Through the Earth Darkly: Female Spirituality in Comparative Perspective 9781474281676, 9781350005631, 9781474281683

Table of contents :
Cover
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Foreword
Prologue: A Personal Journey
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Methodology
The Structure of This Book
Limitations of This Study
A Note on Terminology
Chronology
Part I: Framing Europe
2. Pre-Christian Saami Religion
BACKGROUND
FEMALE SPIRITS
Cosmic Spirits
Creation Spirits
Spirits of the Game and the Herd
Spirit for the Dead
Guardian Spirits
FEMALE RITUALS AND RITUAL ROLES
Female Participation in "Male" Rituals
Childbirth Rituals
Female Religious Functionaries
FEMALE SELF-UNDERSTANDING
3. Israelite Religion and Its Precursors
BACKGROUND
FEMALE SPIRITS
Ancient Mesopotamia
Syro-Palestine
FEMALE RITUALS AND RITUAL ROLES
Ancient Mesopotamia
Ancient Syro-Palestine and the Bible
FEMALE SELF-UNDERSTANDING
Part II: East Asia
4. Traditional Chinese Religion
INTRODUCTION
FEMALE SPIRITS
The Western Invention of a Chinese High God
Ancestors
Earth
Creator and Other Fertility Deities
Euhemeristic Goddesses
Discussion
FEMALE RITUALS AND RITUAL ROLES
Female Rituals
Mixed Gender Rituals
Ritual Roles
FEMALE SELF-UNDERSTANDING
5. Contemporary Chinese Religion
INTRODUCTION
FEMALE SPIRITS
The Family Dead
Household Deities
Earth and Other Cosmic Deities
Star and Moon Deities
Creator and Other Fertility Deities
Euhemeristic Goddesses
Summary
FEMALE RITUALS AND RITUAL ROLES
Female Rituals
Mixed Gender Rituals
Ritual Roles
FEMALE SELF-UNDERSTANDING
6. Effects of Chinese Religion on Neighboring Traditions
Aspects of Japanese Religion
Aspects of Korean Religion
Part III: Native North America
7. Introduction: Four Vignettes
Bridging the Continents: A Female Image
Sedna: From Earth Mother to Sea Mother
The Amazonian Earth Mother and Her Rituals
Inca Gender Parallelism
8. Anishnabe Religion
Introduction
Pre-Contact Female Spirituality
Prologue
Some Caves in Northeastern Iowa
A Rockface in Southeastern Ontario
Conclusions
Contemporary Anishnabe Female Spirituality
Female Spirits
Female Rituals
Female Roles in Mixed Gender Rituals
Female Self-Understanding
Traditions Corollary to Those of the Anishnabeg: Lenape and Nitsitapi
The Lenape'wak
The Nitsitapi Tribes
9. Hopi Religion
BACKGROUND
FEMALE SPIRITS
Earth Mother and Fertility Deities
Trickster/Culture-Hero
A Few Other Female Deities
FEMALE RITUALS AND RITUAL ROLES
Life-cycle Rituals
Female Ritual Societies
Female Roles in Male Society Rituals
FEMALE SELF-UNDERSTANDING
10. Fusion: Dine Menarche Rituals
BACKGROUND
CHANGING WOMAN/WHITE PAINTED WOMAN- WHITE SHELL WOMAN
KINAALDA / ISANAKLESH G0TAL
Isanaklesh Gotal
Kinaalda
INTERPRETATION
Part IV: Sub-saharan Africa
11. Glimpses of West Central African Religions
Yoruba Religion
Female Spirits
Female Rituals and Ritual Roles
Female Self-Understanding
Akan Religion
Female Spirits
Female Rituals and Ritual Roles
Female Self-Understanding
12. Candomble: An African Religion in the Americas
FEMALE SPIRITS
FEMALE RITUALS AND RITUAL ROLES
FEMALE SELF-UNDERSTANDING
Endings
13. Analysis and Conclusions
Commonalities of Non-Western Traditions
Female Spirits
Female Rituals and Ritual Roles
Female Self-Understanding
Comparative Spirituality: West and Non-West
Towards a Non-Eurocentric, Non-Androcentric Science of Religion
On the Perversity of Androcentric Translations of Religious Terms
The Hermeneutics of Suspicion
Epilogue: Through the Earth Darkly
Afterword
Notes
Index

