Women and the Ancestors
Condition: Brand New
Women and the Ancestors by Virginia Kerns. This thought-provoking book explores the subject of women's heritage and the impact it has on our modern lives. A classic study Women and the Ancestorsilluminates the preservation of Black Carib culture through ancestral rituals organized by older women. Virginia Kerns draws on eighteen months of fieldwork in Belize to examine the journeys of women in Black Carib villages. As she shows, the women's essential involvement in ritual and family life comes from their sense of personal responsibility rather than the absence of men. Kerns follows these women from their roles as daughters and young mothers through their assumption of a more public role after their children are grown to taking on the responsibility for ensuring worship of the ancestors. She also examines issues like personal autonomy, kinship, age and gender, household life, death and mourning, and ritual organization. This classic study of Black
Carib culture and its preservation through ancestral rituals organized
by older women now includes a foreword by Constance R. Sutton and an afterword
by the author.
"One of the outstanding
studies of this genre. . . . Refreshingly, the book has good photographs,
as well as strong endnotes and bibliography, and very useful tables, figures,
maps, and index." -- Choice
"An outstanding contribution
to the literature on female-centered bilateral kinship and residence."
-- Grant D. Jones, American Ethnologist
"A richly detailed account
of a contemporary culture in which older women are important, valued,
and self-respecting."
-- Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly
"A combination of competent
research, interwoven themes, and an easily readable, sometimes beautifully
evocative, prose style." -- Heather Strange, The Gerontologist
Condition: Brand New
Women and the Ancestors by Virginia Kerns. This thought-provoking book explores the subject of women's heritage and the impact it has on our modern lives. A classic study Women and the Ancestorsilluminates the preservation of Black Carib culture through ancestral rituals organized by older women. Virginia Kerns draws on eighteen months of fieldwork in Belize to examine the journeys of women in Black Carib villages. As she shows, the women's essential involvement in ritual and family life comes from their sense of personal responsibility rather than the absence of men. Kerns follows these women from their roles as daughters and young mothers through their assumption of a more public role after their children are grown to taking on the responsibility for ensuring worship of the ancestors. She also examines issues like personal autonomy, kinship, age and gender, household life, death and mourning, and ritual organization. This classic study of Black
Carib culture and its preservation through ancestral rituals organized
by older women now includes a foreword by Constance R. Sutton and an afterword
by the author.
"One of the outstanding
studies of this genre. . . . Refreshingly, the book has good photographs,
as well as strong endnotes and bibliography, and very useful tables, figures,
maps, and index." -- Choice
"An outstanding contribution
to the literature on female-centered bilateral kinship and residence."
-- Grant D. Jones, American Ethnologist
"A richly detailed account
of a contemporary culture in which older women are important, valued,
and self-respecting."
-- Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly
"A combination of competent
research, interwoven themes, and an easily readable, sometimes beautifully
evocative, prose style." -- Heather Strange, The Gerontologist
Condition: Brand New
Women and the Ancestors by Virginia Kerns. This thought-provoking book explores the subject of women's heritage and the impact it has on our modern lives. A classic study Women and the Ancestorsilluminates the preservation of Black Carib culture through ancestral rituals organized by older women. Virginia Kerns draws on eighteen months of fieldwork in Belize to examine the journeys of women in Black Carib villages. As she shows, the women's essential involvement in ritual and family life comes from their sense of personal responsibility rather than the absence of men. Kerns follows these women from their roles as daughters and young mothers through their assumption of a more public role after their children are grown to taking on the responsibility for ensuring worship of the ancestors. She also examines issues like personal autonomy, kinship, age and gender, household life, death and mourning, and ritual organization. This classic study of Black
Carib culture and its preservation through ancestral rituals organized
by older women now includes a foreword by Constance R. Sutton and an afterword
by the author.
"One of the outstanding
studies of this genre. . . . Refreshingly, the book has good photographs,
as well as strong endnotes and bibliography, and very useful tables, figures,
maps, and index." -- Choice
"An outstanding contribution
to the literature on female-centered bilateral kinship and residence."
-- Grant D. Jones, American Ethnologist
"A richly detailed account
of a contemporary culture in which older women are important, valued,
and self-respecting."
-- Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly
"A combination of competent
research, interwoven themes, and an easily readable, sometimes beautifully
evocative, prose style." -- Heather Strange, The Gerontologist