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.

Regional Meeting Housing Reminder

If you are staying on campus at George Fox, please remember to bring linens, if you did not request them, as per the website: http://www.georgefox.edu/academics/undergrad/departments/religion/registration.html

Sunday Morning Bonus at the Regional Meeting!

We would like to call attention to a special film presentation on Sunday morning at 8:30: "Standard Bearers of Hussein: Women Commemorating Karbala" by Ingvild Flaskerud, Centre for Peace Studies at the University of Tromso, 2003.

We encourage you to attend this special event! If you would like more information about the film, please contact Lesley Hazleton at lh@marylife.org.

Santo Cielo!

Ardy Bass will participate in a five-week Summer Seminar at the American Academy in Rome thanks to a NEH grant. The topic of the Seminar is "Identity and Self-Representation in the Subcultures of Ancient Rome." According to the Directors, Eleanor Winsor Leach, Indiana University and Eve D'Ambra, Vassar College, "The seminar will focus on the ever-controversial matter of personal identity by considering ways in which Roman citizens throughout the Mediterranean world used word and image to represent themselves both as individuals and as members of communities." Ardy's research topic is the cult of Isis.

Roman Art at the Seattle Art Museum

Roman Art from the Louvre at the Seattle Art Museum
February 21–May 11, 2008
SAM Simonyi Special Exhibition Galleries

"This extraordinary selection of ancient art from Paris’s famed Musée du Louvre portrays nearly 300 years of imperial Roman life and history. The exhibition includes approximately 180 pieces—many that have never before traveled to the United States—from one of the richest collections of ancient Roman art in the world.

Visitors will meet emperors and members of the imperial court, elite and ordinary citizens, women and children, soldiers, gladiators, foreigners and slaves. Their lives and experiences are richly conveyed through a wide variety of media including monumental marble sculptures and reliefs, paintings and mosaics, bronze statuettes, jewelry, glass and silver implements. These objects demonstrate how the art of Rome shaped ancient life by representing its leaders and deities, defining public and private spaces, acculturating the conquered, and celebrating the dead. The exhibition also illustrates the varied roles that Roman art has played in the post-Classical period, and that it continues to play today."

For more information, see http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibit/interactives/rome/rome.asp

Tentative Schedule for Regional Meeting (subject to change without notice)

FRIDAY AFTERNOON

First Session (2:00-5:30 p.m.)

Women and Religion: Female Divinity in World Spiritual Traditions: Contemporary Relevance for Women

Presider: Susan G. Carter, Marylhurst University, Portland, OR and California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA

2:00-2:45 Anne Key, Independent Scholar, Hood River, OR (anne@rabbitmurmurs.org)

From Beloved Sisters to Vampires: Myths and Misinterpretations of the Cihuateteo

2:45-3:30 Susan G. Carter, Marylhurst University, Portland, OR and California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA

susangailcarter@yahoo.com or scarter@ciis.edu

Amaterasu-o-mi-kami: The Japanese Sun Goddess and Her Continuing Reign

3:30-4:00 BREAK

4:00-4:45 Chandra Alexandre, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto, CA cmalexandre@earthlink.net

The Tantric Kali: Eastern and Western Approaches to the Divine Mother

4:45-5:30 Louise M. Pare, New College of California, San Francisco, CA lmpare849@aol.com

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

FRIDAY EVENING

5:30-7:30 Dinner at area restaurants of your choice!

8:00-9:00 Presidential Address

9:00-10:00 Reception

SATURDAY MORNING

7:00-8:00 Program Unit Chairs and Region Executive Committee Breakfast Meeting

Second Session (8:30-10:30 am)

Women and Religion: Genesis 1-3, Relationships, and Popular Culture

Presider: Amy C. Merrill Willis, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA (willis@gonzaga.edu)

8:30-9:10 Valarie H. Ziegler, DePauw University, Greencastle IN

(vziegler@depauw.edu)

That’s SO Romantic! Adam, Eve, and the Perfect Date

9:10-9:50 Linda S. Schearing, Gonzaga University, Spokane WA

(schearing@gonzaga.edu)
Marketing Sex: Adam, Eve, and Sexploitation

9:50-10:30 Amy C. Merrill Willis, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA

(willis@gonzaga.edu)

Desire, Desperation, and Empowerment: The Eves of Desperate Housewives

10:30-11:00 BREAK

PLENARY SESSION(S)

(AAR, SBL, ASOR)

11:00-12:00 p.m. (No title) Name, Affiliation, Email Address, Paper Title

SATURDAY NOON

(Lunch and Region Business Meeting)

12:00 Boxed Lunch

12:30-1:45 Pacific Northwest AAR, SBL and ASOR Business Meeting

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Third Session (2:00-5:30 pm)

Women and Religion

Presider: Ardy Bass, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA (bassa@gonzaga.edu)

2:00-2:30 Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, West Africaawuahnyamekye@yahoo.com) (

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

2:30-3:00 Wynter Miller, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO (wamcq6@mizzou.edu)

An Investigation of the Elite Status of Women in Thai Buddhism

3:00-3:30 Anna-Sophia Zingarelli, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WAazingarelli@gonzaga.edu) (

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

3:20-3:50 BREAK

3:50-4:30 Kathlyn A. Breazeale, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA (breazeka@plu.edu)

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

4:30-5:10 Susanna Morrill, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR

smorrill@lclark.edu

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

5:10-5:30 Business Meeting and/or Discussion of future directions

SATURDAY EVENING,

6:30-8:00 Banquet

8:00-9:00 Banquet Address

9:00-10:00 Reception

SUNDAY MORNING

Fourth Session (8:30-12:00 pm)

Women and Religion: "Standard Bearers of Hussein: Women Commemorating Karbala"

Presider: Lesley Hazelton, Independent Scholar, Seattle, WA, lh@marylife.org

8:30-9:15 Film Presentation: "Standard Bearers of Hussein: Women Commemorating Karbala" by Ingvild Flaskerud, Centre for Peace Studies at the University of Tromso, 2003

9:15-10:00 Discussion

10:00-10:30 BREAK