Citation preview

Through the Earth Darkly

Religious Studies: Bloomsbury Academic Collections

This set on religion’s relationship with gender and sexuality contains nine facsimiles from our imprints T&T Clark, Mowbray, Sheffield Academic Press and Continuum. Offering a broad overview over subjects such as feminist theology, the role of sex within the church and religious cultures, the relationship between women and organised religion, and the feminisation of religion, these titles are a valuable resource for students and scholars studying religious studies. The collection is available both in e-book and print versions. Titles in Religious Studies are available in the following subsets: Religions of the World Comparative Religion Christianity and Society Religion, Sexuality and Gender Other titles available in Religion, Sexuality and Gender include: Making the Difference: Gender, Personhood and Theology by Elaine Graham Religion and Sexuality edited by Michael A. Hayes, Wendy Porter and David Tombs That They May Be Many: Voices of Women, Echoes of God by Ann Kirkus Wetherilt Religious Feminism and the Future of the Planet: A Christian-Buddhist Conversation by Rita M. Gross and Rosemary Radford Ruether Bodies, Lives, Voices: Gender in Theology edited by Janette Gray, Kathleen O'Grady and Ann L. Gilroy From Women's Experience to Feminist Theology by Linda Hogan Civilizing Sex: On Chastity and the Common Good by Patrick Riley An A-Z of Feminist Theology edited by Lisa Isherwood and Dorothea McEwan

Through the Earth Darkly

Female Spirituality in Comparative Perspective

Jordan Paper

Religious Studies: Religion, Sexuality and Gender BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC COLLECTIONS

Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP UK

1385 Broadway New York NY 10018 USA

www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in 1999 by Continuum This edition published by Bloomsbury Academic 2016 © Jordan Paper 2016 Jordan Paper has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this volume. If any copyright holder has not been properly acknowledged, please contact the publisher who will be happy to rectify the omission in future editions. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-8167-6 ePDF: 978-1-4742-8168-3 Set: 978-1-4742-9307-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Series: Bloomsbury Academic Collections, ISSN 2051-0012

Printed and bound in Great Britain

THROUGH THE EARTH DARKLY

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Through the Earth Darkly Female Spirituality in Comparative Perspective BY JORDAN PAPER with Elizabeth and Paul Aijin-Tettey Louise Backman Jacqui Lavalley

Marilyn Nefsky Li Chuang Paper Johanna Stuckey

FOREWORD BY RITA GROSS AFTERWORD BY CATHERINE KELLER

CONTINUUM

N E W YORK

1999 The Continuum Publishing Company 370 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Copyright © 1997 by Jordan Paper All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of The Continuum Publishing Company. Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Paper, Jordan. Through the earth darkly : female spirituality in comparative perspective / by Jordan Paper ; with Elizabeth Aijin-Tettey . . . [et al.]; foreword by Rita Gross ; afterword by Catherine Keller, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8264-1050-2 (pbk.) 1. Women and religion. I. Aijin-Tettey, Elizabeth. II. Title. BL458.P36 1997 200'.82—dc21 97-23307 CIP

W

HEN IN THE 1930s, Ruth Underhill was doing fieldwork among the Papago and was perturbed at the seemingly secondary role of the women in religious ceremonies, she received a very different interpretation of their situation from them: "You see, we have power. Men have to dream to get power from the spirits and they think of everything they can—songs and speeches and marching around, hoping that the spirits will notice them and give them some power. But we have power." When I looked a little surprised, the answer was: "Children. Can any warrior make a child, no matter how brave and wonderful he is?" "Warriors do take a little part in starting children." They sniffed. "A very little part. It's nothing compared to the months that a woman goes through to make a child. Don't you see that without us, there would be no men? Why should we envy the men? We made the men." —from Ruth Underhill, Papago Woman

For Henya-Golda and Sarah, Hsu P'ei-chen and Shang Wen-chen, grandmothers we did not know or barely knew; for all the slighted Grandmothers; and for our daughter, Leila Hsiian-li.

CONTENTS

Foreword by Rita M. Gross Prologue: A Personal Journey Acknowledgments

ix xiii xix

CHAPTER

1. Introduction

1 PART I. FRAMING EUROPE

CHAPTER

2. Pre-Christian Saami Religion, with Louise Backman 3. Israelite Religion and Its Precursors, with Johanna Stuckey

15 28

PART II. EAST ASIA 4. Traditional Chinese Religion 5. Contemporary Chinese Religion, with Li Chuang Paper 6. Effects of Chinese Religion on Neighboring Traditions Aspects of Japanese Religion, with Marilyn Nefsky Aspects of Korean Religion

43 69 97 98 104

PART III. NATIVE NORTH AMERICA 7. Introduction: Four Vignettes Bridging the Continents: A Female Image Sedna: From Earth Mother to Sea Mother The Amazonian Earth Mother and Her Rituals Inca Gender Parallelism

111 112 116 119 124

vn

Vlll

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

8. Anishnabe Religion Introduction Pre-Contact Female Spirituality Contemporary Anishnabe Female Spirituality, with Jacqui Lavalley Traditions Corollary to Those of the Anishnabeg: Lenape and Nitsitapi 9. Hopi Religion 10. Fusion: Dine Menarche Rituals

150 159 174

PART IV. SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 11. Glimpses of West Central African Religions Yoruba Religion Akan Religion, with E.