Women as Ritual Experts reveals how in gender segregated religions like Orthodox Judaism women develop their own autonomous religious sphere and activities that sacralize female roles. Until recently, this female world of religion has been all but invisible to both anthropologists and scholars of religion, who typically speak as though the male sphere of religion were the only definition of religion or the sacred. By exploring this separate sphere of women's religion and demonstrating its variety, depth, and dynamism, Susan Sered here attempts to expand the definition of religion, ritual and the sacred. Sered's research was conducted among uneducated, illiterate Kurdish women. She uncovers the strategies these women have used to circumvent the patriarchal institutions of Judaism, the techniques by which they have made their lives meaningful within an androcentric culture, and how they have developed their own `little tradition' within and parallel to the `great tradition' of Torah Judaism.

Gaia, or Mother Earth, is our home. In this collection of 40 photographic art cards based on the natural world, each card combines two or three nature photographs forming a new, unique image full of color and vibrancy. This rich layering offers nuances of meaning that change every time you view a card. Use the cards as an oracle, a poetic guidebook, or as inspiration for prayers, poetry, story or song, drawing, painting, or sculpting. By meditating on the cards, you can use Gaia's wisdom to spark your own intuition. Listen to Gaia speaking through these beautiful cards and you'll find the answers you seek!Includes cards and book.

A paperback reprint of a title originally published by OUP in 1992, this ethnography explores the religious beliefs and rituals of a group of elderly Jewish women, originally from Kurdistan and Yemen, who now live in Jerusalem. By analysing their rituals, daily experiences, life-stories, and non-verbal gestures, Sered uncovers the strategies these women have developed to circumvent the patriarchal institutions of Judaism, and how they have developed their own 'little tradition' within and parallel to the 'great tradition' of Torah Judaism.

In this fascinating and pathbreaking work, Susan Starr Sered uncovers, describes, and analyzes religions scattered throughout the world in which women are both the majority of leaders and the majority of participants. How are these women's religions different from those dominated by men? What can we learn from them about the ways in which women experience and interpret the supernatural? How do women construct religion? Looking for common threads linking groups as diverse as the Sande secret societies of West Africa, Matrilineal Spirit cults of Northern Thailand, Christian Science, and the Feminist Spirituality movement, Sered asks whether there is anything particularly "womanly" about women's religions. Offering a new understanding of the role gender plays in determining how individuals grapple with the ultimate conditions of existence, Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister not only highlights the profound differences between men and women, but the equally important ways in which we are all alike.

Judy Young (1940--2015) was a gifted but private poet. Over the years, she established provisional collections of her best work but refrained from seeking publication due to her trepidation with sharing her deeply personal poems with an audience. She found her voice in a collective group of creatives that included Susan Starr Richards, Mary Ann Taylor-Hall, and the late Donna Boyd, Jane Gentry, Audrey Robinson, and Carolyn Hisel. This illustrious circle of friends met monthly for almost thirty years and gave her the courage to share her work -- a lyrical medley of pain, beauty, strength, and redemption. Revealed is the story of a woman's inner life -- an intimate tale of abuse and personal struggle -- from a traumatic childhood through marriage, parenthood, and lifelong friendships. Based on the final manuscript that was drafted before the author's death, this compilation traces the path of a woman finding her poetic voice in middle age, returning to an often-harrowing upbringing while closely observing the natural world -- especially the populations of birds moving through the space between her back porch and the lake below -- and meditating on the nature of creativity. With a submerged narrative behind the poems and several calls to nature through repeated motifs, the poet shares seminal emotions and experiences. A Careful Hunger is the last creative testament of this extraordinary artist -- her final act of fearlessness in a troubled yet joyful life. In the words of the poet: "I am alive and must say so / one way or another."

When Susan Richards writes about horses and the interactions of the people involved with them, she brilliantly captures the characters, equine and human.-Maxine Kumin Strong, startling, funny-these stories are rich in their feeling for the human, natural, and sometimes supernatural world of Kentucky. Susan Starr Richards has spent most of her life raising racehorses in central Kentucky, and writing. She has been a NEA Fellow in Fiction. Her stories have appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Sewanee Review, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, and in Thoroughbred Times, as winner of their first National Fiction Prize.

Based on five years of fieldwork in Boston, "Can't Catch a Brea"k documents the day-to-day lives of forty women as they struggle to survive sexual abuse, violent communities, ineffective social and therapeutic programs, discriminatory local and federal policies, criminalization, incarceration, and a broad cultural consensus that views suffering as a consequence of personal flaws and bad choices. Combining hard-hitting policy analysis with an intimate account of how marginalized women navigate an unforgiving world, Susan Sered and Maureen Norton-Hawk shine new light on the deep and complex connections between suffering and social inequality.

Based on five years of fieldwork in Boston, "Can't Catch a Brea"k documents the day-to-day lives of forty women as they struggle to survive sexual abuse, violent communities, ineffective social and therapeutic programs, discriminatory local and federal policies, criminalization, incarceration, and a broad cultural consensus that views suffering as a consequence of personal flaws and bad choices. Combining hard-hitting policy analysis with an intimate account of how marginalized women navigate an unforgiving world, Susan Sered and Maureen Norton-Hawk shine new light on the deep and complex connections between suffering and social inequality.