circle of stones-Duerk weaves stories, dreams, and visions of women to lead each reader into a personal yet archetypal journey, posing the reflective question, "How might your life have been different if . . ."Complete with reading group guide.

The Once and Future Goddess


Elinor W. Gadon - 1989
    In this beautifully illustrated and far-reaching history. Elinor Gadon vividly weaves words and images to demonstrate the powerful connections between ancient and contemporary art, between the Goddess of the Ice Age and the Goddess of today.This panoramic view of Goddess imagery extends from the prehistoric Goddess representations of Catal Huyuk, Malta, Avebury, and Crete, tot he more patriarchal images of the Sumerians, Greeks, and Christians, to the wide range of contemporary artists inspired by the Goddess, including Frida Kahlo, Mayumi Oda, and Judy Chicago.

Spider Woman's Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women


Paula Gunn Allen - 1989
    Allen set out to understand why this was so and, more importantly, to remedy the situation. The result is this powerful collection of traditional tales, biographical writings, and contemporary short stories, many by the most accomplished Native American women writing today, including: Louise Erdrich, Mary TallMountain, Linda Hogan, and many others.

Shadowed Dreams: Women's Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance


Maureen Honey - 1989
    This revised and expanded version contains twice the number of poems found in the original, many of them never before reprinted, and adds eighteen new voices to the collection to once again strike new ground in African American literary history. Also new to this edition are nine period illustrations and updated biographical introductions for each poet.Shadowed Dreams features new poems by Gwendolyn Bennett, Anita Scott Coleman, Mae Cowdery, Blanche Taylor Dickinson, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Jessie Fauset, Angelina Weld Grimké, Gladys Casely Hayford (a k a Aquah Laluah), Virginia Houston, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Helene Johnson, Effie Lee Newsome, Esther Popel, and Anne Spencer, as well as writings from newly discovered poets Carrie Williams Clifford, Edythe Mae Gordon, Alvira Hazzard, Gertrude Parthenia McBrown, Beatrice Murphy, Lucia Mae Pitts, Grace Vera Postles, Ida Rowland, and Lucy Mae Turner, among others.Covering the years 1918 through 1939 and ranging across the period’s major and minor journals, as well as its anthologies and collections, Shadowed Dreams provides a treasure trove of poetry from which to mine deeply buried jewels of black female visions in the early twentieth century.

A Vindication of the Rights of Whores


Gail Pheterson - 1989
    Now, 200 years later, prostitutes are calling for similar rights and equality. The need o speak out for the rights of sex workers became clear to Margo St. James, a former prostitute, in the early 1970s. She founded Coyote (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) in 1973 and went on to establish a network of prostitutes, social workers and politicians.The book consists of the voices of a diverse group of prostitutes, sex worker's rights activists and feminist scholars from around the world, discussing their lives and their concerns.It includes the complete text of the World Charter for Prostitutes' Rights; unedited transcripts of workshop arranged by topic from the First World Whores' Congress held in Amsterdam in February 1985 and Second World Whores' Congress at the European Parliament held in Brussels in October 1986; position papers; as well as interviews with various participants.

Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America


Ann Braude - 1989
    Ann Braude still speaks powerfully to unique issues of women's creativity-spiritual as well as political-in a superb account of the controversial nineteenth-century Spiritualist movement." --Jon Butler"Radical Spirits is a vitally important book... [that] has... influenced a generation of young scholars." --Marie GriffithIn Radical Spirits, Ann Braude contends that the early women's rights movement and Spiritualism went hand in hand. Her book makes a convincing argument for the importance of religion in the study of American women's history.In this new edition, Braude discusses the impact of the book on the scholarship of the last decade and assesses the place of religion in interpretations of women's history in general and the women's rights movement in particular. A review of current scholarship and suggestions for further reading make it even more useful for contemporary teachers and students.

Gender/Body/Knowledge: Feminist Reconstructions of Being and Knowing


Alison M. Jaggar - 1989
    Some contributors challenge and revise western conceptions of the body as the domain of the biological and 'natural, ' the enemy of reason, typically associated with women.

Teachings Around the Sacred Wheel: Finding the Soul of the Dreamtime


Lynn V. Andrews - 1989
    Andrews takes the reader with her as she goes on inward journeys with the help of the Sisterhood of the Shields, and relates the stories of others. Join her as she is initiated into the Sisterhood and creates her own shield, which will show her the nature of her spiritual path (Spirit Woman). Follow her to the Yucatan, where the medicine wheel leads her, and she is faced with the terrifying reality of the butterfly tree (Jaguar Woman). Enter the Dreamtime with her, where she emerges in medieval England as Catherine, and encounters the Grandmother, who offers to show Andrews how to make her life one of goodness, power, adventure, and love (The Woman of Wyrrd). Not all these stories describe the author's own spiritual experiences. Meet Sin Coraz?n, an initiate into the Sisterhood, whose husband abandons her. She nearly succumbs to her inner dark power and unleashes her rage on men and the Sisterhood (Dark Sister). Andrews also writes about the elder women of the Sisterhood: their loves, their lives, their losses (Tree of Dreams). Andrews shows us how to channel our own spiritual and intellectual energy and balance the need for love with the desire for power (Love and Power). She takes the reader on numerous spiritual journeys that inevitably uplift.

Touching Our Strength: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God


Carter Heyward - 1989
    A leading feminist theologian affirms the sacredness of mutually empowering relationships and sexual pleasure.

The Grandmother of Time: A Woman's Book of Celebrations, Spells, and Sacred Objects for Every Month of the Year


Zsuzsanna E. Budapest - 1989
    Here are new approaches to today's rituals, from birthdays and dedications of newborn babies to purifying our homes and protecting us in travel.

Medicine Women, Curanderas, and Women Doctors


Bobette Perrone - 1989
    In a truly grass-roots project, the authors take the reader along to listen to the voices of Native American medicine women, Southwest Hispanic curanderas, and women physicians as they describe their healing paths.This book will fascinate anyone interested in the relationship between illness and healing-medical practitioners and historians, patients, anthropologists, feminists, psychologists, psychiatrists, theologians, sociologists, folklorists, and others who seek understanding about our relationship to the forces of both illness and healing.

Kicking the Habit


Jeanne Cordova - 1989
    Jeanne Cordova, author of "My Immaculate Heart" in LESBIAN NUNS: Breaking Silence, takes us once again behind the forbidden convent door for a revealing look at the joys and sorrows of Sisterhood.  This compelling and sometimes shocking autobiography chronicles Cordova's early life as a naive young woman from the Republican suburbs of Southern California.  Sent to the ghettos of Skid Row and Watts by Mother Superior, Cordova runs headlong into the chaos of inner city life, the social unrest of the '60s, disillusionment with religious life and her own burgeoning sexuality.

The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland


Mary Condren - 1989
    From the age of Eve to the age of Brigit to the age of Mary, the author traces the rise of patriarchial consciousness. Mary Condren is a former editor of Student Christian Movement Publications and the author of articles on men written for feminist liberation theory. The author has taught in the Women in Religion Program at Harvard University.