Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

( 2 )

Overview

Do You Know...

  • where the legend of a cat's nine lives comes from?
  • why "mama" is a word understood in nearly all languages?
  • how the custom of kissing began?
  • whether there really was a female pope?
  • why Cinderella's glass slipper was so important to the Prince?

The answers to these and countless other ...

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More About This Book

Overview

Do You Know...

  • where the legend of a cat's nine lives comes from?
  • why "mama" is a word understood in nearly all languages?
  • how the custom of kissing began?
  • whether there really was a female pope?
  • why Cinderella's glass slipper was so important to the Prince?

The answers to these and countless other intriguing questions are given in this compulsively readable, feminist encyclopedia. Twenty-five years in preparation, this unique, comprehensive sourcebook focuses on mythology anthropology, religion, and sexuality to uncover precisely what other encyclopedias leave out or misrepresent. The Woman's Encyclopedia presents the fascinating stories behind word origins, legends, superstitions, and customs. A browser's delight and an indispensable resource, it offers 1,350 entries on magic, witchcraft, fairies, elves, giants, goddesses, gods, and psychological anomalies such as demonic possession; the mystical meanings of sun, moon, earth, sea, time, and space; ideas of the soul, reincarnation, creation and doomsday; ancient and modern attitudes toward sex, prostitution, romance, rape, warfare, death and sin, and more.

Tracing these concepts to their prepatriarchal origins, Barbara G. Walker explores a "thousand hidden pockets of history and custom in addition to the valuable material recovered by archaeologists, orientalists, and other scholars."

Not only a compendium of fascinating lore and scholarship, The Woman's Encyclopedia is a revolutionary book that offers a rare opportunity for both women and men to see our cultural heritage in a fresh light, and draw upon the past for a more humane future.

Focuses on mythology, anthropology, religion, and sexuality to uncover precisely what other encyclopedias leave out.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780062509253
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 11/28/1983
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 1136
  • Sales rank: 197,382
  • Product dimensions: 6.12 (w) x 9.25 (h) x 1.82 (d)

Meet the Author

Barbara G. Walker, author of The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, and many other books, is a member of the Morris Museum Mineralogical Society and the Trailside Mineral Club of the New Jersey Earth Science Association.

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Customer Reviews

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( 2 )
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Sort by: Showing all of 2 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 18, 2006

    Index for The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

    This amazing book put me on the road to understanding the matriarchal underpinnings, well hidden, of our destructive Abrahamic patriarchal religions, but it needed an index, so I commissioned one, now available, free, by e-mail or on line. I wish some one would help get it out. It makes the Woman's Encyclopedia much more accessible as a reference. Beedy P.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 24, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

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