Women of the Sacred Groves Divine Priestesses of Okinawa

Name: Women of the Sacred Groves Divine Priestesses of Okinawa
Price: 70.77 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780195124873

ISBN-10: 0195124871

ISBN-13: 9780195124873

Edition: 1999

Authors: Susan Sered

List price: $90.00

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Okinawa is the only contemporary society in which women lead the official, mainstream, publicly funded religion. Priestesses are the acknowledged religious leaders within the home, clan, and village--and, until annexation by Japan approximately one hundred years ago, within the Ryukyuan Kingdom. This fieldwork-based study provides a gender-sensitive look at a remarkable religious tradition. Susan Sered spent a year living in Henza, an Okinawan fishing village, joining priestesses as they conducted rituals in the sacred groves located deep in the jungle-covered mountains surrounding the village. Her observations focus upon the meaning of being a priestess and the interplay between women's…

Book details

List price: $90.00
Copyright year: 1999
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 3/4/1999
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 320
Size: 5.98" wide x 9.09" long x 0.91" tall
Weight: 0.990
Language: English



Introduction


Prologue: Okinawan History, Henza Village, and `nthodology



Divine Dis-order



Divine Dis-order: On Social Planes



Divine Dis-order: On Cosmological Planes



Questions of Gender



Gender in an Egalitarian Society



Gender Separation and Social Integration



Women and Men and Ritual



Sitting in the Seat of the Gods



Priestesses and Ritual: Feeding the Kami-sama



Divine Dis-order: Signs, Symptoms, and Sitting in the Right Seat



Born to Be Kami-sama



Questions of Power



The Problematics of Power



Priestesses, Yuta, and Ogami People



Deconstructing Gender



Un-gendering Religious Discourse



Gender Bending(?) and Ritual Deconstruction


Conclusion: Religion, Power, and the Sanctification of Gender


Appendixes



Glossary of Japanese and Okinawan Words



Dramatis Personae


Notes


References


Index