Women of the Sacred Groves: Divine Priestesses of Okinawa

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Susan Sered (Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Bar-Ilan University)

Women of the Sacred Groves

Divine Priestesses of Okinawa

Susan Sered (Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Bar-Ilan University)

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
01 February 1999

Shintoism; Worship, rites & ceremonies; Gender studies, gender groups

Okinawa is the only contemporary society in which women lead the official, mainstream, publicly funded religion. Priestesses are the acknowledged religious leaders within the home, clan, and village--and, until annexation by Japan approximately one hundred years ago, within the Ryukyuan Kingdom. This fieldwork-based study provides a gender-sensitive look at a remarkable religious tradition. Susan Sered spent a year living in Henza, an Okinawan fishing village, joining priestesses as they conducted rituals in the sacred groves located deep in the jungle-covered mountains surrounding the village. Her observations focus upon the meaning of being a priestess and the interplay between women's religious preeminence and other aspects of the society.

Sered shows that the villages social ethos is characterized by easy-going interpersonal relations, an absence of firm rules and hierarchies, and a belief that the village and its inhabitants are naturally healthy. Particularly interesting is her discovery that gender is a minimal category here: villagers do not adapt any sort of ideology that proclaims that men and women are inherently different from one another. Villagers do explain that because farmland is scarce in Okinawa, men have been compelled to go to the dangerous ocean and to foreign countries to seek their livelihoods. Women, in contrast, have remained present in their healthy and pleasant village, working on their farms and engaging in constant rounds of intra- and interfamilial socializing. Priestesses, who do not exert power in the sense that religious leaders in many other societies do, can be seen as the epitome of presence. By praying and eating at myriad rituals, priestesses make immediate and tangible the benevolent presence of kami-sama (divinity).

Through in-depth examination of this unique and little-studied society, Sered offers a glimpse of a religious paradigm radically different from the male-dominated religious ideologies found in many other cultures.

By: Susan Sered (Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Bar-Ilan University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 154mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 456g
ISBN: 9780195124873
ISBN 10: 0195124871
Pages: 306
Publication Date: 01 February 1999
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for Women of the Sacred Groves: Divine Priestesses of Okinawa

The value of this sensitive study rests in its close attention to gender-related issues....This is a valuable addition to the literature on this relatively understudied area of the world. * Religious Studies Review *