Books and Articles

This partial list is only a beginning, in no way exhaustive. Siberian, Korean, South African, Chilean and other subjects and titles will be added as the course proceeds.

Tedlock, Barbara, The Woman in the Shaman's Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine. Most highly recommended, the best, most comprehensive source on women shamans. See her website for table of contents and online excerpts (follow links at page bottom for more)

Redmond, Layne, When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm, Three Rivers Press, New York, 1997

Nowak, Margaret. The Tale of the Nishan Shamaness: a Manchu Folk Epic. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977

Brewer, Caroline (2001) Holy Confrontation: Religion, Gender and Sexuality in the Philippines, 1521-1685. Manila: Institute of Women’s Studies

Silverblatt, Irene (1987) Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru, Princeton: Princeton University Press

Perrone, Bobette, Stockel, H. Henriette, and Krueger, Victoria, Medicine Women, Curanderas and Women Doctors, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989

Hungry Wolf, Beverly, The Ways of My Grandmothers, Quill, New York, 1982

St Pierre, Mark, and Long Soldier, Tilda, Walking in the Sacred Manner: Healers, Dreamers, and Pipe Carriers--Medicine Women of the Plains Indians, Touchstone, New York, 1995

ASIA

Czaplica, M. A. (1914) Aboriginal Siberia, a study in social anthropology. Oxford: Clarendon Press

Dowman, Keith. Sky Dancer: The Secret Life and Songs of the Lady Yeshe Tsogyel. Ithaca NY: Snow Lion, 1996

Himalayan Shamanism. [full title]

 

AMERICA

Contramaestre, Carlos (1979) La Mudanza del Encanto. Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia

Levins Morales, Aurora, Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriqueñas, Beacon Press, Boston, 1998

Allen, Paula Gunn, Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman's Sourcebook, Beacon Press, Boston, 1991

de Mello e Souza, Laura, O Diablo e a Terra de Santa Cruz: Feitiçaria e Religiosidade Popular no Brasil Colonial, São Paolo, Companhia das Letras, 1987

Landes, Ruth, The City of Women, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1994 (1947)
(Brazilian Candomblé tradition)

EUROPE

L. Maurizio, “Anthropology and Spirit Possession: a Reconsideration of the Pythia’s Role at Delphi” The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol 115 (1995)

Spangenberg, Lisa, “Were There Women Druids?” Online: <http://members.aol.com/lisala/>, Accessed: 1997

Ginzberg, Carlo, Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the 16th and 17th Centuries, translated by John and Anne Tedeschi, Penguin, 1985
_____. Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath, New York: Pantheon, 1991

Edsman, Carl-Martin Edsman, "A manuscript concerning inquiries into witchcraft in Swedish Lapland 1649-1739 by Erik Nordberg", in Saami Pre-Christian

Henningsen, G, and Ankarloo, B, Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, Oxford, 1988

 

AFRICA

Besmer, Fremont E. Horses, Musicians and Gods: The Hausa Cult of Possession and Trance. South Hadley MA: Bergin and Garvey, 1983

Fernandez, James W. Bwiti: An Ethnography of the Religious Imagination in Africa. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982

Phiri, Isabel Apawo. Women, Presbyterianism, and Patriarchy: the Religious Experience of Chewa Women in Central Malawi. Kachere Monograph #4. Blantyre, Malawi: CLAIM, 2000
(The title might not grab you but this contains a history of the powerful rain shrine priestesses.)

AUSTRALIA and PACIFICA

Bell, Diane, Daughters of the Dreaming, McPhee Gribble/George Allen & Unwin, Melbourne,1983 (Aboriginal Australia)

Pukui, Mary Kawena, et alia, Nana I Ke Kumu (Look to the Source), Hui Hanai Publishing, Honolulu, 1972 (Hawaii)

 

Not primarily about women shamans, but some mentions of interest, or pictures:

Mann, Barbara Alice, Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas, Peter Lang, New York, 2000

Allen, Paula Gunn, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, Beacon Press, Boston, 1986

Martínez Perelló, Maria Isabel. “Los abrigos pintados de Helechal: un nuevo conjunto de arte rupestre esquemático en Badajoz.” Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie I, Prehistoria y Arqueología, Vol. 8, 1995, 191-233

De Martino, Ernesto, La terra del rimorso: contributo a una storia religiosa del Sud, Milano: Il Saggiatore, 1961

MacKenzie, Donald, Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life, London: Blackie, 1935

MacPherson, J.M., Primitive Beliefs in the Northeast of Scotland, London: Longmans Green, 1929

Georgieva, Jvanichka, Bulgarian Mythology, tr Nessela Zhelyazkova, Sofia: Svyat Publ, 1985