Thank You....

to everyone who helped make this year's Regional Meeting a huge success!! Please see the abstracts and images below of all the papers presented.

I encourage you to send any news or program highlights to Kendra or Ardy - let us know what is going on at your institution or in your research on women.

Also, please feel free to post comments!!

Congratulations!!

A big round of applause, please, to Anna-Sophia Zingarelli of Gonzaga University, who won the AAR Undergraduate Student Paper Competition. Anna-Sophia presented her paper Lux vivens: Hildegard of Bingen and the Medieval Imaging of God as Light at the Saturday afternoon session (see abstract and image below).

Women in the World’s Columbian Exposition: Harbingers of “Progress”

Susanna Morrill presented Women in the World’s Columbian Exposition: Harbingers of “Progress.”

Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 helped to generate an American civil, or, more accurately, cultural religion. The place of women at the fair was central to the creation of this cultural religion. As represented by the elite white women of the fair’s Woman’s Building—and presented in sharp contrast to the Asian and African women of the fair’s Midway—American women were seen to be one of the harbingers of the country’s God-ordained, postmillennial progress. Christianity, particularly Protestantism, was seen to have raised the authority of women within the home, thus, stimulating a general moral and religious elevation of families. Additionally, advancing technology was seen to have freed women from some of their home duties so that they could participate in wider social reform activities. In this cultural religion, the contained authority of middle class white women was seen to be a key element in creating a progressively perfected American society.

There Goes the Bride: Creating and Re-Creating the Ideal Christian Wife in Text, Art and Film

Kathlyn A. Breazeale presented wonderful images as part of her presentation on There Goes the Bride:Creating and Re-Creating the Ideal Christian Wife in Text, Art and Film:

This paper examines the historical development of the concept of the ideal Christian wife in Western culture by analyzing religious, economic and political factors used to construct this archetype. I demonstrate how the texts for defining "wife" shift from biblical scripture to the miracle and mystery plays of the early medieval church, and then to the street drama and woodcut illustrations of the Renaissance and Reformation period. I examine the dramatic influence of capitalism and the resulting needs of the new middle class on religious beliefs about the role of the Christian wife. Following this historical overview, I discuss how the Christian archetype of two wives - Eve and Mary - continues to influence the portrayal of wives as good or bad in contemporary films in the United States.

Lux vivens: Hildegard of Bingen and the Medieval Imaging of God as Light

Anna-Sophia Zingarelli presented Lux vivens: Hildegard of Bingen and the Medieval Imaging of God as Light.

In the wake of many excellent but narrowly gender-oriented studies on Hildegard of Bingen, one must be careful to remember that Hildegard's gender did not divorce her from the intellectual currents of her time. This paper examines the importance of light imagery in Hildegard's visionary work Scivias and its place in a medieval discourse on light as a manifestation of the divine. This theme appears, with similar import, in the works of other such diverse thinkers as St. Benedict, Hugh of St. Victor, Robert Grosseteste, and St. Bonaventure. In both the text and images of Scivias, Hildegard relayed the revelations made to her by a God whom she described first and foremost as an extraordinary Light - a characterization unusual in the visual arts of the time, but more apparent in the writings of her peers, even, for St. Bonaventure, emerging as the true imago Dei.

Women and Religion: Women's Participation in the Ritual of Worship in African Traditional Religion

On Saturday afternoon the session began with Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye paper onWomen and Religion: Women's Participation in the Ritual of Worship in African Traditional Religion.

In traditional African societies, the image of womanhood is nothing good to write home about. She is only fit for the kitchen and other household chores. A woman is never equal to a man and thus must not be heard when men are around. She is seen as a sort of sex machine to satisfy the sexual desire of men. This unfortunate traditional image of womanhood has been carried to the field of religion and thus suppressing or denying women their divine-given talent to participate in the ritual of worship. In this paper, an attempt will be made to examine women participation in the ritual of worship in African Traditional Religion. Three major questions will guide the discussion. They are: Why have women in Africa been imaged in the way described above? Are there areas in African Traditional Religion where women are permitted to express their religiosity? If there are, which are they? Have women any role at all to play in African Traditional Religion? If there are, which are they? The paper will, however, argue that the women participation in African Traditional Religion can better be described as ambivalent. For, in one breath, women seem to be restricted in the extent to which they can participate in religious activities but in another breath, restrictions are removed. This seeming contradiction stems from the fact that in the African religious thought, there are both male and female gods and even the Supreme Being is neither exclusively male nor female.

Gen 1-3, Relationships and Popular Culture

Val, Linda and Amy entertained us with a session on Gen 1-3, Relationships and Popular Culture.

Val Ziegler began with That’s SO Romantic! Adam, Eve, and the Perfect Date:

Although Genesis 2-3 never mentions romance, a long line of Christian writers since Milton have found the Adam and Eve story redolent with exciting and intense sexual love. Contemporary Evangelical writers such as Josh Harris, Tim and Beverly LeHaye, and Eric and Leslie Ludie have appealed to Genesis 1-3 as the foundation of a sexual theology that promises to provide “worship in bed,” to transform married couples into Prince and Princess Charmings, and to deliver the most satisfying (and frequent) sex on the planet. What happens when secular dating services invoke Adam and Eve as their model and offer customers romance from paradise? What kind of love can Eve and Adam provide those looking for fulfilling partners? How do cultural myths of Adam, Eve, and romantic love differ from Christian readings of Genesis 2-3? Or do they? The results may surprise you

Linda Schearing continued with Marketing Sex: Adam, Eve, and Sexploitation:

Commentators since ancient times have reflected on Adam and Eve’s nakedness (Gen 2) and the interpretive nuances of the tree of “knowledge” (Gen 3). Whereas some contemporary writers see in these elements the foundation of a romance between Adam and Eve (see Ziegler’s abstract) other popular culture voices stripped the romance from Adam and Eve in favor of a more blatant sexual interpretation. While the genres of humor and advertising, in general, have capitalized on Gen 2-3 sexual inferences, no contemporary business sector of society has exploited Gen 2-3 quite like that of the sex industry. This presentation examines what happens to Gen 2-3 when the story’s characters and their relationship become the icon for the largest and most successful adult products company in the United States—“Adam and Eve.”

