| Description |
xxiii, 323 pages ; 23 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-312) and index. |
| Contents |
Foreword / Charlene Spretnak -- Preface: All Blood Is Menstrual Blood -- 1. BLOOD ... Wilderness Metaform. 1. How Menstruation Created the World. 2. Light Moved on the Water. 3. Crossing the Great Abyss. 4. Wilderness Metaform -- 2. BREAD ... Cosmetikos Metaform. 5. How Menstruation Fashioned the Human Body. 6. Cosmetikos and Women's Paraphernalia. 7. Ceremony: Let's Cook! 8. Parallel Menstruations. 9. Sex, Matrimony, and Trickster Wolf -- 3. AND ... Narrative Metaform. 10. Number, Orientation, and the Shapes of Light. 11. The Making of the Goddess. 12. Menstrual Logic in the Visible World. 13. Narratives: Descent Myths and the Great Flood -- 4. ROSES ... Material Metaform. 14. Crafting the Earth's Menstruation: Materialism. 15. Crossing the Abyss to Male Blood Power. 16. The Way and the Way Back. |
| Summary |
"Blood is everywhere in our society: on nightly T.V., in daily newspaper photos, in religious imagery. Yet menstrual blood is never mentioned and almost never seen, except privately by women. A girl's first period is usually kept secret, a source of embarrassment and irritation. Menstruation in our culture is invisible and irrelevant if properly hidden, shameful and unclean if not. It was not always this way. Long ago, in cultures around the world, a girl's menarchal passage was a time of celebration and initiation, and a time for ceremony, often including special clothing and foods and a period of seclusion. Far more than a biological event, menstruation was a recognized mark of female power, a source of ritual and of awe. The influence of early menstrual rites remains visible in our culture today. According to Judy Grahn, the ancient rites explain much of contemporary material culture - why women wear lipstick and eye makeup and adorn themselves with earrings and hair clasps, or why forks, bowls, chairs, rugs, and shoes originated, for instance. But Grahn also reveals the profound connections between ancient menstrual rites and the development of agriculture, mathematics, geometry, writing, calendars, horticulture, architecture, astronomy, cooking, money, and many other realms of knowledge. Blending archaeological data, ethnography, folklore, history, and myth, she constructs a new myth of origin for us all, demonstrating that menstruation is what made us human. Blood, Bread, and Roses reclaims woman's myths and stories, chronicling the ways in which women's actions and the teaching of myth have interacted over the millennia. Grahn argues that culture has been a weaving between the genders, a sharing of wisdom derived from menstruation. Her rich interpretations of ancient menstrual rites give us a new and hopeful story of culture's beginnings based on the integration of body, mind, and spirit found women's traditions. Blood, Bread, and Roses offers all of us a way back to understanding the true meaning of women's menstrual power." -- (Source of summary not specified) |
| Subject |
Menstruation -- Social aspects.
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Menstruation -- Cross-cultural studies.
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Menstruation -- history.
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Menstruation. (OCoLC)fst01016284
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Menstruation -- Social aspects.
(OCoLC)fst01016291
|
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Menstruatie.
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Culturele aspecten.
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Sociale aspecten.
|
| Genre/Form |
Cross-cultural studies. (OCoLC)fst01423769
|
| Other Form: |
Online version: Grahn, Judy, 1940- Blood, bread, and roses. Boston : Beacon Press, ©1993 (OCoLC)609132779 |
|
Online version: Grahn, Judy, 1940- Blood, bread, and roses. Boston : Beacon Press, ©1993 (OCoLC)624408539 |
| ISBN |
9780807075043 |
|
0807075043 |
|