Amy Merrill Willis wrapped it up with her analysis of Desperate Housewives, Desire, Desperation, and Empowerment: The Eves of Desperate Housewives:

This paper will be an exploration of one particular intersection between Genesis 2-3 and popular culture, the one offered in the popular primetime soap opera, Desperate Housewives (DH). One conventional interpretation of Eve- as the original femme fatale who tempts primal man to his downfall with her sexual wiles- sometimes appears to guide the depiction of the central female characters in DH, especially in the advertisements for commodities connected to the show. This paper will argue that the temptress is actually one of several models of female empowerment at work in the show’s ongoing narrative of four suburban housewives and their acquaintances on Wisteria Lane. This paper will explore the use of Gen 2-3 to frame the depiction of female desire and power in the show. It will argue that, rather than exhibiting a conventional reading of Eve that threatens to undermine the full humanity of all women, the program renders women as fully human as it unfolds the profound contradictions of life in an ironic Eden and various female responses to that life.

Like a Serpent in a Rope: Re-imaging Woman’s Moving Body as Site of the Sacred Feminine

Louise Pare presented Like a Serpent in a Rope: Re-imaging Woman’s Moving Body as Site of the Sacred Feminine:

Western patriarchal religions erased female images of deity and in so doing inhibited women’s process of becoming divine women. Iconographical analysis of images and artifacts of prehistoric goddess cultures documented that woman’s moving body was the embodiment of the sacred. Using a multi-disciplinary approach which includes scholarship in women’s spirituality, somatics, and yogic studies as well as the writing of key French feminist philosophers, I argue that woman’s moving body is a site of the Sacred Feminine. I will present research on Sacred Transformational Movement as a new embodied spiritual practice which enables a woman practitioner to bring forth new images of herself as the embodiment of the Sacred Feminine. The stories of seasoned women practitioners will demonstrate how this work enables women to image themselves as the embodiment of the divine in order to correct and complete the central project of Christianity which is “embodied knowledge.”

The Tantric Kali

Chandra Alexandre presented on the Hindu Goddess Kali:
In India, Goddess Kali is both feared and revered by Hindus. For Shakta Tantricks, believers in the primacy of the female force, She is the Ultimate, an expression of the Divine that is both formless and at the same time a part of every component of Creation. She is at once the terrifying power of nature unbounded, a force with which to be reckoned, and our merciful, ever-compassionate mother. In the developed nations of the global north, Kali has taken a place at the crossroads between Paganism and Hinduism, between Wicca and the Tantrick practices of South Asia —all of which have been steadily gaining momentum in an increasingly goddess- and Gaia-conscious world. In this presentation, I argue that new forms of Devi (Goddess) worship focused in particular on Kali are arising in the developed west that honor rather than appropriate Hindu deities, rituals, and spiritual practices. What these new traditions are, how they are carried out (and by whom), how they differ and are similar to the Hindu orthodoxy and heterodoxy, will be discussed.

Amaterasu-o-mi-kami: The Japanese Sun Goddess

Susan Carter presented Amaterasu-o-mi-kami: The Japanese Sun Goddess:

Of all the world’s main religions, only in Shinto is a goddess, Amaterasu-o-mi-kami, preeminent without a male consort. Today Japan’s Emperor and average Japanese citizens alike worship this Sun Goddess. From a western feminist perspective, this is remarkable. How might Amaterasu-o-mi-kami have emerged, and why has she survived in Japan’s patriarchal society? Is she relevant to women’s lives today? Drawing on interdisciplinary research I argue how early religious and political development in Japan provided fertile ground for the myth of Amaterasu-o-mi-kami and her emergence in female form. Her continuing spiritual reign and survival today, in part, can be attributed to the remaining characteristics of an earlier more woman-centered culture and to the political success of the Yamato clan, who claimed her as their tutelary deity, and came to be Japan’s ruling imperial family. Amaterasu-o-mi-kami’s reign continues to shape the social, political, and spiritual lives of the Japanese in surprising ways.

Anne Key and the Cihuateteo

Friday Afternoon's Session began with Anne Key's paper: From Beloved Sisters to Vampires: Myths and Misinterpretations of the Cihuateteo.

The Cihuateteo (literally “women goddesses”) appear in the Mesoamerican cosmology as women that died in childbirth and were deified. They are mentioned in the writings by the Spanish clerics and appear in the Mesoamerican 260 day ritual calendar. Through the study of the different sources of information on the Cihuateteo, two starkly contrasting images appear. In the prayers recited by the midwife at the woman’s death, she is referred to as a “beloved sister”, and the midwife begs her not to forget her family and to petition the deities for those left on earth. In other descriptions by the early clerics, these immortal women are considered malevolent demons that cause paralysis. In modern writings, the Cihuateteo are considered the “Aztec Vampires”. The demonization of these powerful Goddesses can be attributed to the inability of the Spanish clerics to accept female divinity as well as misinterpretation of ritual and devotional practices.